JaANnuaRy.2t, 1897 | 
NATURE 285 
It would be a distinct impediment to the progress of the 
higher technical teaching, if the present scheme (which supplies 
education to students at one-third of the annual cost, or for 
about one sixth of the total cost if interest on capital expenditure 
be added) were interfered with, by the obstruction offered by 
those who would prefer that the City Companies’ funds should 
be spent on food for the body rather than for the mind. 
From the Report of the Sub-Committee on Finance and 
Administration the following particulars have been derived :— 
The Central Technical College was completed in 1884, and 
cost £79,200. The original equipment cost £22,600; making 
a total of £101,800. 
In the following table is given the original capital expenditure 
on the College as compared with the capital expenditure estimated 
by the Livery Companies’ Committee of 1878, in consultation 
with the expert advisers, together with capital expenditure on 
other colleges in England and abroad— 
Central Technical College .. oo: 4 101,800 
Approximate cost as suggested by— 
Prof. Huxley £100,000 
Sir Douglas Galton 150,000 
Sir John Donnelly 100,000 
Sir H. Truman Wood... 150,000 
Mr. Bartley, M.P. 
75,000 
ae om 215,970 
300,000 
313,525 
167,000 
128,750 
King’s College a = 
University College ... = a = 
Owens College, Manchester = es 
Yorkshire College, Leeds (buildings only) 
University College, Liverpool t one ot 
McGill University, Montreal (Engineering and 
Physics Departments only) a Bs 
Cornell University ... BS cs oat aa 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ... ba 
Technical High School, Berlin (building only), 
1884 $e +55 3d oe Ba ae 
Technical High School, Munich, 1884 ... 
Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris 
(building only) gee ete 
202,000 
550,000 
210,000 
450,000 
193,000 
250,000 
Since the original equipment of the Central College was 
furnished, a further sum of £9500 has been spent on apparatus, 
books and fittings of a permanent character, partly out of the 
general funds of the Institute, and partly out of special grants. 
It is instructive to notice the cost to the College per student 
in comparison with other Colleges. 
In England, Cooper’s Hill Engineering College provides a 
training in engineering and forestry for about 100 students, more 
especially with reference to the requirements of the Indian 
Service ; the College is under the India Office, and the gross 
cost per student amounts to about £170 a year; this, however, 
includes residence, the cost of which does not exceed £50 per 
student. The Royal College of Science, under the Science and 
Art Department, is attended by about 300 students, about half 
of whom are free scholars ; the cost, exclusive of scholarships 
and exhibitions, is estimated for the current year at £20,364 
(Civil Service Estimates), but this does not appear to include 
“charges for rates, repairs, or library. The amount received for 
fees is about £3200, leaving the net cost at about £16,800, 
The gross and net cost per student is therefore about 467 and 
457 respectively. 
In the United States, America, the technical school which 
most nearly resembles the Central Technical College in its 
organisation is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at 
Boston, which, however, includes in its curriculum, in addition 
to the subjects of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering 
and chemistry, taught at the Central Technical College, several 
others which in England are provided for at the Royal College 
of Science, besides sanitary engineering, architecture, and ship- 
building. The courses of study cover a period of four years, 
and the total number of students is between 1100 and 1200. 
The institute has several buildings, each about the size of the 
Central Technical College. The expenditure in 1894 was 
4£70,610—namely, salaries £41,900, laboratories and library 
46760, and sundries £21,950. The income derived from the 
students’ fees, £44,190. The gross and net cost per student 
was about £60 and £22 respectively. The gross annual cost 
per student at Cornell University, where science and engineer- 
ing students greatly preponderate, is about £63; the number of 
students during the session 1894-5 was 1503, and the income 
NO. 1421, VOL. 55] 
derived from fees £30,000, or on an average £20 per student, 
making the net cost per student about £43. The income and 
expenditure of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, was in 
1893-4 £36,250, and the number of students in 1894-5, 589 ; 
the fees charged to students vary from £30 to £40. The gross 
and net cost per student would therefore be about £61 and £25 
respectively. 
At the McGill University, Montreal, the expenditure of the 
Faculty of Applied Science for the session 1895-6 amounted to 
460 per student, and the net cost per student, after deducting 
receipts from fees, to £29. 
The organisation of, and conditions or admission to, the 
technical high schools or polytechnics of Germany are so 
different from the Colleges just mentioned, that. no accurate 
comparison can. be drawn between them ; but the following 
statement from the second Report of the Royal Commission on 
Technical Education, 1884, is of interest as showing what 
Germany was at that time doing for technical education :— 
““Tt may be mentioned that in the polytechnics of Germany 
there is accommodation for about 6000 students, whilst the total 
attendance is little more than 2000, and the annual cost to the 
State of each student, exclusive of interest on capital, is about 
4100” (vol. i. p. 209). Since that Report of the Commis- 
sioners, the accommodation in Germany for technical students 
has greatly increased, and at Charlottenberg (Berlin) alone there 
are over 2000 students, including, however, occasional students. 
The fees at the technical high schools in Germany amount, for 
a full attendance, to about £12 a year. 
Perhaps the most celebrated polytechnic on the continent is 
that at Zurich, Switzerland, which in its organisation closely 
resembles the Central Technical College, although several times 
as large, and embracing a much wider range of courses of study- 
Her Majesty’s Secretary of Legation at Berne, in a recent re- 
port on education in Switzerland, states that—‘‘In the Poly- 
technic School of Zurich, to which the Federal Government 
makes an annual grant of £36,800, there are 720 pupils, of 
which 309 are foreigners. Instruction is given in architecture, 
civil engineering, mechanics, chemistry, forestry, and training 
of teachers. The fees are about £8 ros. per pupil.” Assuming 
that there is no other source of income, this would make the 
gross and net cost per student about £59 and £50 respectively. 
The foregoing approximate results, excluding board and 
lodging, are shown in the following table :— 
r - Gross cost | Net cost to 
_ ale: Or per | Institute 
SrUCLEn GS. student. | per student. 
= | 
oe £ 
Central Technical College ... | 210 54 3r 
< 
ENGLAND— 
Cooper’s Hill wee ne 100 120 — 
Royal College of Science... 300 67 | 57 
| 
AMERICA— | 
Massachusetts Institute ... 1200 | 60 | 22 
Cornell University 2s 1503 | 63,5] 43 
Johns Hopkins University 600 61 25 
McGill University (applied | ’ 
science only) Bea 175 60 2a» 
GERMANY— | 
(Report of Royal Commis- 
sion, 1884) Se ses) | 2000 — | 100 
SWI?TZERLAND— 
Polytechnic, Zurich 720 59 50 
The Sub-Committee on the educational work of the College 
report that three classes of students attend the courses. There 
are those who hope to qualify for the diploma and take the 
three years’ course of instruction a3 laid down in the programme ; 
those who attend one or more departments only with a view of 
completing or continuing their instruction in special directions ; 
and those who attend short courses of lectures or laboratory 
work in some special branch of applied science. 
The questions set at the entrance or matriculation examina- 
