October 17, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



619 



so gained tp more intensive professional 

 work. Undoubtedly many students who 

 now take a four years' undergraduate 

 course with no professional or technical end 

 in view would take the shorter course, aud 

 that only, but, on the other hand, numbers 

 of students would ,eome to college for a 

 course of two years who when obliged to 

 choose between a four years' course and 

 none at all are compelled to give up col- 

 lege altogether. The final result of the 

 changes would certainly be to increase the 

 total number of students taking a college 

 course of one length or another. 



The dean of Columbia College is of the 

 opinion that such a shortened course of 

 two years as is contemplated by this sug- 

 gestion could readily be made to include 

 all the studies now prescribed at Colum- 

 bia for candidates for the degree of bache- 

 lor of arts. This shortened course would, 

 therefore, take on something of the de- 

 finitiveness and purpose which in many 

 cases the rapid developments of recent 

 years have removed from undergraduate 

 study; for it goes without saying that no 

 effort would be spared to make such a two 

 years' course as valuable as possible, both 

 for intellectual training and for the devel- 

 opment of character. The student would 

 be a gainer, not a loser, by the change. 



THE DEGREES OF BACHELOR OF ARTS AND OP 

 MASTER OF ARTS. 



If Columbia College should offer two 

 courses in the liberal arts and sciences, one 

 of two years and one of four years in 

 length, the second including the first, the 

 question would at once arise as to what 

 degrees or. other marks of academic recog- 

 nition would be conferred upon students 

 who had satisfactorily completed them. 



Two answers appear to be possible. 

 First, we may withhold the bachelor's de- 

 gree until the completion of the longer 

 course, and grant some new designation to 



those who satisfactorily complete the 

 shorter course. This has been done at the 

 University of Chicago, where graduates of 

 the junior college course of two years are 

 made associates in arts. Or we may de- 

 grade—as it is called— the bachelor's de- 

 gree from the artificial position in which 

 the developments of the last forty years 

 have placed it, and confer it upon the 

 graduates of the shorter course of two 

 years, and give the degree of master of 

 arts for the longer course of four years. 

 The latter alternative would be my own 

 preference. Such a plan would bring the 

 degree of bachelor of arts two years earlier 

 than now and would place it substantially 

 on a par with the bachelor's degree in 

 France, the Zeugniss der Beife in Ger- 

 many, and the ordinary degree in course as 

 conferred by the English and the Scottish 

 universities. It would also be substantially 

 on a par with the Columbia College degree 

 of 1860. 



In this connection it must be remembered 

 that it is not the A.B. degree of to-day 

 which is so much extolled and so highly 

 esteemed as the mark of a liberal education 

 gained by hard study and severe discipline, 

 but that of one and two generations ago. 

 The A.B. degree of to-day is a very uncer- 

 tain quantity, and time alone will show 

 whether it means much or little. 



The degree of master of arts is an en- 

 tirely appropriate reward for the comple- 

 tion of a college course, under the new 

 conditions proposed, four years in length. 

 This degree has been put to many varied 

 uses and has no generally accepted sig- 

 nificance. In Scotland it is given in place 

 of the degree of bachelor of arts at the 

 close of three very short years of under- 

 graduate study. In England it signifies 

 that the holder is a bachelor of arts, that 

 he has lived for a certain minimum num- 

 ber of terms after obtaining the bachelor's 

 degree, and that he has paid certain fees. 



