NATURE 



38 « 



THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1920. 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN & CO., LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address : PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



The University of London : A Great 

 Opportunity. 



LAST week there was made public the details, 

 printed elsewhere in this issue, of the offer 

 bv the Government of a site for the University of 

 London, The Government proposes to give to 

 the University about iij acres behind the British 

 !Museum as a site for the University headquarters 

 and for colleges and institutions connected with 

 it, including King's College, the premises of 

 which in the Strand have long been insufficient 

 for the needs of the college. The Senate has 

 referred the question to a committee the report 

 ■of which will doubtless shortly be forthcoming. 



None of Mr. Fisher's labours in the cause of 

 imiversity education— and they are many — will 

 redound more to his credit than the attempt to 

 provide the University of London with a home 

 worthy of itself and of the capital city of the 

 Empire. Since the reconstitution of the University 

 as a teaching body in 1900, a great deal has been 

 done in the organisation of university teaching 

 and research in London, The professors and 

 teachers of the University include many most 

 •distinguished men of science and scholars, and 

 in the number of students it easily takes the lead 

 in Great Britain. In recent years the University 

 has drawn students from all parts of the world, 

 attracted by the unique advantages which London 

 •can offer by reason of the resources of its 

 libraries and museums. The establishment in the 

 heart of the City of the School of Oriental 

 Studies, and the association of business men with 

 the foundation of the scheme of degrees of com- 

 merce, show also that the University can, by 

 recognising the needs of the commercial interests 

 •of the City, obtain their active assistance and 

 support. 



It cannot be gainsaid, however, that, in spite 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



of all that has been done, the University has as 

 yet failed to justify the hopes of those who looked 

 forward at its reconstitution to the creation of a 

 great teaching university. We need not enter 

 into a discussion of all the causes which have pre- 

 vented or hindered the fulfilment of these hopes. 

 Among them are the heterogeneous nature of the 

 institutions— varying from colleges of the type of 

 University and King's Colleges to polytechnic 

 institutions — in which the teaching and research 

 work are carried on, and the intricacy of its exist- 

 ing constitution. 



But unquestionably the chief cause of the 

 failure of the University to take the great place 

 assigned to it has been the discrete nature of its 

 component parts, the inaccessibility of its ad- 

 ministrative headquarters, and the lack of a home 

 or a quarter of its own to which one could point 

 as the L^niversity. It is a commonplace that 

 bricks and mortar do not make a university,, but 

 it is undoubtedly true that without a tangible 

 symbol there can be no appeal to the sympathies 

 or imagination of the public, and it is the absence 

 of such a symbol which more than anything else 

 has militated against an understanding of the 

 work that the University has done and is doing. 

 Until the University possesses a building indis- 

 putably its own and designed for its own purpose, 

 and until the great incorporated colleges are 

 brought together, there can be no hope of im- 

 pressing the greatness of the University upon the 

 public, or of overcoming the dissipation of energy 

 which is now such a hindrance to its work. 



The question is, of course, not a new one. Its 

 importance has been appreciated for some time, 

 and before the war there were negotiations in the 

 air for the acquirement of a site in Bloomsbury. 

 For various reasons these negotiations did not 

 fructify, and it may be that the site then under 

 consideration was inadequate and in other ways 

 unsuitable. The objections offered to it are not, 

 however, valid in the present case. 



The site now offered is excellent in every 

 respect. By reason of its proximity to Bedford 

 College for Women and to University College, 

 it is already the nucleus of the " University 

 Quarter " desiderated by the Haldane Commis- 

 sion, It is sufficient in extent not only for the 

 administrative headquarters, the University 

 library, and King's College, but also for other 

 colleges of the L'niversity which are outgrowing 

 their accommodation ; and it is capable of ex- 

 tension if still further accommodation is required, 



O 



