54 



NATURE 



[May 21, 1891 



felt that this is a great evil. Examination is an art, and it is a 

 progressive art. To minimize its possible harnifulness it should 

 keep touch with the teaching. And it must be admitted that 

 the system which now obtains at the University of London does 

 not make this always easy. The Senate is hard to move and 

 slow to act. This would not be so if those who had the right 

 to move it possessed the momentum which would be derived 

 from a more obvious authority. In fact this tendency to inaction 

 arises from a natural timidity. The Senate is too largely 

 composed of persons who have no direct touch with actual 

 education. 



The momentum to which I have referred above would come 

 with all needful force from the faculties if they were organized 

 in a comprehensive way to include every competent authority in 

 academic education in London. I will not stop to discuss the 

 precise machinery by which this should be brought about. It 

 seems to me that it would be probably sufficient if the Senate 

 were to have power to admit to the faculties the teachers of all 

 institutions of academic rank which supplied it with candidates. 

 To these should be added the past and present examiners, a 

 certain number of non-graduates conspicuous for their distinction 

 in the subjects with which the faculty was occupied, and a 

 proper proportion of members of Convocation. 



Such a body would occupy itself with any and every subject 

 relating to academic education. Its resolutions would embody 

 the deliberate conviction of instructed and competent persons, 

 and would afford the Senate a solid basis for administrative 

 procedure. I need hardly say that the faculties — if they took, 

 as I doubt not they would do, a just view of their functions — 

 would look to the advance of academic interests as a whole ; they 

 would not seek the sole advantage of the central University, 

 but would watch and work for the interests of the collegiate 

 institutions they represented — whether in London or the 

 provinces — as well. 



Boards of Studies. 



Delegations from the faculties should be intrusted with the 

 duty of watching the examination work and advising the Senate 

 thereupon. This they would do in two ways : (l) they would 

 consider from time to time all alterations necessary in the sche- 

 dules so as to keep the examinations as closely as possible in 

 touch with the best teaching ; (2) they would review the con- 

 duct of the examinations, though wiihout in any way interfering 

 with the examiners. It would be their duty to consider the 

 papers set, and criticize them if necessary, and they would con- 

 sider and report on any apparent variation in the standard as 

 evidenced by any sudden change in the percentage of passes and 

 rejections. 



Reform of the Senate. 



I think it is generally admitted that the time has come when 

 some change in the constitution of the Senate is advisable. At 

 present it is an assembly of notables appointed for life. Many 

 of them never attend, and some, appointed apparently on purely 

 political grounds — and these are not always the least competent 

 — never perhaps have attended. On the whole, the Senate, 

 though individually eminent, is, it must be confessed, ill-informed 

 on educational matters. As I have already hinted, it is apt in 

 consequence to be somewhat timid and irresolute when it ought 

 to act with decision ; it is equally apt, I am afraid, to act with 

 precipitancy when it ultimately realizes the necessity of moving 

 at all. 



The Senate must, however, remain the supreme governing 

 body with whom the final decision must always remain in 

 matters of importance. This being so, it seems not too much 

 to ask that it should be an efficiently constituted body, and that 

 the members should attend to their duties. Tenure of office for 

 life it would seem desirable to abolish, and prolonged absence 

 from attendance, say for a year, should ipso facto vacate a seat. 

 As for the Crown nominees, who are in great part statesmen of 

 high rank, it would be on obvious grounds unwise to dispense 

 with them, if they took, as many of them do, sufficient interest 

 in the work to attend with some regularity. Where the Senate 

 needs strengthening is in experts in academic education ; and it 

 appears to me that the faculties, if constituted as above, might 

 be intrusted with the duty of selecting these members of the 

 Senate from their own ranks. On the whole, it might be convenient 

 to constitute the Senate something on the lines of the Heb- 

 domadal Council at Oxford : a third to be appointed by the Crown, 

 a third to be appointed by the faculties, and a third by 

 Convocation. 



