2l6 



NATURE 



[May i. 191. 



The work of the University was then classed 

 under two main heads, the internal and external 

 sections respectively. The Senate consisted of 

 fifty-six members, of whom thirty-two were equally 

 divided between the graduates and the teachers, 

 or practically between the external and internal 

 sections, the remainder being chiefly representa- 

 tives of learned and professional bodies, ft is the 

 opinion of the Commission that this scheme has 

 not been successful, and that it has led to ambi- 

 tions on the part of the external side of the 

 University which, if fulfilled, would seriously 

 hamper the development of a true teaching 

 university in London. 



The Commissioners, after describing the claims 

 put forward in the report of the Council for ex- 

 ternal students, state that, "in our opinion it is 

 these claims which, far more than anything else, 

 form the real ground of the defective working of 

 the University in so far as that is due to the 

 present relations of the internal and external 

 sides." 



How far the External Council has departed from 

 its true position is shown by the fact that it 

 desires to be called the Imperial Council, while 

 the present Academic Council is to be designated 

 the Metropolitan Council, a title which implies, 

 and is no doubt intended to imply, an inferior 

 status. A house thus divided against itself can- 

 not stand, and, as has been generally expected, 

 the time has come for another drastic reform. 



In outlining the measures necessary for this 

 purpose the Commissioners propose to assimilate 

 the constitution of the University of London to 

 those of its northern sisters. In London, as in 

 Manchester, the supreme legislative body will be 

 a Court, consisting in London of about 200 

 persons, on which ample room can be found 

 for all interests connected with the University. 



The executive powers will be exercised by a 

 small Senate, consisting of the Chancellor, Vice- 

 Chancellor, and Chairman of Convocation, five 

 persons appointed by the Crown, two by the 

 Court, two each by the Academic Council and the 

 London County Council, and one by the Corpora- 

 tion of the City of London. 



Large powers of delegation are given both to 

 the Court and the Senate, and, subject to the 

 statutes and to the financial oversight of these 

 bodies, the educational work of the University 

 will be in the hands of faculties, the constitution 

 of which differs in different cases, though in all 

 the members will be wholly or in the main teachers 

 of the University. These bodies are to have the 

 power to determine generally the conditions for 

 the award of degrees and diplomas, the courses 

 of study, and the conduct of the examinations. 

 They will present -candidates for degrees and 

 advise the Senate on the needs of the faculties. 

 They are expressly prohibited from issuing de- 

 tailed syllabuses, "for this is a matter for the 

 professor, in consultation with his colleagues in 

 the same branch of learning." They are to deter- 

 mine the respective parts played by written, oral, 

 and practical examination, and by records of 



NO. 2270, VOL. 91] 



work, in the tests for the several University 

 examinations, and to appoint the assessors who 

 are to take part therein. 



The rights of the teachers as a body and as 

 individuals are therefore amply secured. 



These privileges can, however, only be conferred 

 if the standing of the professors is commensurately 

 high, and the Commissioners accept provisionally 

 the standard already practically set in the appoint- 

 ment of University professors. 



An Academic Council will consist primarily of 

 the deans of the faculties and of eight members 

 elected by the faculties in common session. This 

 Council may be regarded as exercising a coordina- 

 ting influence on the faculties, as advisory to the 

 Senate, but as capable of exercising such powers 

 of the Senate as may be delegated to it. 



Full privileges of separate examination will be 

 enjoyed only by constituent colleges and depart- 

 ments which have either been established by the 

 University or have consented to incorporation. 

 The teachers in institutions which do not satisfy 

 these conditions will practically have the same 

 position as the schools of the University now 

 occupy. Their teachers will be banded into boards 

 which will lay down the courses of study and 

 supervise the tests for degrees, &c, reporting to 

 the Senate through the faculties. The system of 

 the separate recognition of teachers in minor 

 institutions will be abandoned, and the common 

 or general examination, devised for the schools 

 which are not constituent colleges of the Uni- 

 versity, will serve for the examination of external 

 students, or, as they are to be called, unattached 

 students, except in the cases of medicine and 

 technology. 



This is no hardship to external students. At 

 present they are examined by specially appointed 

 examiners who have in general no common experi- 

 ence, who need not necessarily be teachers, or 

 may have ceased to be teachers. 



They will now be examined by men necessarilv 

 and actually engaged in teaching. But these men 

 will be drawn from a number of institutions, and 

 the papers will only contain questions which they, 

 acting in common with assessors, or, if the term 

 is preferred, external examiners, think are fair 

 to all their own students, however differently the 

 students may be taught. The possible vagaries 

 of one or two men will therefore be neutralised 

 by the opinions of their colleagues and assessors. 

 At present two " hanging judges " may affect the 

 results. In future their influence will be tempered 

 by more merciful colleagues, and the same scheme 

 which prevents undue severity will also check a 

 too exuberant leniency. The absence of detailed 

 syllabuses will tend to defeat the crammers, but 

 the fact that the papers are to be set to the students 

 of the examiners themselves, and that those 

 students are taught in various institutions, will 

 check individual excursions outside the limits of 

 a syllabus which the majority of unprejudiced 

 experts would regard as fair. 



The arrangements for technologv are of a 

 special character. The interests of that subject 



