fi8 



NATURE 



PVIM^ i6r i^iB 



.UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



BlRMiNGflAM. — At the eighteenth annual mee'tihg of 

 the Court of Governors of the University in February 

 last, a committee of twelve of its members was ap- 

 pointed to take into consideration the vacant Chan- 

 cellorship; The committee has held three meetings, 

 and after careful consideration will present a report 

 to the special meeting of the Court, which has been 

 convened for May 23, in which it will recommend 

 that, subject to the approval of the Crown, the Rt. 

 Hon. Lord Robert Cecil, K.C., M.P., be elected 

 Chancellor of the University. 



Cambridge. — ^Reports recommending changes of con- 

 siderable consequence have recently been discussed by 

 the Senate. The report of the previous examination 

 syndicate, in which, among other proposals, the aboli- 

 tion of compulsory Groek and the imposition of com- 

 pulsory science were recommended (Nature, March 14, 

 p. 37), formed the subject of an important debate, 

 in which many prominent members of the University, 

 took part, and in which, naturally, the retention of 

 compulsory Greek found strong advocates. In answer 

 to the criticism, on which some stress was laid, that 

 it was inconsistent to remove compulsory Greek and 

 at the same time to impose compulsory science, it 

 was pointed out by more than one speaker that science 

 was rightly to be compared, not with Greek, but with 

 language as a whole. Another question of consider- 

 able importance which has been discussed is a report 

 of the council of the Senate on the length of terms. 

 It is proposed that the Michaelmas and Lent terms 

 should each consist of nine, and the Easter term of 

 eight, complete weeks This would add seventeen days 

 in the year to the usual period of University residence. 

 There is also a suggestion that the general degree 

 examinations should be held so far as possible out of 

 full term— that is to say, in the long vacation. In the 

 discussion one of the points emphasised was that the 

 vacations were by no means periods in which nothing 

 was done. A large proportion of the original work 

 which went on in the University had to be carried out 

 in the vacations. 



The question of degrees for women has again been 

 raised by the issue of a flysheet, bearing a number of 

 influential signatures, in which the proposal is made 

 that as soon as the general state of affairs admits of 

 full consideration being given to the matter, a syndi- 

 cate should be appointed to report on the measures 

 necessary for the admission of women to membership 

 of the University. It is suggested that membership 

 of the University should include membership of the 

 Senate and eligibilitv to serve on boards and syndi- 

 cates or hold any office in the University. A reply to 

 this has been published by a number of prominent 

 members of the University, asking members of the 

 Senate to abstain from pledging themselves to these 

 proposals at the present time, when so many of the 

 younger members are absent on war service. It is 

 further suggested as a solution which might find 

 general acceptar.ce that, so far as the absence of a 

 degree is a disadvantage to women students at Cam- 

 bridge, this could be obviated through the acquire- 

 ment by an official body representing the women's 

 colleges in Cambridge of power under charter in affilia- 

 tion with the University to confer degrees on women 

 students. 



Sir R. Armstrong-Jones has been elected Gresham 

 professor of physic, Gresham College, London, in 

 succession to the late Dr. F. M. Sandwith. 



Prof. A. R. Cushny. F.R.S., has been appointed 

 to succeed Sir T. R. Fraser as professor of rriateria 

 NO. 2533, VOL. lOl] 



medica and pharmacology in the University o*f -Edin-' 

 burgh. 



By the will of the late Mr. Charles Hawksley, a. 

 sum of 3000Z, is bequeathed to the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers for scholarships or prizes and legacies to 

 persons in his employment. 



So far back as 1838 it was urged that the city of 

 Cork, which claimed to hold a position somewhat 

 similar to that of Edinburgh in art and letters, was 

 entitled to be the seat of a university for the South 

 of Ireland. This claim has never been abandoned, 

 although when from time to time it has been ad- 

 vanced — as, for example, on the establishment of the 

 Queen's University in Ireland in 1850, of the 

 Royal University in 1884, and of the National Uni- 

 versity in 1908 — the answer given has always been 

 that neither in number of students, in buildings and 

 equipment, nor in the public support accorded by the 

 province of Munster. was the college strong enough 

 to justify its transformation into a university. In 

 all these respects a great change has come over the 

 college during the past ten years. Its students now 

 exceed five hundred in number ; its buildings, 

 especially its scientific laboratories, have been greatly 

 extended' ; its staff has doubled, and a large and well- 

 appointed hostel has been provided. The college now 

 claims that it is as much entitled to the enjoyment of 

 autonomy as the University of Belfast. A strongly 

 supported movement is on foot to obtain a charter. 

 A pamphlet issued by the governing body affords re- 

 markable evidence of harmonious co-operation between 

 all sections of the people of Munster, both Catholic 

 and Protestant. This pamphlet is interesting as show- 

 ing the extreme inconvenience of the federal system. 

 Cork is 160 miles from Dublin, where the senate of 

 the N.U.I, meets. Much time is wasted by the repre- 

 se'ntatives of Cork in travelling thither, and when 

 they reach the senate they find themselves outvoted 

 by the representatives of Dublin. Nor does a member 

 of a federation obtain the degree of control of its 

 own affairs which is essentially desirable. Recently 

 the senate decided that under its statutes the Uni- 

 versity alone has the right to say what new chairs 

 shall be set up in the colleges, and this decision h^s 

 been upheld by the Privy Council. The pamphlet also 

 raises the very much larger question of centralisation 

 versus the encouragement of local patriotism, adopt- 

 ing the view which is now generally taken that col- 

 lege and university should be synonymous terms, the 

 United Kingdom being divided into provinces, each, 

 with its focus of university learning and education. 



The Education No. 2 Bill is at last in Committee 

 of the whole House. It is the subject of an unusually 

 large number of amendments, but the Minister of 

 Education is giving evidence of no less tact and dis- 

 cretion in dealing with opponents whose purpose it 

 is to wreck the Bill, or with extremists who, because 

 of their zeal for education, submit amendments some 

 of which under present conditions are impossible of 

 achievement, than he has hitherto exhibited, with such 

 striking sincerity of conviction, in advocating the general 

 policy of the Bill, which has secured for it so large a 

 measure of general support. In the course of two 

 nights' debate the first three clauses of the Bill were 

 considered, dealing respectively with the progres- 

 sive and comprehensive organisation of education, the 

 development of education in public elementary schools, 

 and the establishment of continuation schools. Much 

 concern was expressed by some Members as to 

 the possibility of clause i being interpreted to mean 

 that a decided bias might be given to definite voca- 

 tional instruction, but strong assurances were given 

 to the contrarv, whilst At ihe same time it was made 



