June 4, 1891] 



NATURE 



103 



This scheme has never met with the cordial support of a large 

 section at least of the teaching staff of University College, and for 

 the very obvious reason that it does not constitute a professorial 

 University, but creates a new examining body on which the two 

 Colleges will be, in the beginning at any rate, largely represented. 

 The Albert University charter would create a second Victoria 

 University in London. Now, both Mr. Dyer and Prof. Lankester 

 are agreed that we do not want a federal University like Victoria 

 in London ; but they seem to forget that this pettifogging excuse 

 for a University — a scheme drafted by bureaucratic rather than 

 academic minds — is the only scheme in the field, and that, further, 

 the Lord President of the Council has determined to hear by 

 counsel, on an early day in June, what can be said for and 

 against this scheme. It is further rumoured that the Burlington 

 House Senate intends, after its recent discomfiture, to remain 

 absolutely neutral. The danger, then, that we shall have a 

 repetition in London of the difficulties of Manchester is a very 

 immediate one. Let me point out exactly the anomalies of the 

 Albert scheme. In the first place, it does not create a teaching 

 University, but a new examiniqg body. The University as such 

 will have no control over the appointment of the professoriate 

 either at University or King's Colleges, it will have no funds to 

 dispose of, and there will be nothing to prevent rival second-rate 

 teachers and teaching equipment instead of first-rate central 

 teaching and central laboratories. For example, at the present 

 time, putting aside the Central Institute, we have some half- 

 dozen second-rate physical laboratories in London, but not a 

 really first-class one worthy of a modern University among them. 

 So long as there is competition between the Colleges, so long as 

 they possess a double staff competing at every turn with each 

 other for students' fees, this is unlikely to be remedied. Prof. 

 Lankester speaks of a tmion of King's and University, and 

 talks about their combined resources. The fusion of these two 

 Colleges would certainly be the first stage to a true professorial 

 University in London, but there is nothing in the Albert charter 

 to bring this about : it unites the two Colleges not for teaching 

 but for examining purposes. But what is still worse, while these 

 two Colleges will remain autonomous, the Albert charter proposes 

 to admit any further autonomous bodies, the teaching of which 

 can be shown to have reached a certain academic standard. 

 These bodies will not be absorbed, but their independent staffs 

 will be represented on the Faculties and Senate. Here we have 

 in fact the University of London over again, — at first composed 

 almost entirely of the two Colleges, afterwards embracing all 

 sorts and conditions of institutions in London, and ultimately 

 open to every isolated text-book reader in the universe. It 

 cannot be therefore too strongly insisted upon that the Albert 

 charter, if granted, will not call into existence a professorial 

 University, but federate a group, and an ever-widening group, of 

 competing institutions for the purposes of examination. If it 

 sheds for a time any additional lustre on the teaching staffs of 

 the two Colleges — which I am much inclined to doubt — it will 

 not achieve, what most of us have at heart, the establishment 

 in London, at any rate in the germ, of a great University in the 

 Scottish or German sense. A University, on the scale we hope 

 for, would absorb the plant of University and King's Colleges, 

 of the Royal College of Science, and of the Central Institute 

 without the least difficulty. With the death or transference of 

 existing teachers, whose pecuniary interests would have of course 

 to be carefully safeguarded, special branches of higher teaching 

 and research might be localized at these various centres,^ and we 

 thus might reach in the future an efficient University organiza- 

 tion in London. This may indeed be considered a merely ideal 

 future, but any scheme like the proposed Albert University, 

 which will only impede its ultimate realization, ought to meet 

 with strenuous opposition from those who believe that a great 

 professorial University must sooner or later be established in 

 London. 



The difficulty as to the granting of medical degrees will for 

 long be the stumbling-block of any scheme, but the true way to 

 surmount it seems to be that suggested by Prof. Lankester — 

 namely, the complete divorce of the clinical teaching at University 

 and King's Colleges from the science teaching, and the establish- 

 ment of separate clinical schools at the existing College hospitals 

 on precisely the same footing with regard to the University as 

 the other medical schools. The preliminary science teaching at 

 the various medical schools might then be safely intrusted to 

 University readers, who might continue to be, as they now largely 



« EUtncntary teaching in many branches might for local convenience be 

 still carried on at several centres. 



NO. II 2 7, VOL. 44] 



are, peripatetic. These readers would naturally belong to the 

 science faculty of the new University, and if largely paid by 

 students' fees might be trusted to safeguard the "preliminary 

 scientific interests " of the medical schools. It seems to me, 

 therefore, that some vigorous effort ought to be made to obtain 

 the modification of the Albert University scheme in the sense 

 indicated by the following proposals : — 



Proposals in re Teaching University. 

 No scheme for the constitution of a teaching University in 

 London will be satisfactory which does not : 



1. Place the appointment of the teaching staff, as well as 

 the control of laboratories, libraries, and buildings, in the hands 

 of a single executive body, hereinafter spoken of as the new 

 University Senate, or of bodies, such as Faculties or boards 

 of study, to which it may delegate its powers. 



2. Confer on the new University Senate the power of granting 

 degrees in all Faculties, including that of Medicine. 



3. Give to the teaching staff an immediate representation of 

 one-third, and an ultimate representation of at least one-half, on 

 the new University Senate. 



These conditions would probably be best fulfilled by : 



4. The immediate fusion of the Councils of University and 

 King's Colleges, and the Council or Governing Body of any 

 other institution doing work of admittedly academic character 

 in London, which may be willing that its laboratories and 

 equipment should be placed under the control of the new 

 University Senate. 



[This would remove any ground from the objection that the 

 two Colleges are claiming powers which they are not wiUing to 

 share with the Royal College of Science or the Central Institute. 

 It provides for these latter coming into the scheme on the same 

 terms, if that is possible.] 



5. The granting of a Charter to a body consisting of these 

 combined Councils together with representatives of the teachers 

 in the combined institutions. 



6. The constitution of the new University Senate in the 

 following manner : — 



A. Immediate constitution — 



(i) The fused Councils of King's and University Colleges 

 or their representatives. 



(2) The Councils of other academic bodies in London 



willing to be absorbed, or their representatives. 



(3) Representatives of the teachers to the extent of one- 



third of the total number. 



B. Ultimate constitution — 



(i) University professors, either as ipso facto members 

 or as representatives of the body of professors. 



(2) Representatives of the Faculties {i.e. of the readers 



and professors of each Faculty). 



(3) Co-optated members, not to be selected from the 



teaching staff. 

 And possibly, 



(4) Representatives of bodies willing to endow professor- 



ships in the new University, or to hand over to 

 the control of the University existing professor- 

 ships or lectureships, e.g. {a) the Corporation 

 of the City and the Mercers' Company as trustees 

 of Sir Thomas Gresham's estate ; (/') the Inns 

 of Court — provided these bodies are willing to 

 attach the Gresham Lecturers and the Reader- 

 ships instituted by the Council of Legal Education 

 to the new University. 

 (5) Representatives of the Medical Schools and Royal 

 Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons other than 

 those selected by the Medical Faculty. This 

 would only be a matter for consideration when 

 the power to grant medical degrees became 

 actual. 



7. The transition from the immediate to the ultimate con- 

 stitution of the new University Senate in the following 

 manner : — 



(a) By not filling up vacancies among the members contri- 



buted to the new Senate by the existing College 

 Councils as such occur. 



(b) By the increase of professorial members and representa- 



tives of the Faculties. 



