March 17, 1910J 



NATURE 



8^ 



placed amid the busy haunts of commerce, close to the 

 foundry and the workshop, and their students seek to draw 

 from ancient learning and from modern research alike those 

 lessons of truth, those unerring laws of nature in accord- 

 ance with which we must progress if our country is to 

 remain great, to hold the premier place among the nations. 



These universities will do for us what the technical high 

 schools have done for Germany. 



Let me note one important difference between their 

 constitution and that of the ancient universities. They are 

 not Republics ; the Senate, the general body of professors 

 and independent lecturers, is not the governing body. The 

 court, with which control ultimately rests, is a large body 

 representing all interests in the town and district. The 

 court selects the council, which has executive power, and 

 on both bodies the teachers have representatives ; but in 

 this way the effective management of the university is in 

 the hands of a small body of business men ready to give 

 the fullest attention to the wishes of the teachers, but 

 capable of bringing other qualities to the consideration of 

 the complex problems with which they have to deal, 

 experienced in dealing with men and with affairs. 



The prospects of the modern universities of England are 

 bright ; it is our business in our technical schools to sup- 

 plement by 'all means in our power the efforts they are 

 making to solve a difficult problem. Those who are to 

 speak to-morrow can tell you better than I how the task 

 is being done. 



But with all the progress we have made we are still far 

 behind Germany in very many vital respects. I am aware 

 that the standard of entrance at our universities is being 

 gradually raised ; it will be long indeed before it reaches 

 the nine years' secondary-school course required in Prussia 

 for admission to any of its four technical universities. 

 Still, we may look forward with some certainty to the time 

 when our universities will do the work for England that 

 those four universities do for Prussia ; and while in some 

 cases the connection between the technical college and the 

 university will be very close, it is well to realise that there 

 IS an immense task before us which cannot be touched by 

 the universities. University work is, in the main, day 

 work ; it calls for the whole time, the whole energy of the 

 student ; it may be that for a time, in some of its pre- 

 liminary stages, some progress can be made by evening 

 work, but a full university course demands more time 

 than a hard-worked man should give after his day's task 

 is done. The marked feature of the technical college is 

 its evening work, the education it provides for those who 

 have by day to make their living, raising and improving 

 the quality of their work by training their intelligences, 

 by putting clearly before them the why and the wherefore 

 of the processes in which they take part. 



I am not sure whether statistics exist as to the number 

 of these students, the classes they attend, and the work 

 they do. I have seen figures for London, and no doubt 

 they might be obtained for the country at large. Few 

 among these students hope to reach university standard, 

 nor should their teaching be planned as though this were 

 the main object in view. They fall, it seems to me, into 

 two main categories, the adolescents — to use the word of 

 the continuation schools report — who have recently left 

 school to commence some trade, and for whom the con- 

 tinuation schools are designed, and then the older work- 

 men, who want to understand the work they do, to pre- 

 pare themselves for posts as foremen or overseers, and to 

 be given some wider outlook on life than the shop or 

 factory affords. There is room for a large development of 

 both these tasks, for more coordination of the work, and 

 greater continuity of effort. Elementary technical educa- 

 tion is needed in all our towns, technical universities are 

 needed in a few great cities only; for these latter we must 

 concentrate both students and teachers. 



A scheme whereby the evening technical institutions of a 

 district would look to a technical university in one of the 

 main centres of population as their university, would 

 organise their work in connection with the day classes of 

 the university, and would confine their own ambitions 

 within moderate bounds, endeavouring to do their work 

 within those bounds with the highest possible efficiency, 

 would do much for the real interests of the nation. To 

 promote such a scheme ought not to be a task beyond 



NO. 2107, VOL. 83] 



the powers of this association. It is a national work, and 

 one which should readily gain the assistance of the national 

 authorities. 



In any scheme two matters must be borne in mind. ^ 

 svstem of bursaries and scholarships must open the uni- 

 versity to any student who can sufficiently profit by th« 

 opportunity thus offered ; this is generally admitted ; but, 

 in addition, it should be possible for the teachers tt 

 advance knowledge by research and study. To do this ir 

 each technical school or trade school is clearly impossible. 

 If its importance were once recognised, it ought to b< 

 possible to arrange for facilities for the work for teachers 

 in the district in the laboratories and class-rooms of the 

 university. 



Oxford and Cambridge are outside any such scheme; 

 London, again, offers special problems of its own. 



The two ancient universities need not detain us long, 

 England owes so much to them, and Enghsh science sc 

 much to Cambridge in particular, the home of Newton, 

 Young, Cayley, Stokes, Kelvin, and Maxwell, to nam* 

 mathematicians alone, that one who realises all th* 

 benefits Cambridge can bestow upon her sons can onlj 

 express the very deepest regret that the regulations of th« 

 University still close her doors to many young English' 

 men on whose future she could exert an inestimabh 

 influence for good ; still, even if an elementary knowledg* 

 of Greek were no longer necessary for entrance. Cam 

 bridge must devote herself rather to the study of pun 

 science than to that of technics and engineering ; student) 

 who go to Cambridge are prepared to spend time anc 

 money in gaining other advantages besides those of theii 

 technical education. Cambridge does not aim at being on< 

 of the great technical universities, but rather a home o: 

 sound learning and religious education from whence maj 

 spring great generalisations and new ideas to fertilise th< 

 world. 



As to London, the problem is most complex. We havi 

 the university, the university colleges, now happily a par 

 of the universitj' itself, the Imperial Technical College 

 with its own constituent parts, the Royal College o; 

 Science, the Royal School of Mines and the City ant 

 Guilds College, the Finsbury Technical College, and th« 

 various polytechnics and trade schools. What, from oiu 

 point of view, are to be their connections, and under whai 

 scheme can they best combine to meet the wants of the 

 seven millions of people for whom they provide? 



We have to provide for the masters and leaders ol 

 industry by institutions giving a wide and comprehensivt 

 training suited to their needs : we have to secure that th< 

 workers shall be able to gain the knowledge needed tc 

 make their labour fruitful to themselves and to the State 

 when young in technical schools adapted to the require- 

 ments of their trade, and when more mature in mon 

 highly specialised institutions organised to promote th« 

 scientific and practical study of special industries. 



There is yet another class, limited in numbers, bul 

 valuable beyond measure to the State, those to whom i1 

 is given to advance learning — the potential Faradays ol 

 this great city. 



For the first class we have the university, with its 

 constituent colleges and parts : but are we to have one 

 university or two? Shall London University embrace, as 

 its name would imply, the whole of learning, the arts 

 and sciences, literature, economics, theolog>', law, 

 medicine, and the technical applications of science, or are 

 we, like Berlin, to have two universities side by side, the 

 one dealing with the older studies and pure science, the 

 other the technical university, taking under its care those 

 practical developments of science on which the welfare, 

 nay, the very life, of the country hangs? 



The matter is now under consideration, and this is, 

 perhaps, hardly the place to discuss it. I would only sa}) 

 that the example set by Germany, though to follow i1 

 would entail many difficulties, is not lightly to be sel 

 aside. In any case, some change must come in the pre- 

 sent government of the university — a change, I trust, 

 which will place the executive control of its fortunes ir 

 the hands of a much smaller body than the Senate, will 

 leave the various faculties more free to develop on the 

 lines best suited to each case, and will concentrate more 

 completely than is at present possible the highest studies, 