NO. II 25, VOL. 44] 



Higher Teaching. 

 There is still, however, one direction in which the University 

 of London might even more closely associate itself with actual 

 teaching, and so far become in actual fact a teaching University. 

 This was pointed out in 1872 by the late Registrar, Dr. 

 Carpenter, in his evidence before the Royal Commission on 

 Scientific Instruction. He said (Minutes of Evidence, 10,925), 

 " I think it very important that the State should provide for the 

 carrying on of those higher researches, and that higher teaching, 

 which are not provided for in any shape at present." Again 

 (10,926), "I think that a body like the University of London 

 might very advantageously be empowered to take up such higher 

 and more special teaching. At present the University of 

 London has nothing to do with teaching. The principle of the 

 University is to recognize existing institutions. I do not think 

 that it would be at all the function of the University to interfere 

 or compete in any way with the institutions which it recognizes. 

 But I should myself be very glad to see the University 

 empowered to carry out courses of instruction of a higher and 

 more special kind than are given in any of the institutions 

 affiliated to it." The scope of this higher teaching was brought 

 out more clearly in a subsequent part of Dr. Carpenter's- 

 evidence in answer to a question of Prof. Henry Smith's 

 (10,953). He asked, "The Senate might at some future 

 time endeavour, might they not, to have such lectures given in 

 connection with the University of London as are now given in 

 the College de France? — Yes, more of that character." 



Such lectures would serve for the post-graduate study, pro- 

 vision for which seems to me the great defect in University 

 education as it exists in London. And the professorships them- 

 selves would be positions which could be filled by eminent 

 scientific men whom it is difficult as things are to retain in the 

 capital. To take biological subjects as an example, the con- 

 tinual draining away of men like Michael Foster, Burdon 

 Sanderson, and Lankester seems to me a real loss to the intel- 

 lectual life of London. 



It is just possible that it may be objected that the proposal to 

 have a superior professoriate attached to the University is in 

 some degree a slight on the Colleges and their teachers. And it 

 may be urged that, if there were any demand for post-graduate 

 teaching, the Colleges are quite competent to provide it. It 

 may be so ; but in practice I do not believe it feasible. The 

 working day is inelastic, and from what I myself know of the 

 labour involved in what may be called systematic graduation 

 courses, I do not believe that the same man can superadd fthe 

 higher work as well. Btsides, to be of any value, it must not 

 be formal and perfunctory ; the essence of the higher teaching 

 is that it should reflect the research to which the occupant of 

 each chair should be able to devote the whole of his time. 



I do not think that such professorships will be founded as 

 long as the University is under the control of the State. For 

 this and other reasons I should gladly see the University cease 

 to be a quasi-Government institution, and launch out on its own 

 resources. It seems almost incredible, but it is a fact, that at 

 the present time not the slightest alteration can be made in a 

 schedule without the approval of the Home Office, or the 

 slightest alteration in the amount of prizes without that of the 

 Treasury. There is no inducement now to the public to pro- 

 vide endowments, because, as the University nearly pays its way, 

 any public benefaction would only tend to create a surplus, which 

 would have to be paid over to the Exchequer. But I can hardly 

 doubt that if the University were cut adrift from the State it 

 would receive endowments which would enable it from time to 

 time to found useful and important chairs. These would form 

 not an unwelcome addition to the too few prizes accessible to 

 those who devote themselves to learning for its own sake. 



I had it in my mind to say a few words about the very com- 

 plicated but independent problem which medical University 

 education in London presents. But this paper has already run 

 to an intolerable length, and the subject is perhaps of limited 

 interest to the readers of Naiure. But I may say that I 

 believe that the organization of a strong medical faculty would 

 bring about the solution of all existing difficulties. 



W. T. Thiselton Dyer. 



Royal Gardens, Kew, May 18. 



A NOTE in the last issue of Nature (p. 39) seems to assume that 

 the present University of London is nothing but an Imperial 

 Examining Board that has got wrongly named, and stands in the 



