February 2 5, 1892] 



NA TURE 



393 



In what respects is it inadequate to its duties ; and, if so, 

 why cannot its defects be remedied without beginning 

 the work all over again ? 



To neither inquiry has, it seems to me, any very satis- 

 factory reply at present been given. The reason perhaps 

 is that beside the ostensible reasons for the Charter which 

 are put forward, there are others in the background 

 which are less conveniently avowable, and which there- 

 fore it is anything but easy to meet. 



Of the former, the most important is that the existing 

 University does not teach. This is an undoubted fact. 

 If, however, it were provided with a body of Professors, 

 as has often been suggested, it might teach just as much 

 as Oxford and Cambridge do. That defect is clearly, 

 then, not irremediable. But, on a little further investiga- 

 tion, it turns out that something more than teaching is 

 meant. What is desired is that the teachers shall also 

 have the control of the examinations. What is wanted 

 is to introduce into London the teacher-examination 

 system, which is said to be the distinctive feature of 

 Universities in Germany. To quote an able article in 

 the Standard of January 19 : — 



" There must be a Teaching University in order that 

 the teachers might control the studies, and the degrees 

 be a recognition, not of mere knowledge (which might 

 or might not be superficial), but of sound intellectual 

 training." 



Now, I have discussed this position at some length in 

 the pages of Nature, and I need not repeat what I 

 have already said. But it may be pointed out that, 

 though the teacher-examiner system once obtained to 

 some extent in the British Isles, it has almost entirely 

 been abandoned. As Lord Sherbrooke used to remark, 

 " Teachers no longer sample their own goods." Their doing 

 so led, I think it cannot be doubted, to serious abuses, 

 the possible nature of which is sufficiently obvious. 

 Even in the English Universities, some of the Colleges 

 practically had the entire control of the education of their 

 undergraduates ; but they deliberately abandoned this 

 exclusive privilege, and handed over the business of test- 

 ing the performance of their pupils to their respective 

 Universities ; in other words, they intrusted the business 

 of sampling their goods to those who had nothing to do 

 with their manufacture. The Scotch Universities most 

 closely approximated to the German system ; but here, 

 again, external examiners have been introduced, who 

 undoubtedly were intended to act as a check upon the 

 Professors and their teaching. 



It can thus, I think, be shown to demonstration that 

 the system which obtains in Burlington Gardens is not 

 really so anomalous as it is made to appear. The 

 teacher-examiner cry is, then, of the nature of a reaction ; 

 and though to a certain extent I am not without sympathy 

 with it, I am not sure that, on the whole, it is not a mis- 

 chievous reaction. 



Now, when a great institution like the University of 

 London is attacked, one attaches naturally some import- 

 ance to the quarter from which the attack comes. I quite 

 admit that the University, perhaps from an excessive sense 

 of its own dignity, has rather allowed the case against it 

 to go by default, and has done little in its own defence. 

 But the world outside may judge for itself. I am pre- 

 pared to contend that there is no examining body in the 

 world which does its work in a more efficient and con- 

 scientious way. Its examination rooms are crowded ; it 

 commands the services as examiners of the most dis- 

 tinguished teachers of the country ; and whether in 

 science, law, or medicine, amongst those who have suc- 

 cessfully submitted to its ordeals are to be found the 

 names of some of the most distinguished men of the time. 

 It seems clear, then, that the attack on the University 

 would not come from either the students or the public. 

 It can hardly be doubted that the latter is more than 

 satisfied. When parents allow their sons to embark in 



NO. I 165, VOL. 45] 



University studies, they like to get something tangible as 

 a result ; and in a degree at Burlington Gardens they 

 undoubtedly do get something the value of which is 

 generally accepted. 



The complaint comes, however, from the teachers ; 

 and this not in the provinces, but in London alone. Their 

 case was put before the Commission by Prof. Lankester 

 in a very striking and able way, I do not doubt that his 

 evidence has produced a very powerful effect. But 

 having studied it, I am bound to say that, having 

 been a graduate, an examiner, and a member of the 

 Senate of the University, I cannot accept all he says as 

 giving a fair account of the inner working of the 

 system. The burden of his complaint is that the 

 teacher is unreasonably fettered in giving the best and 

 most modern kind of teaching by the restrictions imposed 

 upon it by the University. In so far as there is ground 

 for the complaint, I think it admits of remedy. But I 

 cannot refrain from remarking that the provincial teachers 

 who send candidates to the London examinations — and 

 who, I suppose, are not, on the average, less competent 

 and enthusiastic than their London colleagues — do not, as 

 far as I can ascertain, in any way sympathize with their 

 complaints. On the other hand, Prof. Lankester was for 

 ten years an examiner in the University, and when he 

 last left office I am much mistaken if he had not suc- 

 ceeded in moulding the curriculum in his subject prac- 

 tically into entire accordance with his own views. And 

 even under the system as it exists I observe in his evidence 

 that he admitted to Sir William Thomson, that " a teacher 

 may, with judiciousness, of course, and common-sense in 

 his teaching, teach the best that he knows." 



I cannot keep feeling, then, that in the outcry raised by 

 some of the London teachers there is something a little 

 unreal. The existing system neither works so badly, nor 

 is it in itself so bad, as it is represented to be. 



The Privy Council, however, appears to have thought 

 differently, and has set itself to the task of creating a 

 Teaching University for London. And this is what Parlia- 

 ment is asked to sanction. The fatal objection to the 

 scheme is that the title is a misnomer; the proposed 

 University is, as I have already pointed out in Nature, in 

 effect, no more a Teaching University than the existing 

 institution. 



It is perfectly clear that by a Teaching University is 

 meant, by those who understand what they are talking 

 about, a University of the German type, governed and 

 administered throughout by the professorial body. If I 

 understand his views, this is the solution of the difficulty 

 which Prof. Karl Pearson desires. I am far from saying 

 that I am opposed to the establishment of such an insti- 

 tution. It would certainly be an interesting experiment, 

 and it might be a great success. It might be created out 

 of University College standing alone ; and for my own 

 part I have always wondered that that distinguished place 

 of study has never sought such a transformation. It 

 would, of course, require a profound reconstruction of its 

 constitution, and the total elimination of what may be 

 called the lay element in its government. Or it might 

 be effected, though with more difficulty, if University and 

 King's Colleges could be induced to fuse. Prof. Lankester 

 contemplated such a possibility ; but it is probably as 

 hopeless as to try to get anything but an emulsion out of 

 oil and water. 



The organization of such a Teaching University is not 

 without its drawbacks, and I am not at all sure that 

 London would be the best seat for one. The system is 

 only a success in Germany because Universities are very 

 numerous, and the number of students in each for the 

 most part not very large. The essence of the system, as 

 I understand it, is the close personal contact of teacher 

 and student. Each gets saturated, so to speak, with the 

 other ; at the end of the curriculum the Professor knows, 

 or thinks he does, all that the pupil has acquired, and 



