NATURE 



72> 



THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1890. 



THE FUTURE UNIVERSITY FOR LONDON. 



THE latest news of the negotiations between the 

 various institutions whose co-operation is neces- 

 sary for the establishment of a satisfactory system of 

 graduation for London University students is decidedly 

 good. Lord Cranbrook, as the Minister in charge of 

 ■educational legislation, has intimated to the University 

 that he is prepared to take up the question, and is in ex- 

 pectation of receiving an application for a new charter for 

 the purpose of instituting such a system. The scheme 

 which was drafted by a Committee of the Senate, which 

 was communicated to the University Colleges and to the 

 Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and was 

 under discussion at the meeting of the Convocation on the 

 14th inst., contains some novel features, which show that 

 the University is prepared to move forward, in order to 

 meet the immediate necessities of the situation, beyond 

 the recommendations of the abortive Royal Commission 

 of 1888, and far beyond the non possumus of the Uni- 

 versity witnesses before that Commission. It practically 

 embodies the concession of a separate system of gradua- 

 tion, to be conducted by an administrative Committee of 

 the Senate, upon which the teaching institutions shall be 

 adequately represented, independently of the present 

 system of graduation by open examinations. It contains 

 a further excellent suggestion, that this present system 

 shall also be conducted by a Committee of the Senate, 

 the Senate itself remaining the ultimate authority for 

 both systems, but leaving the details of adn^inistration 

 to the two Committees. This plan, which is due to the 

 initiative of the Senate Committee, appears likely to meet 

 objections of Convocation and of the country University 

 Colleges, and must render it easier for the London 

 institutions to accept the Senate as the ultimate authority 

 on the teaching side. 



Accordingly we are not surprised to hear that the 

 University Colleges have expressed themselves ready to 

 accept the proposal, and to abandon, subject to a satis- 

 factory settlement of details, their petition for a separate 

 University. We trust that a spirit of mutual concession 

 will continue to sway the counsels of the contending 

 parties, and that we may be able to hail the establishment 

 of the teaching side of the University of London, which 

 will be the real University for London, during the present 

 year. The new system of graduation will follow the 

 teaching in the London colleges and schools, which will 

 be organized for the purpose by the London Committee of 

 the Senate. We trust that it will be complete in itself, 

 and that its administrators will receive powers to develop 

 it without unnecessary restrictions. The development, in 

 particular, by means of what is known as University 

 Extension lectures has been recognized by the Senate 

 Committee as work which properly belongs to the teaching 

 side for London, and should be placed under the London 

 Committee. This removes a difficulty, which might have 

 been serious, in the way of agreement with the University 

 Colleges. Another, which arose from the embodiment by 

 the Senate Committee in their scheme of the Scottish 

 system of examinations— a system considered in England 

 NO. 1073, '^OL. 42] 



to leave too much to the discretion of the individual 

 professor, and unsuited to the circumstances of London, 

 where there will be, in most subjects, at least two pro- 

 fe ssors— has also, as we are informed, been removed by 

 concessions from the Senate Committee. 



Of the points which remain for settlement the 

 most important are the composition of the Com- 

 mittee for London, and the place in the University of 

 the London Medical Faculty. The first is matter for 

 mutual discussion and arrangement between the various 

 institutions and interests concerned. The University 

 Colleges claim that, besides the " Faculty " representatives, 

 or professors, there shall be three representatives upon the 

 Committee of the Council of each of the Colleges. Since the 

 University is not willing that there should be any members 

 on the Committee who are not also members of the 

 Senate, this involves the further point that the six Council 

 members shall be admitted to the Senate. By our latest 

 advices the Senate Committee appear not unwilling 

 to make this further concession, which is deemed in- 

 dispensable by the Colleges. It can hardly be said to be 

 an extravagant demand, if the importance of the two 

 great Colleges in the teaching system is considered. 



With regard to the Medical Faculty, the representatives 

 of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and 

 those of the hospital schools unconnected with a Univer- 

 sity College, besides the two University Colleges, will be 

 consulted. The plan recently put forward by a Commit- 

 tee of the Royal Colleges, which had not been in com- 

 munication with the University Colleges, involved the 

 constitution of a Joint Committee of the University and 

 the Royal Colleges only, for the purpose of administering 

 a system of " pass " degrees in medicine, in which the 

 examinations of the Conjoint Board of the Royal Col- 

 leges should be recognized as an equivalent for the pre- 

 sent intermediate examinations and B.M. examinations 

 of the University, and a new M.D. degree should after- 

 wards be given, upon a University examination. We are 

 glad to find that the proposal of the Royal Commissioners 

 to hand over the preliminary scientific examination to 

 the Royal Colleges, which has been condemned in these 

 columns, is entirely disapproved by the Royal Colleges them- 

 selves. The severance of the scientific education of medical 

 students from that of scientific students generally is to be 

 deprecated in the interests of scientific study. The same 

 argument seems to us to make for the inclusion of the 

 system of medical graduation for London students in the 

 work of the general London Committee ; and we should 

 by no means view with favour the proposal for assigning 

 it to a separate Committee, whether constituted jointly by 

 the University and the Royal Colleges, or as a third Com- 

 mittee of the Senate. In either case representatives of 

 the Royal Colleges and of the medical schools may 

 properly find places on the Senate. Why should they 

 not also form part of the General Committee for London, 

 which would thus become the single administering body 

 for all the Faculties, so far as the teaching side was con- 

 cerned .? The proposal of the Royal Colleges to limit the 

 medical degrees, upon the teaching side, to "pass" degrees, 

 and to bar the University in this respect from conferring 

 honours, appears inadmissible. It probably would not have 

 been made by the Royal Colleges had they been aware of 

 the willingness of the Senate Committee to concede the 



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