4 
MASON COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 
Edward’s School, Birmingham—offered us the warmest support 
in the addressing of any public meetings we might find it desirable 
to call. But, alas ! like Mr. Sewell, my colleague and I were before 
our time. Our professorial colleagues were languidly sympathetic, 
and the ultimate controlling body, the Council, thought that our 
hands were quite sufficiently full with the ordinary developments 
of College work. The matter was laid upon a shelf; and there it 
stayed till a year or so ago, when various circumstances once more 
brought the matter into the foreground, and, by request of the 
Senate, I again issued and circulated the report of five years before. 
The result is the present scheme for University Extension work, the 
nature and scope of which I will endeavour briefly to describe. 
As the result of negotiations with the University of Cam¬ 
bridge, and under a Grace of the Senate of the University, passed 
on June 2nd, 1892, a joint scheme of co-operation has been framed, 
operative over the three counties of which Birmingham is the 
centre, viz., Stafford, Warwick, and Worcester. Within this area 
the method adopted under the Cambridge University Extension 
Scheme will be in use, viz., courses of eleven or twelve weekly 
lectures, each occupying about an hour, and each followed, or 
preceded (according to convenience) by a class, intended primarily 
for those who wish for a more thorough scheme of study, though 
open to all who are attending the lectures. Questions for home 
answering are set after each lecture, and each course has its 
accompanying syllabus. At the end of the course an examination is 
held, conducted by an examiner appointed by the University 
Syndicate (under agreement with the Mason College Committee), 
attendance at which is voluntary ; and on the results of this exam¬ 
ination joint certificates (Cambriage-Mason) will be awarded to all 
candidates of sufficient merit. The success which has attended 
the working of this method has proved that the attainment of a 
very high standard of training and knowledge is possible by attend¬ 
ance at University Extension courses, provided the student carries 
out the system in its entirety ; and it will be seen that the system 
is adapted, at the same time, to persons who mainly desire to have 
a general acquaintance with the subjects taught, as well as to 
January, 1893. 
