544 



NATURE 



[August 31, 1916 



SCHOLARSHIPS AND THEIR RELATION 

 TO HIGHER EDUCATION.^ 



THE Board of Education has recently issued an 

 interim report from the Consultative Com- 

 mittee on the reference made to the Committee 

 early in 191 3. The inquiry was interrupted by the 

 war, but its resumption a few months later has 

 furnished material for the present document, 

 which contains a discussion of many subjects 

 deserving- attention by men of affairs no less than 

 by teachers and professional educationists. The 

 original reference was as follows : — 



To consider the existing provision of awards — 

 whether by local education authorities, by the govern- 

 ing bodies of secondary schools, universities, and col- 

 leges, by the trustees of endowments or otherwise — 

 for assisting pupils (other than those who have de- 

 clared their intention to become teachers in State- 

 aided schools) to proceed from secondary schools to 

 universities or other places of higher education ; and 

 to report how far such provision is adequate in char- 

 acter, extent, and distribution, and effective in meet- 

 ing educational needs, and what measures are neces- 

 sary and practicable for developing a system of such 

 scholarships and exhibitions in organic relation to a 

 system of national education. 



This is a fairly wide reference, and since it is 

 true, as observed in the report, that "no educa- 

 tional problem of any magnitude can be isolated," 

 it seems obvious that the whole ground cannot be 

 covered in an interim report. The Committee, 

 therefore, has confined its attention to the needs 

 of industry and commerce in connection with 

 scholarships to be held at universities and other 

 places of higher education. The sub-committee 

 charg-ed with the investig-ation sat on fourteen 

 days and examined twenty -nine witnesses. 



The main object of the scholarship system, 

 which is almost peculiar to this country, is to 

 assist the student who has shown promise and is 

 at the same time in need of pecuniary help. 

 Properly administered, it may be expected to 

 afford encouragement to learning and to assist in 

 the provision of useful public servants. But, how- 

 ever obvious it may be to the majority of the 

 public that such a system is desirable, the expen- 

 diture of larger sums of money on its further ex- 

 tension has not been without opponents. The 

 late Sir William Ramsay, for example, was one 

 of those who thought it advisable to subsidise 

 teachers and teaching institutions with the object 

 of increasing efficiency and reducing fees, rather 

 than to add to the pecuniary resources of the 

 student. This was probably in part connected 

 with his known objection to examinations, and 

 recalls to mind one of the chief difficulties con- 

 nected with any scholarship scheme — namely, the 

 problem, at present unsolved, as to the best mode 

 of selection. 



This question naturally receives considerable 

 attention from the Committee, and alternative 

 methods of award are discussed in connection with 

 scholarships from secondary schools to universi- 



1 Interim Report of the Consultative Committee on Scholarships or 

 Higher Education. [Cd. 8291.] (London : Wyman and Sons Ltd. 1916. 

 Price 4W. 



NO. 2444, VOL. 97] 



ties. The Committee is there led to the conclu- 

 sion that no practicable method of award can be 

 suggested which does not mainly depend on com- 

 petitive examination. But in the succeeding para- 

 graphs it proceeds to consider the importance of 

 the adjuncts to examination derived from the 

 school record and the opinion of teachers, the 

 vivd-voce examination of selected candidates, and 

 in the case of science candidates the attested labo- 

 ratory note-books, since laboratory examinations 

 admit a large element of luck. But when all pre- 

 cautions have been observed, the marks gained in 

 an examination must be chiefly given for know- 

 ledge already acquired, and most examiners of 

 experience would admit the great difficulty of esti- 

 mating justly the capacity of candidates to deal 

 with unfamiliar problems and the probability of 

 their success in research. 



In this connection it is well to look with special 

 attention, not only at the best candidates, but here 

 and there at some of the worst. It is unnecessary 

 to quote here the famous cases of men who have 

 risen to eminence after an unsatisfactory career 

 at school. The boy supposed to be dull is some- 

 times merely not interested in the conventional 

 school subjects, and lives in a world of his own. 

 There are probably few of this, kind among candi-' 

 dates for scholarships, but there should be a con- 

 stant look-out for them on the part of the school- 

 master and some means devised for giving help 

 and encouragement if needed. 



The report before us raises in the mind of the 

 reader a great many questions besides those con- 

 nected with the cfeation, award, and distribution 

 of scholarships. It leaves, for example, the old 

 confusion between education and instruction 

 uncorrected, or rather, if possible, further Ije- 

 clouded. It discusses briefly but suggestively the 

 demand for what is called equal opportunity. It 

 points out that it is impossible, and undesirable 

 to attempt, to give higher education to all, and 

 it justly points out that 



the public interests demand that none shall waste 

 his time and the time of others by schooling or train- 

 ing at the public expense unless he or she has proved 

 that such training is likely to be advantageous. . . . 

 It will be economical to give more training to the 

 highest talent and less to the inferior or mediocre. 



Then, again, it appears that there are persons 

 among the witnesses before the Committee who 

 are prepared to find in the " public schools " the 

 great impediment to educational progress. It is 

 therefore well that the Committee should remind 

 such persons, in the words of the report, that 



the public schools have a great tradition ; a tradition 

 of character, a tradition of manners, a tradition of 

 physical excellence, a tradition of self-government. 

 They do, in fact, supply the boys of the country with: 

 more than half the higher secondary education that| 

 they receive. It would be wasteful to weaken their] 

 vigour and independence. 



The Committee itself goes so far as to express! 

 the opinion that "it is desirable in the national 

 interest that after the war the public schools 

 should devote more energy to scientific and prac- 



