NATURE 



169 



THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1892. 



THE NEW LONDON UNIVERSITY. 



IN our last issue we laid before our readers a statement 

 of the proposals adopted by the Association for Pro- 

 moting a Professorial University for London at a meeting 

 held at Burlington House on the 14th inst. It may tend 

 to clear the issue if we now briefly compare these pro- 

 posals with the provisions of the Gresham Charter. 



The Gresham Charter seeks to federate two Colleges 

 and ten medical schools, primarily for examination pur- 

 poses. Such a University, if created, would have had 

 two competing staffs in the Faculties of Arts and Science 

 and twelve in the Faculty of Medicine. Provision is also 

 made, under certain conditions, for the federation of other 

 institutions, if it can be shown to the satisfaction of the 

 Council— that is, of the Chancellor, the Lord Mayor of 

 London, and the representative members of the Councils 

 of the two constituent Colleges and the ten medical schools 

 —that such institutions areonabasis justifying theexpecta- 

 tion of permanent existence ; that they are under the 

 independent control of their own governing bodies ; and 

 that they are reasonably well equipped in some one 

 Faculty. Such a federation, created not primarily for the 

 true business and proper functions of a University, but 

 solely in the interests of a degree-granting body, could 

 only have one result. The examination schedules must 

 perforce be within reach of the lower grades of instruc- 

 tion, the various constituent elements would be actively 

 . competing bodies, and no attempt to create a single 

 competent staff and a single set of fully-equipped 

 University laboratories would be feasible. Is it at 

 all probable that the true work of a University 

 would flourish under such a system as that 1 Is it in 

 the least degree likely that we could hope to see 

 created in London, a teaching organization worthy of the 

 greatest and richest capital in the world, or even such as 

 many of the smaller European capitals now possess 1 The 

 fame of a University, if it is to be anything more than a 

 social function, must depend on the character of its teach- 

 ing. Would the best men be attracted and retained by 

 such a system ? There can be only one answer to these 

 questions. The Gresham scheme is not only a wholly in- 

 adequate solution of the University question, but in so far 

 as it tends to accentuate and perpetuate the existing state 

 of things its provisions are positively mischievous. No 

 solution of the question can be either just or final which 

 ignores the existence of the present University of London. 

 If London is to have two degree-granting bodies existing, 

 practically, side by side, we shall have confusion worse 

 confounded. Burlington Gardens would inevitably be 

 driven to establish a teaching organization of its own, 

 unless it was supremely indifferent to its fate or supinely 

 content with the teaching of the Correspondence Colleges 

 and the crammers. Why should we neglect, and not 

 only neglect but positively so arrange as to destroy, the 

 prestige of the existing University of London.? This 

 University is not effete— it has still within it a great poten- 

 tiality for good. Surely, in common gratitude, the Uni- 

 versity which has hitherto consistently upheld a high 

 standard of attainment for its degrees, and which has 

 NO. I 182, VOL. 46] 



done so much for the spread of natural science in this 

 country, is worthy of better treatment at the hands of 

 those who profess to minister to the true interests of 

 learning. The Gresham scheme is really an attempt on 

 the part of certain of the medical schools and some of the 

 arts and science teachers to cheapen degrees and so attract 

 students. It is true that the new University medical 

 degrees would carry no license to practise. But is it 

 likely that the University would permanently put up with 

 this unique position, or that its students would continue 

 to submit themselves without a murmur to a double examin- 

 ation system .'' As the document issued by the Victoria 

 University indicates, the result, in all probability, would be 

 to reduce the two examinations to a single standard by 

 compromise with the licensing body. The scheme, more- 

 over, gives an overwhelming preponderance to the most 

 purely professional of all the faculties, and far too large 

 a share of control to persons of small academic expe- 

 rience who devote occasional spare hours to academic 

 affairs. It makes no attempt to satisfy the demand for 

 the recognition in some form of University work among 

 the people. No wonder, then, that it was strenuously 

 opposed by a powerful section of the governing body, 

 and by a majority of the teachers in the Faculties of 

 Science and Arts, of the most influential College that it 

 proposed to incorporate. The Council of University 

 College, indeed, has never openly ventured to place the 

 scheme before the governing body. 



The Gresham University Commissioners are authorized 

 by the terms of their reference " to consider and, if they 

 think fit, to alter and to amend and extend the proposed 

 charter, so as to form . . . a scheme for the establishment, 

 under charter, of an efificient teaching University for 

 London." It is impossible to conceive how the charter 

 submitted to them can be amended so as to form such a 

 scheme if its salient features are preserved. That fact 

 is becoming more and more patent every day. The 

 Association which put forward the proposals we have 

 already referred to now numbers among its members — 

 medicine excepted — a majority of the leading London 

 teachers. If these teachers say that they do not wish 

 the Gresham Charter at any price, it is difficult to see 

 how it can be imposed upon them. Any attempt to 

 resuscitate that charter, even with amendments, will meet, 

 as before, with the opposition of the provincial Colleges, 

 the minor London teaching bodies, and, what is perhaps 

 more important, the organized opposition of a large section 

 of the London teachers, and of some of the most powerful 

 and influential friendsof higher education in this country. 

 The fact is that it is at last clearly recognized that the 

 foundation of a Metropolitan University, which will bear 

 comparison with those of the great Continental cities, is 

 a matter of national importance. The action of the 

 House of Commons with regard to the Gresham Charter 

 offers an opportunity, such as may not soon occur again, 

 for attempting the formation of a University in London on 

 the same ample lines as those to be found in other 

 European capitals. Watchful observers of what has been 

 going on during the past three or four years have de. 

 liberately come to the conclusion that it is quite impossible 

 to improve the condition of higher education in London 

 by means of any federation of Colleges. The creation of 

 i homogeneous academic body with power to absorb^ not 



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