536 



NATURE 



[April 5, 1894 



THE TEACHING UNIVERSITY. 



A T the ensuing meeting of Convocation of the Univer- 

 ■^ *■ sity of London (on April lo next), the rejection of 

 the Gresham Commission scheme will be the subject of 

 the first motion. It is intended (if possible) to propose an 

 amendment which will, in effect, be a declaration that 

 Convocation generally approves of the scheme as enabling 

 the University to make extended provision for teaching, 

 and for the advancement of learning, and for original re- 

 search in London in accordance with, and in furtherance 

 of, the principles already sanctioned by the several 

 charters of the University. The following special, 

 among other reasons, in general support of the Gresham 

 Commission proposals, are now submitted to the 

 consideration of your readers and the members of 

 Convocation interested in the welfare of their Uni- 

 versity : — 



(i) The original London University was intended to 

 be both a teaching and a degree-conferring body. 



(2) The University of the " 30's " was open to collegiate 

 candidates only, and was governed by a strictly profes- 

 sorial body, consisting of the examiners, who formed the 

 senate of the University. 



(3) Under the charter of 1858 the non-collegiate 

 student was admitted to the examinations, but the older 

 system has never been abolished, nor has the principle 

 thereof ever been abrogated. 



(4) In the existing charter (Sec. 2) the object is 

 declared to be " to hold fortli , . . an eiicouragemeiit for 

 ptir suing a liberal and regular course of education!' 



In Sec. 34 a long list of affiliated colleges is given, in 

 the next section power is conferred to " alter, vary, and 

 amend "such list, and in Sec. 36 non-collegiate students 

 are made admissible (except in medicine) " on such con- 

 ditions" as the Senate may prescribe. 



(5) Under Sections 18-38, and following, the Senate is 

 empowered to examine for, and confer degrees on such 

 conditions as it may think fit (subject to general law and 

 the charter) to confer ad eundcin degrees, and grant 

 certificates of proficiency. 



(6) It is, therefore, clear that the University is still 

 essentially what it was originally — a collegiate Univer- 

 sity, with the added faculty of admitting non-collegiate 

 students " upon conditions." The chief fault found with 

 the collegiate system in 1858 was, in effect, that it was 

 imperfectly established and insufficiently administered. 

 It could have been reformed, and its maintenance was 

 supported by 531 graduates against 38 who advocated 

 the admission of the non-collegiate, as well as of the 

 collegiate, student. 



(7) It is equally clear that nothing in the existing char- 

 ters prevents the University from establishing special 

 examinations (if need be, which is very doubtful) for 

 collegiate and non-collegiate students respectively. 

 Professorships, Boards of Studies, Faculties, and even 

 (probably) an Academic Council or its equivalent, such 

 as provided by the Gresham Commission scheme, which, 

 running counter to no principle sanctioned by any 

 former or by the present charters, mainly restores and 

 extends the University, methodises and regulates its 

 educational machinery, and enables it to exercise such 

 direct control over teaching as any well-wisher to aca- 

 demical education must surely desire to see it endowed 

 with. 



(8) The non-collegiate student, in whose favour alone 

 does the Gresham scheme depart from the original prin- 

 ciple of the University, cannot but gain by having his 

 studies directed by the whole teaching force of the metro- 

 polis. At present only two professors actually engaged in 

 teaching, representing only one out of the numerous 

 subjects comprised within the faculties of Art, Science, 

 Medicine, and Laws (exclusive of clinical medicine, 



NO. 1275, VOL. 49] 



which is well represented), sit upon the councils of the 

 University. Even Convocation, during its whole exist- 

 ence, appears to have elected only two professors. Such 

 a divorce of testing from teaching has been long re- 

 gretted by most teachers of eminence, metropolitan or 

 provincial, and by most, if not all, of the Examiners of 

 the University. 



(9) Lastly, as measuring the comparative academical 

 success of collegiate and non-collegiate courses of study, 

 the figures which I give in a note are not uninstructive^: — 



If conclusions may be drawn from these figures, the 

 academical success of the graduates who were largely 

 non-collegiate, would appear to be one-half of that 

 of the graduates who were largely collegiate, and 

 one-fourth of that of the graduates who have always been 

 wholly collegiate. 



(10) As collegiate and non-collegiate candidates are 

 certainly of equal intrinsic quality, it would seem that the 

 difference is to be ascribed to the superiority of collegiate 

 over non-collegiate courses of study. 



(11) Hence the collegiate principle, the original 

 principle of the University, which it has never abrogated, 

 would appear to be the principle most likely to repay 

 extension — and this is precisely what the Gresham 

 Commission scheme proposes to do — and there is nothing 

 to show that its extension need in the slightest degree 

 interfere with the interests of the non-collegiate student. 

 On the contrary, it would facilitate the increase of his 

 opportunities for regular instruction of the highest 

 character. 



(12) In conclusion, the assumption underlying the 

 foregoing remarks is that the chief object of a University 

 is the advancement of learning and research, and not 

 the mere granting of degrees, which are but a means to 

 an end. The eloquent appeal of Lord Reay, appended 

 to the Gresham Report, should be carefully studied by 

 all interested in the University questions. 



F. Victor Dickins. 



WILLIAM PENGELLY. 



THE death of William Pengelly, at the ripe age of 

 eighty-two, deserves more than a passing notice, 

 because he was one of the last survivors of a scientific 

 type represented by Sedgwick, Lyell, Phillips, Murchison, 

 and the other old heroes who laid the foundation of geo- 

 logical science. He belongs to the heroic age of geology 

 — to that group of men who found British Geology almost 

 a terra incognita, and left it so completely explored that 

 there is little left for their successors but to correct mis- 

 takes and fill in minute details. 



Pengelly was born in 181 2, at East Looe, in Cornwall, 

 of a Quaker stock, and lived all his life in the west 

 country. Like Prof. Dana, he took to the sea and served 

 before the mast. Having, however, a decided taste for 

 mathematics and geology, he gave up seafaring and 



1 During the last five years the annual number of B.A.'s (largely non 

 collegiate) has sunk from 238 in 1S89, to 156 in 1893, a diminution of 34 per 

 cent. From 185S to 1893, the annual nuuihier of B.A.'s has increased from 

 70 to 156, of B.Sc.'s from 5 to So (in 1892 — for some reason or other — the 

 number dwindled to 65 in 1S93), of M.B.'s from 20 to 89, and of M.D.'s from 



16 to 59. 



[The science candidates are mainly collegiate, the medical candidates 

 have always been wholly collegiate.] 

 During the last ihree years, 1891-2-3, 



Of 639 B.A.'s, 38 took ist Class Honours, about 5 percent. 

 I )f25o B.Sc.'s, 28 ,, ,, ,, ,, II ,, 



Of249 M.B.'s, 55 ,, ,, ,, ,, 22 ,, 



Of some 500 gmduates in Honours at the B.Sc. examination (since the 

 institution of the degree in i86i to 1892), 470 were collegiate students, and 

 only 30 were non-collegiate. 



During the same period, of some 1080 B.A. Honours men, only 260 were 

 wliolly non-coUegiate, the remainder, 720, were collegiate students. Of 

 the 260 non-collegiates, 42 obtained a ist Class in Honours, chiefly in 

 modern languages ; the remaining 218 were largely placed in the 3rd 

 Class. 



