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upon all persons who possess it. It would be less distinctive, and therefore 

 less valuable, if its significance were not uniform. Nor does there seem to 

 be any valid reason against conferring the degree of B.A. and M.A. upon all 

 students who have shown themselves to possess a certain uniform culture, 

 whatever special study or studies they may have pursued and whatever degree 

 of excellence they may there have attained, after satisfying the requirement of 

 culture demanded from all persons who aspire to the possession of an academical 

 degree. 



Again, it is desirable that every university should be free from theological 

 restrictions. I look forward, therefore, to the time when the universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge will recognise Nonconformists no less than Church- 

 men as eligible, not only for degrees, but for Lectureships and Professorships in 

 the Theological Faculty. There is a broad distinction between the study of 

 theology and the profession of theological beliefs. It is no hardship upon a 

 student that he should be examined in theology so long as he retains his com- 

 plete freedom of theological opinion. That theological recognition should be 

 accorded to none but persons of particular views upon theology is in conflict with 

 the highest interests of theological learning. At present the universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge are the close preserves of the Church of England ; the 

 natural result is that the modern universities tend to become the preserves of 

 Nonconformity; and neither class of university is benefited by the consequent 

 one-sidedness of theological study. 



The co-education of men and women in the universities, whether ancient or 

 modern, is already an established reality. The only difference is that co-educa- 

 tion is recognised in the modern, and is not recognised in the ancient, universities 

 as necessarily leading to an equality in the matter of degrees. The real objection 

 to placing women on an equality with men in their relation to a residential 

 university is the difficulty of finding room for a number of female as well as male 

 students within the precincts of the same university. On that ground alone 

 there is some advantage in universities or colleges for women only, such as the 

 Royal Holloway College ; but experience has shown that colleges for women do 

 not flourish except in close relation to a university in which the education of men 

 is carried on, and I feel no doubt that the granting of academical degrees at 

 Oxford and Cambridge to women as well as to men is merely a question of time. 



No critic of the ancient universities, and certainly no one who has spent some 

 happy years there as an undergraduate and a Fellow, can forget that the social 

 as well as the intellectual side of the life is a part of its privilege and benefit. 

 But that social intercourse would lose something of its value if students of 

 different classes and different creeds did not mix freely. It is too often 

 forgotten, in the zeal for ecclesiastical propaganda, that one element of educa- 

 tion lies in teaching people who do not agree to work together. To make 

 the least, and not the most, of personal differences is a factor in the life of 

 universities. It is for this reason that I do not look with any great favour 

 upon the institution of special colleges set apart for Churchmen or for Non- 

 conformists or for men of poor and humble circumstances. It is better that 

 such students should as far as possible associate with other students ; for in such 

 proportion as undergraduates of religious feeling or of strenuous self-denying 

 character are educated by themselves, there is a diminution of their valuable 

 influence on the mass of the undergraduate body. There might as well be Con- 

 servative Colleges and Liberal Colleges as colleges of a special and exclusive 

 theological character. 



Colleges are expensive features of academical life, and they tend to become 

 more expensive; but the expense is justified by the benefit which the students 

 may receive from the influence of their teachers upon their lives. But if colleges 

 are to exist as integral parts of the university, there should be a sufficient number 

 of Fellows and tutors living within their walls. No feature of modern life at 

 Oxford or Cambridge is more pitiable than the spectacle of a married don coming 

 into his college at a late hour of the evening, with his carpet-bag in his hand, to 

 fulfil the statutory obligation of sleeping within the walls. No deep personal 

 interest or influence of a tutor in the lives of his pupils is possible in such cir- 

 cumstances as these. If only it were possible to defer the opportunity of mar- 

 riage until a man has rendered some years of service by residence within the 

 walls of his college, and then to grant it only to men whose service the college 



