March 4, igcg] 



NATURE 



23 



Vou will perhaps say that this is a counsel of perfection. 

 Well, even if it be so, 1 think it is worth while occasion- 

 ally to indulge in such counsels. 1 will therefore ask you 

 to follow me rather more closely into the question. Let 

 us first consider what is the present position as regards 

 the training of. the class of students whom we are sup- 

 posed to understand best, the engineers. In this matter 

 our colleges have been satisfied to follow on the lines laid 

 down by those universities which confer a degree in 

 engineering science. This degree, like the diploma of our 

 colleges, is granted without any reference to office or work- 

 shop training. Under the " Sandwich system " time is 

 given for the students who choose to do so to obtain a 

 certain amount of experience in outside offices or work- 

 shops during the intervals between the university terms, 

 but there is no direct supervision of this work, it is not 

 even compulsory, and any student with the necessary in- 

 tellectual capacity can take his degree quite as well with- 

 out as with it. Though the universities and colleges take 

 no oflicial cognisance of the fact, yet the students are 

 given to understand that if they desire to qualify them- 

 selves for responsible posts in the engineering world they 

 vnust serve either a full or a modified term of apprentice- 

 ship in some recognised office or workshop before, during, 

 or after their college course. They must be prepared, 

 therefore, to devote from six to eight years ,to obtaining 

 the full training required for their profession. Even the 

 longer of these periods is not too long, but we must admit 

 that it is a fairly large slice out of the life of a man, so 

 that it behoves us to make sure that it is used to the best 

 advantage. If we analyse the tot.il period of eight years, 

 or ninety-si.x months, we shall find that from twenty to 

 thirty months are spent in close study and examination 

 work, eight to ten months in holidays, fifty-si.x to sixty- 

 eight months^in the workshop or office. I find it difficult 

 to believe that this is an ideal distribution of the time ; at 

 any rate, it appears to me that we ought to be able to 

 l)ut ourselves into a position froin which we may be free 

 lo discuss it in its various aspects and to modify it in an 

 niithoritative way if it seems right that we should do so. 

 Under present conditions these young men come to us and 

 in effect say, " We want your degree or diploma, but as 

 we shall also have to spend a number of years as appren- 

 tices we cannot afford to give you more than three years, 

 therefore be good enough to do the best you can for us 

 ill that time," and we certainly try to do our best in the 

 circumstances ; but the circumstances are rather unfor- 

 tunate, for do we not too often find ourselves helpless 

 to contend against the " examination bogey " which 

 obtrudes itself at every turn? So much book and lecture 

 •work has to be overtaken in three short years that if we 

 attempt to develop the intelligence of the students in any 

 ilirections which do not lie directly in the line of the 

 degree, they are at once unsvmpathetic or even obstructive. 

 The students cannot afford to give themselves any time to 

 develop their own thinking and reasoning powers, and yet 

 the time spent at college or university ought to be the 

 great intellectual opportunity of their lives. Not once, but 

 many times, have I been shocked by the absolutely un- 

 intellectual outlook of the bright and apparently capable 

 young men who pass through our colleges. Now it 

 appears to me that if these young men could come to us 

 and say, " We know^ that we must give seven or eight 

 years to preparing for our life's work, will you undertake 

 to organise and supervise our training, practical as well 

 as theoretical, for the whole period, and will you then 

 give us a degree or diploma which will be a real mark of 

 our professional training and fitness?" we could accept 

 the larger responsibility with lighter ■ hearts and with a 

 hopefulness which we have no right to feel under present 

 conditions. 



Our larger institutions are in a unique position to deal 

 with this matter in a, courageous manner, for they hold 

 :i mandate directly from the people who are most deeply 

 concerned in it. To put it at once on its broadest* ground, 

 the nation has a right to expect this from us. Some of 

 the universities have given us a noble lead in our earlier 

 development, but I am bold enough to think that we have 

 outgrown that le.id. and the sooner we recognise that fact 

 the better it will be for those who are depending on us. 

