SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 501 
speaking nations missed that peculiar educational revival which, for most countries 
in Western Europe, has been associated during the last hundred years with ‘ the 
growth of nationalities ’ ; nor have we been much affected by ideas of a uniform system 
of popular education which, in different forms, play so large a part in the educational 
policies of the United States, France, Germany, Italy and, we may add, Soviet Russia. 
More than any of our neighbours, we have relied on empiricism in education ; and 
that is precisely the reason why it is so necessary for us to create some central institu- 
tion where the results of our experiments can be constantly compared and from which 
the conclusions drawn from them can be disseminated. 
As to the character of this central institution, two things seem to me to be clear. 
In the first place, it has urgent practical work to do. I confess to being a sceptic 
about ‘ research ’ in education, in the sense of recondite enquiries into method. But 
no one who has ever had any administrative responsibility for education can question 
our crying need for constant enquiry into educational policy. I have mentioned 
examinations and technical education. Add to these the whole question of text- 
books, especially for non-European populations, in which we are far behind, for 
instance, France. Add also the whole question of the place of languages in higher 
education, in which the English-speaking world is at present frankly in a state of 
hopeless indecision. ‘ 
And in the second place, such a policy-forming institution should emphatically 
be a University, not an official, body. It is a vital principle that educational policy 
should be formed in close association with actual teaching. A feature of our peculiar 
British tradition in education is the independence of our universities as towards our 
Ministries of Education, even where the university is a State institution. This has 
many advantages, but it has the disadvantage that our Universities tend to be uncon- 
scious of their responsibility for policy, while Departments of State struggle vainly 
to bring to the formation of policy the sound judgment which only teachers are 
really qualified to exercise. 
Is there a more obvious place for such an Institute than the University of London ? 
Mr. F. H. C. Burier.—International Aspects of the Work of a Central 
Institute for Imperial Education. 
The Chancellor of the University of London, in the course of his Presentation 
Day Address last May, said that he wondered whether, especially in these troubled 
times, universities could not, if they were asked, come to the help of the Commonwealth. 
Perhaps in no more effective way could the Central University of the British Empire 
help the Commonwealth than by the formation of a Central Institute for Imperial 
Education. The complexity of modern civilisation has forced upon mankind problems 
that are capable of solution only by extensive intellectual co-operation and research ; 
in these matters the community should naturally look to the universities for assistance. 
In Great Britain, up to the present time, the direct relationship of the universities 
to the rest of the educational system has been almost entirely ‘ examinational.’ The 
corrective of this narrow academic influence must be the placing of the study of 
educational practice on a broad imperial and international basis. The comparative 
method of science must be applied to education, and, thanks to the generosity of the 
Thomas Wall Trustees, this will be rendered possible in the Institute by the establish- 
ment of a Readership in Comparative Education. In addition to the post-graduate 
work in the training of teachers, it is desirable to establish a Department of Educational 
Administration, to train graduates intending to take up administrative posts in 
education either at home or overseas. It is essential that these students should be 
well versed in the study of foreign education and of education in Scotland and the 
British Dominions ; special attention should be given to local and central administra- 
tion, and these other educational systems should be compared with that of England 
and Wales. In the preparation of students for the Teachers’ Diploma Examination 
a similar though briefer study of contemporary educational practice should be 
considered at least as important as a knowledge of the history of education. 
It is assumed that the Institute will be organised in some such way as (1) a Depart- 
ment of the Theory and Practice of Teaching; (2) a Department of Educational 
Administration; (3) a Department of International Information. We wish, in 
particular, to press the claims of the last-mentioned unit, even if, at the outset, its 
inception has to be postponed. Not only would it be invaluable for the work and 
