THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN AVI AN REVIEW 
95 
sonal sense of co-operation with the University than they formerly had. 
Originally the academic class was to an overwhelming degree recruited 
from the old official families (among whom are included the clergy and 
the professions of law and medicine), whose traditions went back to a 
time much earlier than the founding of the University, families of Dan¬ 
ish or German origin, who had perhaps entered the country during the 
centuries when Norway was dependent on Denmark. But during the 
last few decades there has been a change. Men of the old families are 
now often found in business or in the profession of engineering, while 
the officials are more frequently recruited from the peasantry. If we 
glance over the list of students in 1921 we shall be struck by the num¬ 
ber of names from Norwegian farms. This change has its advantages 
and its drawbacks. It is dangerous to the traditions—in many ways 
fine traditions—that are bound up with the old families as servants of 
the people and the State and as carriers of a well-defined culture. On 
the other hand, the new order has brought the people and their officials 
closer together, with the result that mutual confidence has increased, 
and real co-operation has been possible. 
Fifteen or twenty years ago the number of students was so great 
in proportion to the requirements of the country that many young men 
and women who had taken their degrees and left the University had 
difficulty in finding positions. It became necessary to advise against 
the study of law, medicine, and philology. There was danger of an 
“academic proletariat.” It soon appeared, however, that this fear was 
unfounded. To-day there is, in fact, a shortage of clergymen, phy¬ 
sicians, teachers, and jurists, due in large measure to the fact that 
attendance at the University decreased during the war. The housing 
shortage and the high cost of living kept many away from Christiania, 
while the brilliant opportunities for making money in a business career 
drew away many who would otherwise have turned to scholarship or 
the professions. Now that a period of depression has set in, there is a 
reaction against this, and the number of students at the University is 
again increasing; but it can go on increasing for a long time yet with¬ 
out giving reason to fear the development of an “academic proletariat.” 
There is plenty of work for all. 
In the second semester of 1920, from September to December, 
the students at the University were registered as follows: theology, 
92; law, 398; social economy, 158; medicine, 575; philology, 270; the 
natural sciences, 127. In the same period there were at the University 
75 professors, 22 instructors (docenter ), and a number of fellows ( sti - 
pendiater) who are required to do a very limited amount of teaching. 
The instruction is according to the methods common in European 
universities. The students in the department of medicine and in that 
of mathematics and the natural sciences are those most closely bound 
to the University. They are required to follow certain courses and to 
