TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. $47 
value of his pupils, and then the absolute value could be determined by the 
outside authority. He was sure that the country was ready for some such 
experiment as that proposed, and no mere vested interests ought to be allowed 
to stand in the way. 
Dr. R. D. Roberts: The scheme of the Consultative Committee sets out an 
ideal and embodies two essential principles. First, that the tyranny exercised 
by the multiplicity of entrance examinations to the universities and various pro- 
fessions must be broken; and, second, that the teacher should have a share in 
conducting the examinations. The serious difficulty in the way of imposing a 
new system of examinations is that the three great Universities of Oxford, 
Cambridge, and London have all established systems of examination, which have 
been to some extent doing the work—viz., the Joint-Board Examination, the Local 
Examinations of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Matriculation Examination and 
School-Leaving Certificate system of London. It seemed to him that the solution 
of the difficulty would be found in the voluntary co-operation of the universities. 
Negotiations are going on between the three universities named with the view of 
seeing whether a plan might not be devised for the mutual recognition of each 
other’s certificates. A joint committee had reported favourably, and had recom- 
mended a plan which had been approved by the Senate of the University of 
London and by the Council of the Senate of the University of Cambridge. The 
matter was still under the consideration of the Hebdomadal Council of the Uni- 
versity of Oxford. Ifthe plan were approved by the Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, the beginnings of a practical scheme for carrying out the principles of 
the Consultative Committee’s Report would have been laid down. The Univer- 
sity of London has already for nearly two years been carrying on a school-leaving 
certificate system on the lines of the Consultative Committee’s Report, and he 
believed it was by experiments of that kind, carried on by different universities, 
that the difficult problems could be most successfully attacked. 
Mr. Fordham said that the new local education authorities were most anxious 
to work in touch with every part of the great mechanism of education, and they 
regarded the teachers as the basis of that system. He did not think they were 
(as had been suggested) suspicious of the teaching staff. He thought the 
universities, while retaining their national, and even international, position and 
importance, should take a large share in the new local educational work. They 
could help to standardise education in all its grades; and he thought the 
University of Cambridge might act in this way for East Anglia. Possibly the 
new authorities would not be for long satisfied with the present system of 
inspection by officers of the Board of Education, but would be inclined to set up 
standards of educational progress of their own, in all stages of education. In 
such a work the universities could take a large and valuable part. He hoped 
they would not hold aloof from the general progress of education, but would 
associate themselves cordially with the new authorities and their efforts. 
Miss A. J. Cooper said that the consideration urged by Sir Arthur Riicker was 
much more than a question of the vested interest of universities. It was the 
question of utilising the great body of experience gained in the field of examination 
through a long course of years. What was wanted really was some system which 
would make examinations various, but of corresponding standard, and if at the 
start all the work done by existing examining bodies were ignored, that equating 
standard might be missed. It was desirable to keep in the examination system 
the best elements of our present secondary schools, and also to make more use of 
teachers in examination work than had hitherto been done. 
Mr. Oscar Browning said that neither the examinations of the Joint Board nor 
the Local Examinations could be regarded as an adequate substitute for the exami- 
nation which was now proposed in the Report of the Consultative Committee. 
The Rey. T. C. Fitzpatrick, speaking as one closely concerned with the work of 
the University Joint Board, said that that Board had shown itself not. only 
responsive to a great need, but fully alive to the deficiencies of the old system and 
to the demands of the new. They now held a school-leaving examination in 
which the character of the education giyen in the school was duly recognised. 