 Not only is public ooinion on our side, but industrial 

 \'0. 205,-',, VOL. 80] 



opinion is being rapidlv permeated with more advanced 

 views on the mutual relations of science and industry. The 

 most practical result for us is that industrial leaders and 

 manufacturers are beginning to give us their active 

 sympathy and cooperation. This appears to me to be the 

 real key to the situation. 



Speaking for the college with which I am associated, 

 1 can say that this cooperation is an accomplished fact. 

 It is now some years since the governors instituted a 

 regular system of committees of management for , the 

 different departments of work. These committees are 

 empowered to deal, not only with the purely business 

 matters which arise in their departments, but also with 

 questions of educational policy, and they act as the inter- 

 mediaries between the board of studies and the governors. 

 The board of governors itself is fairly representative of 

 the leading industries of the district, but the departmental 

 committees are made more directly representative by co- 

 opting as members the heads of the leading manufac- 

 turing firms and professional men of acknowledged stand- 

 ing and reputation. The industrial leaders are now within 

 the inner circle in the management, and can not only assure 

 themselves as to the nature and quality of the educational 

 work which is being done, but are able to exert a real 

 influence upon it. For the students of the college the 

 cooperation of the industrial leaders has a double 

 advantage, for not only have they the assurance that their 

 education is being conducted on lines approved by practical 

 men, but thev know also that these men are the repre- 

 sentatives of the class which holds the key to the principal 

 openings for their future employment. 



By securing the cooperation of the industrial leaders 

 we have taken an important step towards securing for our 

 students the full professional training which seems to me 

 so desirable. We have also made a beginning in develop- 

 ing an atmosphere of practicality in the college ; but all 

 the advantages of this union are not on the side of the 

 college. Speaking as myself an industrial man, I can say 

 that we also stand in much need of the kind of education 

 which our close association with this work is admirably 

 adapted to give us. Many of us have still no clearly 

 defined ideas as to the way in which more scientific 

 methods and more highly trained experts can be of 

 advantage to our particular industries. Many who have 

 the will to avail themselves of these helps are at a loss 

 to understand in what way the new wine of modern 

 technological training can be introduced into the old 

 bottles of industrial tradition without disastrous conse- 

 quences for both. If it is frankly admitted that both sides 

 in the combination have much to learn, first from each 

 other and later from their joint experiences, I am exceed- 

 ingly hopeful that the way will be opened up for a very 

 real' advance in the scientific o'-ganisation of industry. As 

 regards our trade classes, this principle of cooperation had 

 to be admitted verv earlv in the day. It was obvious that 

 apprentices and learners' could only be trained in crafts- 

 manship bv teachers who were themselves, craftsmen. For 

 the management of these departments committees have 

 been formed which consist mainly of master craftsmen 

 and eniplovers. The trade employers have responded to 

 our call, for thev have found in these trade classes the 

 modern substitute for, or supplement to, the old system 

 of apprenticeship. We have in this instance an almost 

 ideal fusion of the practical and theoretical sides of the 

 training. The student passes so freely from workshop to 

 college and from college to workshop that there need be 

 no sharp line of demarcation between the two methods of 

 obtaining knowledge. The soundness and practicality of 

 his training in handicraft is assured, while on this founda- 

 tion of craftsmanship we can build an equally secure super- 

 structure of intellectual training suited to his needs. We 

 can teach him to lav off his work with scientific method, 

 and with a sound knowledge of the properties of the 

 materials, and to conduct the various operations with a 

 knowledge of the natural laws on which these operations 

 depend. ■ 



The consideration of the system in force in the trade 

 classes brings out more forcibly the weakness on the prac- 

 tical side of the training of engineers and chemists. The 

 atmosphere of practicality which' is so essential a feature 

 in the one case is conspicuously wanting in the other; but 



