204 



NA TURE 



[June 



1900 



V.e concentrated on methods and results. Their work in these 

 courses would be recognised by class certificates." 



In addition to the professor of each technical subject there 

 will be an assistant-professor and several instructors, each 

 competent in a particular branch. 



They indicate a block plan for the buildings required, their 

 size and their suggested arrangement. These plans suppose a 

 front of two storeys, containing the lecture rooms, library, 

 museum, &c., and at the back a series of blocks, all on the 

 ground floor, and intended for the various laboratories and 

 workrooms which have been described in the report. These 

 could be built to provide accommodation in the first instance for 

 200 day students, increasing afterwards to 500. 



'•The space occupied by these buildings, including the 

 necessary yards and roads, a gymnasium, a director's house, and 

 rooms for a caretaker, is about six acres. In view of the future 

 of the university, a total area of not less than twenty-five acres 

 should be provided. " 



The committee recommend that this land be taken in the 

 outskirts of the city on a main line of, by preference, both rail 

 and road, and they estimate the complete cost as follows : — 



Twenty-five acres of land and buildings ... 80,000/. 



Machinery, apparatus, and instruments ... 66,000 



Fittings, utensils, lighting, and heating ... 5,000 



Technical library i)500 



Museum 500 



Director's house ... ... ... ... 2,000 



Total ... 155,000/. 



They estimate the cost of maintenance (including the staff) at 

 10,450/. per annum. 



Thus the scheme is a very large one, but it is estimated that 

 the fees from students will ultimately do a good deal towards 

 covering the cost of maintenance. 



The committee do not advise night classes, and in this we 

 think they are wise ; they consider that the already existing 

 municipal technical school either does provide or might provide 

 for the need these night classes are intended to meet, and they 

 are sure that the curriculum they propose will absorb all the 

 energies of the teaching stafif when employed in the daytime 

 only. They do not clearly indicate the training they propose for 

 mining engineers, but for mechanical, electrical, and civil, they 

 draw up a course the same in the first two years ; in the third 

 year the mechanical and electrical branch off on the one hand, 

 and the civil on the other, while in the fourth year there is 

 more specialisation, but not much distinction drawn even then 

 between mechanical and electrical. 



So far, the lines indicated are not very different from what 

 is becoming customary, but they propose to attempt a Faculty of 

 Commerce. Now the establishment of a great commercial 

 school on serious lines is a new experiment, and has not yet been 

 successfully tried anywhere. They propose a capital expendi- 

 ture of 6000/. on class-room accommodation, together with books 

 and apparatus, and an annual expenditure of 2200/. on a 

 professor, an assistant professor, an instructor, and some special 

 lecturers. We think that they will find that the addition of 

 certain other chairs will be essential if a commercial faculty is 

 to take its proper position, especially political economy and 

 geography, probably law also. We do not see that any provision 

 has been made for these three subjects. We regard a thorough 

 course in political economy as essential to the well-being of a 

 commercial faculty ; and geography, treated completely, we 

 regard as a much more important subject than the committee at 

 present seem to realise. 



The advisory committee enter further into the difficult question 

 of commercial education. They say that modern languages 

 should be learnt when quite young ; which indeed is very true, 

 but it seems to us a counsel of perfection. In practice we feel 

 sure that modern languages would certainly have to form a con- 

 siderable part of a scheme for commercial education. 



Commercial arithmetic, they say, does not go far enough ; 

 and that also is extremely probable ; but a training in elemen- 

 tary mathematics, beyond the immediately practical stage, 

 would be of great advantage to the commercial man in many 

 indirect ways. 



As to geography, the committee think that the information is 

 best obtained as wanted from books of reference and consulta- 

 tion with one of the touring agencies ; but in this we entirely 



NO. 1600, VOL. 62] 



differ from them. To make proper use of books of reference 

 some previous knowledge of the subject is necessary ; and the 

 earth, especially the portion accessible to trade, is not so big but 

 that an adequate knowledge concerning its chief features should 

 be acquired and possessed by a competent man of business, 

 without having to refer constantly to others. 



The committee, however, go on to recommend that, in addi- 

 tion to these things, instruction shall be provided in business 

 organisation, the theory and principles of trade unions, associa- 

 tions, trusts, combinations and rings ; that instruction shall be 

 given in commercial law, likewise in accountancy, in shipping 

 and railway practice, and in banking and exchange ; and they 

 say very wisely that " such knowledge as the foregoing is what 

 is required in business, and is usually only learnt bit by bit at 

 a heavy cost, so that the man of business has generally reached 

 the limits of his working life before he has completed his com- 

 mercial education, and owing to the want of a codified system 

 business men continue from generation to generation to renew 

 the mistakes of their predecessors, and to repeat their experi- 

 ments, and after much tribulation to re-arrive at their methods, 

 their rules and their conclusions." 



They further indicate that this commercial education is not to 

 be taken as a substitute for a more general education, but is to 

 be a supplement to it. They say, " Students in the commercial 

 education course should not be allowed to enter at too early an 

 age. Twenty is quite early enough ; and it would be most de- 

 sirable that they should have taken a degree in Arts before 

 studying for the commercial degree, and certainly the highest 

 commercial degree should only be given to those already in 

 possession of an Arts degree." 



They hope (again in this case) that the fees from students may 

 make it largely self-supporting, but we incline to think that 

 they estimate the fees from students too highly. If they fix the 

 fee for each student at 50/. a year, we fear that the expense will 

 exclude a considerable number of those who might otherwise 

 derive special benefit from the course proposed. 



They realise that this attempt at a thorough commercial 

 education is a new experiment, and one which, if successful, 

 may have most important consequences on the commercial 

 future of the country, and they conclude as follows : — 



"There is no instance elsewhere of any course at once so 

 complete and so valuable ; there is not even, so far as your 

 committee know, any university in the United Kingdom where 

 there is a separate Faculty of Commerce, and as there 

 has not yet been any effort to treat the subject with the 

 thoroughness now proposed, so there is no means of estimating 

 the extent to which advantage would be taken of such teaching. 

 Your committee, however, point to the fact that a Faculty of 

 Commerce so organised and based on the actualities of business 

 experience, would at the present moment stand alone, and 

 would therefore attract to the Birmingham University all who 

 feel the need of such an education, and would also to a much 

 greater extent create a new demand." 



There is no doubt, however, that the Arts Faculty in general 

 requires strengthening in many ways, the addition of new chairs 

 being one of them ; and unless this is done as soon as opportunity 

 offers, the scientific and technical training proposed will not 

 acquire its proper university status. The training of the 

 students must not be limited to their immediate fancied needs ; 

 neither students nor their jiarents are the best judges of what is 

 in the long run really desirable. A much broader training 

 must be given in the university of the future than has been 

 given in the university of the past. Depth without breadth 

 has been the feature of some Honours schools ; shallowness with 

 athletics has been the feature of some Pass schools. The 

 university of the future must mend all this, and secure that all 

 its graduates without exception have had a broad training in 

 many subjects — subjects lying indifferent departments of human 

 knowledge ; so that they may be really educated and not 

 merely informed. As to the depth possible, that will vary with 

 individual powers, and the standard must not be made impossible 

 for the average man ; but to give the average man a training in 

 some highly specialised practical department, and then turn 

 him out on the world as a university gradua'e, is not what we 

 expect or hope for from the new university. Such students there 

 will be, doubtless, and they may well receive special diplomas 

 each in his own branch, but they should not be graduates. 



Some other students there will be, who, in addition to a 

 broad and liberal culture, have the power of going deeply into 

 some one sub'ect, and these should receive degrees with honour ; 



