December i8, 1919] 



NATURE 



403 



bridge, and thereupon the Master of University Col- 

 lege, Oxford, spent half a column of the Times in 

 explaining that the University of Oxford had no 

 entrance examination at all. 



This veil of mystery about matters of national con- 

 cern is very perplexing for those who want things 

 done in education, but do not know the technicalities 

 of the universities. What is true, for Cambridge at 

 least, is that the university qua university has no 

 examination for entrance ; it is obliged by its statutes 

 to accept as a member without any question anyone 

 presented bv the recognised authority of a college, 

 regardless altogether of his qualification or dis- 

 qualification for a university career. It is a very 

 remark.ible arrangement. The university makes no 

 inquiry as to a student's fitness to profit by its 

 educational system ; it leaves all that to the colleges, 

 and manv, if not all, of the colleges have :\n entrance 

 examination. So 1 offer this parado.\ for the logician 

 who is interested in higher education. 



The universitv consists of the members of its con- 

 stituent colleges and a few others. .\i the discretion 

 of the several rolleges, or the non-collegiate students' 

 board, 75 per cent, of the members of the universitv 

 are required to pass an entrance examination before 

 thev are accepted for presentation to the university 

 for matriculation. There are at least four examina- 

 tions of the universitv which are accepted by colleges 

 on occasions in lieu of their own entrance examina- 

 tions. Yet there is no entrance examination for the 

 university. 



.'\nd I his does not end the matter. With th" power 

 of selecting its students vested in twentv diflerent 

 bodies, the university becomes a controlling body 

 rather than an educational institution with a definite 

 purpose and prosjramme. The regulations for its 

 students are nearlv all of them of a negative character. 

 The discipline and the regimen of the universitv rest 

 upon the assumption that a student desires to secure 

 from the universitv not so much attainment as a 

 stamo for his attainments. .'\ member of the univer- 

 sitv cannot be admitted to a degree unless he has 

 satisfied certain conditions of residence, and also 

 satisfies certain examiners; his name is not accepted 

 for the- final examination unless he has satisfied cer- 

 tain other examiners. There is nothing in the regula- 

 tions or administration of the university to secure that 

 a matriculated student shall studv or aspire to take 

 a degree. He might live on in idleness and ignor- 

 ance for the rest of his natural life; the universitv 

 has no choice in the matter so long as his college j 

 pavs the periodical fees. It trusts to the colleges to j 

 see that idle or unsuitable imdergraduates are invited 

 to t<o elsewhere. 



flere we have one of the many instances of the 

 division of jurisdiction between the colleges and the 

 universitv which hides the ideals of our system of 

 hi"h(r education in an impenetrable fog. 



The universit\- is governed by the colleges according 

 to a svstem which <?oes back to the time when "The 

 Merchant of Venice " was "ritten, so let us revet 

 to the conversation between Portia and Nerissa which 

 expounds the lotterv of the caskets in the well-known 

 scene. The position of the universitv in the matter of 

 the selection or rejection of its members is exactlv 

 that which Portia bewailed to Nerissa. Tet me invite 

 vou to regard the episode of the caskets as a figurative 

 representation of the lotter\- bv which the Universitv 

 of Cambridce selects those upon whom she bestows 

 her inherited riche.s — lucem et poculn sacra. Cam- 

 bridge, like Portia, the heiress of all the learnin<J of 

 the £'ood and the great, bound by the fantasv of her 

 ancestral tradition never to choose for herself. 



I.et us think of Portia as the Vi.e-Chancellor of 

 XO. 2616, VOL. TOaI 



the Universitv of Cambridge, desiring above all 

 things the advancement of learning, and of Nerissa 

 as a proctor, whose duty it is, as representing the 

 Senate, the collective body of members of the colleges, 

 to see that the statutes and ordinances are duly 

 attended to. Listen to the conversation : — 



" Portia I V.-C] : O me, the word ' choose ' \ I may 

 neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom 1 dis- 

 like ; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by 

 the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, 

 that I cannot choose one nor refuse none? 



"Nerissa \Proctor] : Your father was ever virtuous; 

 and holy men at their death have good inspirations ; 

 therefore the lottery that he hath devised in these 

 three chests of gold, silver, and lead, whereof who 

 chooses his meaning chooses you, will, no doubt, 

 never be chosen by any rightly but one who shall 

 rightlv love. . . . 



"Portia IV-C] : If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I 

 will die as chaste as Diana, unless 1 be obtained by 

 the manner of my father's will." 



I need scarcely say that 1 should not spend so 

 much time over what may seem to many of you far- 

 fetched, and jjerhaps unseemly jesting, if I did not 

 believe that this fantastic view of the lottery of the 

 caskets contains the suggestion of an element in the 

 governance of our highest educational institutions 

 which deserves your gravest and most serious con- 

 sideration. What I have in mind at the moment is 

 the unforeseen and undesired result of the competi- 

 tion of the colleges within the university itself as 

 quasi-independent educational institutions. It is this 

 small matter, from some points of view of quite minor 

 importance, which, so far as I can see, prevents our 

 great universities from taking the leading part which 

 thev might take in exemplifving the ideals of a co- 

 ordinated national svstem of education, and makes 

 the success or failure of those great institutions some- 

 thing of the nature of a lottery. They may oft'er ten 

 thousand different avenues from matriculation to a 

 degree, and yet the student may find himself imper- 

 fectlv educated in the end. 



One mav, indeed one must, picture to oneself the 

 idea of the colleges as a number of educational institu- 

 tions co-operating in an. avowed and transparent 

 common purpose of the universitv to display the 

 highest educational ideals. So I think, if thn- were 

 willinrf, thev might be, without any sacrifice of their 

 individualitv or of those magnificent traditions which 

 have fulfilled the high purpose of their pious founders 

 ^<nd benefactors. Uet us keen that picture for a while 

 in mind. 



I have taken from the Cambridjje University 

 Calendar for IQ18 a list of subiccts selected for teach- 

 ing in the universitv and colleges, with the number 

 of professors, readers, lecturers, or teachers assigned 

 to the several subiects. 



1 find that there are 17,; universitv teachers fnro- 

 fessors, readers, lecturers, etc.) and iTfi college lec- 

 turers. I find that the I7; universitv teachers between 

 them deal with 71 subiects. an avern.'^e of 2^ per 

 suhiect. and are distributed between subiects in the 

 following manner : — 



Nnml>er of universitv teachers assit'nrd for a subject 



R 7 6 ,:; 4 3 2 I 



Number of subiects which have the nunilier of 

 teachers specified in the upper line 



2 3 I 4 I 3 8 10 42 



The 176 college lecturers deal with only 23 sub- 

 jects, an average of 7I per subject. They aredis- 

 tribiilcd as follows : — 



