444 REPORT — 1903. 



of age, and therefore to allow them to specialise as soon as they show any 

 special aptitude. This seems to me a misfortune. To prevent it I would 

 provide that colleges shall not award scholarships before entrance to 

 candidates who are not in need of pecuniary assistance to enable them to 

 begin residence at the university. I think that if every candidate had 

 to make a simple declaration of such need the knowledge that the com- 

 petition was a limited one would destroy the unwholesome interest which 

 it now excites, and that the schoolmasters would no longer have any 

 inducement to prefer premature successes to sound education. 



It is to be noted that legislation in respect of open scholarships would 

 be useless unless it applied equally to all the colleges both at Oxford and 

 at Cambridge. The Cambridge colleges opened scholarships to school- 

 boys, not because they thought the practice a good one, but because, in 

 face of the Oxford competitions, they found themselves oblige:! to follow 

 suit ; and I believe that in this matter public opinion at Cambridge has 

 never wavered. 



The legislation which I recommend would make little pecuniary differ- 

 ence to the successful candidates. In general the candidate who now as 

 a schoolboy wins a scholarship at Trinity nine months before he goes 

 into residence, and begins to draw the emolument when he goes into resi- 

 dence, would, under my regulation, obtain his scholarship and begin to 

 draw the proceeds as an undergraduate six months after he began his 

 residence ; and if in need, though not otherwise, he would have a tem- 

 porary emolument to help him during the six months. 



U 11. Open examinations for college scholarships have done, are 

 doing, and will continue to do much harm by encouraging schoolboys to 

 specialise early in some one branch, whether of literature or of science. 

 Amongst grown men specialisation is a necessity of the age, and conse- 

 quently colleges, in choosing their scholars, must needs take account of 

 special aptitudes. Now college scholarships awarded on this principle to 

 undergraduates who have already begun residence do not materially 

 affect the teaching in schools ; but college scholarships awarded for special 

 proficiency to schoolboys affect school teaching very seriously, inasmuch 

 as the schoolmaster, however little he may approve early specialisation, 

 cannot afford to disregard these important prizes. 



U 17. .Set books should be abolished in the Cambridge previous 

 examination. Some elementary scientific subject should be introduced 

 and some knowledge of a modern language should be insisted on. 



U 9. My own experience makes me strongly opposed to early special- 

 isation. In scholarship examinations performance in a special subject 

 should be estimated only in connection with proficiency in ordinary 

 school work. It is very easy to devise a scale of marking according to 

 which general knowledge and evidences of culture are appraised in 

 connection with skill in a special subject ; e.g.^ Jones : chemistry 50, 

 general culture 25 = 75 ; Brown : chemistry 60, general culture 10 — 70. 



U 1. I should be sorry if specialisation ceased in schools ; but much 

 more ought to be made of a candidate's special subject as an instrument 

 of general training. It ought to be used as a means of interesting the 

 candidate in kindred subjects — a sort of avenue to knowledge in general. 



3. The need of unifying examinations with the object in view, among 

 others, that certain examinations may serve a common purpose, e.g. as 

 qualifying examinations for entrance upon a course of professional study. 



On this question opinion is practically unanimous. 



