380 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 
a distinct raising of the level of teaching and attainment in the technical schools; and 
at the same time these institutions have been endeavouring to adjust their efforts to 
an expanding and changing but not altogether sympathetic industrial system. 
It is easy to point to remarkable achievements on the part of particular schools in 
raising the educational fitness of artisans and technical staffs, and in direct co-operation 
in industrial problems. But in the absence of any general survey it is not possible to 
say whether technical education has fulfilled the purposes of its founders, or in what new 
direction its energies should be turned to capture the sympathies of industrial 
organisations. 
The desire to harness science to industry has been responsible for the creation of 
agencies, mostly independent of technical institutions (including the universities), 
all engaged in research in industrial (including agricultural) processes and organisation. 
At least half a dozen Government departments are involved, and it isnot clear whether 
there is any general supervision of their efforts or what becomes of their findings. 
If we may take electricity as guide to our success, little comfort on the face of it can be 
extracted from the report of the Electricity Commission (just issued) which tells us 
that industry in Britain is electrified to the extent of 20 to 28 per cent., while in the 
United States the corresponding figure lies between 56 and 65. 
Lack of sympathy is probably not due solely to any single cause, but it would be a 
great advantage to bring industry and education into conference to consider whether 
technical education is not still too scholastic, or whether the rigidity of industrial 
traditions is not the handicap to closer co-operation. The critics of our educational 
system may still say that it does not induce students to think and act independently, 
for such statements are not (at all events easily) capable of proof or disproof, but 
criticism can hardly go so far as to say that British scientists are not capable of giving 
assistance, since the results of laboratory work in pure science will compare well with 
that of any other civilised country, and at the moment the world is stirred with new 
hope of the conquest of disease by the success of British investigators, yet British 
industries are languishing and, to give a relevant example, while the first marine 
engines were balanced by Englishmen and while Parsons turbines are still the foremost 
of that type of prime mover, continental firms have taken the lead with the Diesel 
engine, and Americans in the design and manufacture of machine tools. The cause of 
languishing industries may lie outside the region of education, but the existing trade 
depression is too serious to permit of any slackness in overhauling the machinery of 
technical education, or if need be of taking to heart any criticism we deserve. A dis- 
cussion in a popular assembly ought to be fruitful in ideas and suggestive of possible 
lines of action. 
Mr. J. WickHam Murray.—Culture and Examination Requirements. 
No fundamental difference between technical and any other form of education. 
It does not aim merely to produce an efficient worker. Probable and actual life-work 
of a student can be used to cultural ends. Education may never be static ; no system 
can be successful which ignores the growing complexity of modern life with its mani- 
fold social and industrial problems. Two divisions of the life-process : ‘ the self which 
behaves and the environment in which it behaves.’ 
The necessity of establishing the relationship of technical education (a) to other 
forms of education, and (b) to industry and commerce. A proposed inquiry. 
Special qualifications of the teacher. Need of experience in industrial and com- 
mercial requirements. 
The technical institution has to satisfy special needs. What are these needs, and 
how have they been created ? Can they be satisfied in any other way ? Wastage in 
education. Not every area can have its university. Reasons for a point where the varied 
educational activities of an area shall have their meeting place. The ‘local college.’ 
Links with the university. The problem of matriculation. Present conditions. The 
part-time student. Possibility of an alternative examination. Would alteration of 
present conditions take away from the cultural side of university life? ‘Cultural’ — 
subjects which are often ‘ technical ’ in form and content. 
Dr. W. M. Vartey.—The Local College. 
The growth and development of mechanics’ institutes, founded during the last 
century—as much to improve the general education of artisans as to give them know- 
ledge of principles underlying their work—into the technical schools and colleges of - 
to-day, has been one of our education features of the last thirty years. Some have 
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