March 23, 1905 J 



NA TURE 



487 



STATE AID FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. 



THE announcement that the committee, presided 

 over by Mr. Haldane, M.P., appointed to con- 

 sider the allocation of the Treasury grant to the uni- 

 versity colleges has finished its inquiry, was made in 

 our issue of last week. In the note dealing with the 

 subject on that occasion the part of the grant to be 

 received by each college was specified, and the fact 

 remains to be recorded that goool. has been allotted 

 to the purchase of books, apparatus, specimens, 

 instruments, &c., to form equipment for teaching 

 of a university character. As will be known already 

 to most readers of Nature, the Treasury this year 

 has doubled its contribution to the university col- 

 leges, and in this way has acknowledged the national 

 services vv-hich these institutions are rendering. The 

 total Treasury grant to the fourteen university colleges 

 is now 54,oooL 



That the grant has been increased in this substantial 

 manner is certainly a matter for congratulation, and 

 men of science will view with satisfaction the evidence 

 this additional State aid for higher education affords 

 that the Government is beginning to realise the 

 important part played by higher education in securing 

 national etficiency — especially by higher education in 

 science, using that term in its most catholic sense. 

 But, even at the risk of appearing to be ungracious, 

 it must be pointed out at once that the amount is 

 even now ludicrously small and altogether inadequate 

 when regarded as the contribution of the State to 

 the pressing work of placing our system of higher 

 education upon a satisfactory basis. As has been 

 consistently and persistently urged in these columns, 

 there is an enormous amount of leeway to be made up 

 before the facilities for education of university 

 standard in Great Britain can be compared with those 

 in several European countries and with those 

 in the United States, compared, that is, with any 

 cliance of a satisfactory result. The reason is a simple 

 one. Great Britain alone among the first-class nations 

 of the world has not learnt that the reign of muscle 

 is ever, that success, whether in commerce or war, 

 will be always with the most highly trained and 

 scientifically educated people. Other nations have 

 taken this truth to heart, and believe enthusiastically 

 that what is worth having is worth paying for, and 

 paying for well. Surely, in view of the object-lesson 

 that events in Manchuria afford, it will not be long, 

 before our own country will be prepared to make 

 great sacrifices to secure as efficient a system of 

 higher education as that of any other nation on the 

 face of the earth. 



The total grant to the fourteen university colleges 

 is, as has been said, 54,000?., and this is a large sum 

 compared with what the colleges have received in 

 previous years. But the State endowment of the 

 University of Berlin in 1891-2 amounted to very nearlv 

 i6g,oooL ; that is to say, one university in Germany 

 receives from the State in a year more than three 

 times as much as our fourteen university colleges 

 receive together from the Treasury. A single fact 

 of this kind is enough to convince the student of 

 educational problems that while Germany takes 

 higher scientific education seriously, and reaps the 

 advantages of her sacrifices. Great Britain has still 

 to understand that commercial success and educational 

 efficiency stand in the relation of effect and cause. 

 If at the present day there still exist sceptics as to 

 our educational inefficiency and our national parsi- 

 mony towards universities and colleges, the presi- 

 dential address of Sir Norman Lockyer to the British 

 .Association at Southport in 1903 may be commended 



NO. 1847, VOL. 71] 



to them. Though men of science who have at 

 heart the true welfare of their country are at pre- 

 sent rather like " voices crying in the wilderness," it 

 is clearly their duty to continue to urge the paramount 

 importance of higher scientific education and of 

 scientific research, and to petition the Government to 

 act more generously on their behalf. 



But it is not enough to provide large and adequate 

 State grants for education in order to secure efficiency 

 in the face of modern needs. It is just as important 

 so to choose the subjects of study and to arrange the 

 curricula of schools and colleges that our boys and 

 young men may begin life as well and as suitably 

 trained as the youths of other countries. The kind of 

 education suited to the conditions of the days of the 

 Renaissance is not in harmony with the needs of the 

 twentieth century. The work of men of science in the 

 last century has revolutionised life, and our system of 

 education must be adapted to existing circumstances. 

 The custodians of English education are still too 

 much actuated by mediaeval ideals. The entrance 

 of the student of science to the older universities is 

 still obstructed by an obsolete and ludicrous test 

 in Greek. There is a tendency even yet among 

 those in charge of our Department of Educa- 

 tion to discourage and hamper the instruction in 

 science in our elementary and secondary schools. 

 The Prime Minister is reported once to have said 

 that the only knowledge our boys have of natural 

 phenomena is that obtained on the cricket and foot- 

 ball fields, and on the river. The man of science 

 has still much to teach his fellow citizens. The 

 work to which Huxley gave so much of his 

 energy is not yet done, and it is the duty of his 

 successors to continue his efforts, and to take every 

 opportunity of advocating the application of the 

 principles of science to educational administration. 



It must be recognised that there are many ways of 

 obtaining culture. The idea of the Middle Ages that 

 culture was obtainable only by studying Latin and 

 Greek, though true enough then, is to-day hopelessly 

 narrow and indicative rather of the state of mind of 

 the Philistine. The scholar steeped in classical lore, 

 yet ignorant of nature's law-s and of modern literature, 

 is but an uneducated pedant. The scientific specialist 

 with a complete knowledge of some restricted sub- 

 division of science, yet knowing nothing of the ideas 

 of ancient and modern poets and philosophers, is but 

 a narrow technical registrar. Culture is something 

 broader and higher than anything with which the 

 pedant or cataloguer is acquainted. The man of 

 science desirous of producing cultured men and women 

 will strive so to arrange school and college time-tables 

 that they contain in due measure subjects designed to 

 cultivate and develop all the faculties of the healthy 

 human mind; and in this work the heritage which 

 has been left us by the nineteenth century will not be 

 ignored. The teachings of science, the lovQ of truth 

 wherever it may lead, will be inculcated consistently, 

 so that a race mav be produced able to deal with 

 modern problems in a modern way. 



Though the Government moves but slowly, and per- 

 ceives so incompletely the unsatisfactoriness of our 

 supply of higher education, there is cause for satisfac- 

 tion in another direction. There are growing 

 evidences that the broad-minded policy of wealthy 

 men in the United .States, which leads them to give 

 of their millions to colleges and universities, is being 

 emulated in a measure by our merchant princes. We 

 have on several occasions lately been able to record 

 noble instances of private munificence on behalf of 

 higher education, and it may be that before long 

 the Government will recognise its imperative 

 duty. 



