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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 718 



the entire educational policy of the univer- 

 sity is a matter of state control. As will 

 be seen hereafter, however, this is com- 

 patible with a very large measure of pro- 

 fessorial freedom and self-government. 



As the Minister of Education has charge 

 of the entire school system of the state and 

 is generally also minister of ecclesiastical 

 affairs and several other important branch- 

 es of government supervision, it is impos- 

 sible for him to give any minute personal 

 attention to the details of university man- 

 agement. When the annual university 

 budget is before Parliament, or Parliament 

 is discussing any biU affecting the univer- 

 sity, he is, of course, in his place as the 

 spokesman of the government, and when 

 university matters must be laid before the 

 sovereign, it is he who is granted an audi- 

 ence by the King or reigning Grand Duke. 

 But while any changes in university policy 

 must be considered by the minister and he 

 is responsible for them, the actual manage- 

 ment of university interests generally rests 

 with the permanent officials of the bureau 

 of the ministry which is directly charged 

 with university affairs. The director of 

 that bureau is, therefore, often a person of 

 great influence. Director Althoff, of the 

 Prussian Ministry, having had a power in 

 molding the Prussian universities and, 

 through their example, the universities of 

 the other German states, which is likely to 

 become historic. 



At each university the ministry is repre- 

 sented by a commissioner who has charge 

 of the economic side of the academic ad- 

 ministration, and acts as the general ad- 

 visory agent of the government, conducting 

 the correspondence of the university with 

 the ministry. At the Prussian universities, 

 and at the University of Jena and the Uni- 

 versity of Strassburg this official is called 

 the curator. At the University of Leipzig 

 he is styled the government plenipoten- 



tiary; at the University of Tiibingen the 

 chancellor, and at the University of 

 Rostock the vice-chancellor, the title of 

 chancellor at Rostock being borne by the 

 reigning Grand Duke. The Ministry of 

 Instruction of Prussia itself attends to the 

 curatorial business at the University of 

 Berlin, assisted by the rector and the uni- 

 versity judge. 



The curator is a trained jurist or admin- 

 istrative official who has charge of the erec- 

 tion of buildings, the management of the 

 special scholarship funds, and of all those 

 administrative functions, apart from the 

 direct supervision of the instruction, which 

 in the United States are vested in the uni- 

 versity president under the general direc- 

 tion of the board of trustees. The tenure 

 of office of the curator is a fairly perma- 

 nent one. 



The titular executive head of a German 

 university is the rector, elected by the fuU 

 professors (at the University of Gottingen 

 and at the Bavarian universities by the 

 associate professors also) from among their 

 own number for one year, with the ap- 

 proval of the reigning sovereign. The 

 rector represents the university on occa- 

 sions of ceremony, presides over the senate, 

 is in control of the university officials, of 

 matriculation, and of all meetings and so- 

 cieties of students, and in general transacts 

 the current business of the institution. 

 The rector is never reelected, the office be- 

 ing held in rotation by the full professors. 

 At the universities of Erlangen, Freiberg, 

 Gottingen, Heidelberg and Jena the above 

 duties are performed by a Prorector, and 

 at Giessen and Leipzig by the Bector Mag- 

 nificus, these seven universities having as 

 their titular executive a Bector Magnifi- 

 centissimus, who is at Erlangen the King 

 of Bavaria, at Leipzig the King of Saxony, 

 at Freiburg and Heidelberg the Grand 

 Duke of Baden, at Giessen the Grand Duke 



