The Press. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1907. THE FUTURE OF OXFORD.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12933, 12 October 1907, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1907. THE FUTURE OF OXFORD.

• To. ibo outlying portions of tho British Empiro tho position and prospects of , a great and venerable institution in . tho heart of England aro not » more . . matter of abstract and shadowy in- '■ tdrest. Wβ aro all vitally interested in Oxford. From yoar to year wo send tho pick: of our youth thoro; and it • concerns na to know and havo a voico , in tho kind of training and influences which await them. Many years ago , •Matthew Arnold, writing as a poet, , . aiul a devoted sou of Oxford, spoko of , ' hie University thue:—"Steeped in ; "eentimont, as she lies, spreading her , "gardens to the moonlight, and whia- i " poring from her towers tho last en- 1 "chantmenta of the Middle Ages, who " will dony that Oxford, by her in"effablo charm, keeps ever calling us "nearer to the truo goal.of all of u.i, "'to tho ideal, to perfection—to beauty, , "hi a word, whicli is only truth—seen . '• from another eide." Many hundreds . ' of Oxford men havo felt something of this, though few could havo expressed , ■ . it so daintily and ao happily, Tho worship of Oxford hoe, in many minds of tho highest refinement, grown into a sort of cult, enveloping its object in a halo of sanctity, and resenting any drastio interference with it as a desocration. While paying all honour to T this sentiment, wo notice with satisfaction that another class of equally devoted Oxonians aro npplying their energies to.the question 6f tho possibility of ' so modifying tho old University as to '■ bring ifc more into harmony with . modern conditions and modern de- ' manda* The problem is an exceedingly ' < ( difficult one, Those who hevo thought ' most on the subject fully recognise that ' any attempt to transform Oxford into 1 a sort of glorified technical school ' would simply result in tho destruction of tho work which sho has been doing .probably better than any Univorsity in ' -the world. And yet all see, and none — ' - ' '■■-.' '--''aaiirf?* '

more clearly than the Oxford don himself, that reform is needed. The great question is, how is it to be carried out, so na to secure the greatest amount of all-round efficiency with tho least possible disturbance of that special class of work which Oxford has made peculiarly her own ? The popular impression of Oxford as an effete medieval institution, obstinately opposed to all reform, is pure moonshine. Any ono interested in getting at the truth of the matter may bo referred to en article published in tho "Quarterly Review" about a year igOj which gavo in detail tho steps taken by tho University during the past twenty years mi the direction of expanding tho scope of her operations under the pressure of modern requirements. And it is thie effort to meet tho multifarious demands of a modern University education that has crippled her finances, with tho result that her Chancellor, Lord Curron, hae hid to appeal to the nation for assistance. All credit is due for tho epii\t in whfcji thn University hae faced h%p position and tried to grepplo with th% altered condition* of modern English lifo. But the flddiug on of faculties and tho appointing of profe*eors in new departments of learning ere not tho whole thing. Thero is even a double danger in this form of expansion: on tho one hand, tho University, pluming herself on her liberalism, may 'bo blinded to the evils which li» at tho heart of her syetcm; and on the other, eho miy vitfllly injure herself by trying to do c .great many things indifferently, instead of doing » few thoroughly end well. In certain branches of a technical or professional character Oxford can never hope to compete, with the modern class of universities, rucli as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds end »Shelfiol(l; while, on the other hand, in philoeophy, literature and the arts, eho occupies a position which it would bo ridiculous for them to try to rival. Probably tho worst evil of Oxford is noji her meditevalism, not any other but the preponderance of tho idle element'over the working element among her students, and the tacit acquiescence of the University in this stato of things. Scores of yomng men of tho wealthy or fashionable class go to Oxford every year with no intention whatever of doing any work, and nobody there concerns himself whether they work or not. Over against theeo stand the students who go in for honours or "schools," end on theee the whole.strength of iho University is concentrated. Tho Oxford Honours graduate is a fine product, wtdo in culture, wild splendidly trained. But this indifference to the crowd who can shed no Juetro or the place, for the sake of the distinguished few who can, is an unhealthy condition of things, and * eorious ibnegation of the duties of a university. It is contended, of course, that lifo in an Oxford collego is in itself an education. That all depends on how the life is taken j and to many of the class above mentioned it is chiefly an education in extravagance. This whole question hae been getting well threshed out of late, first jn e> remarkable debate in. tho Housq of Lords before tho close of tho session, and subsequently in lettorn to "The Times , ' and cdw torial. comment*. From Oxford iteelf too,, como indications that tho pernicious effects of an idle student population btq forcing themselves on tho conscience of the authorities. The realisation of an evil is the first step towards its extinction; and ono may hope that before many years a great eeat of learning may cease to be the playground of the "young barbarians" of fashionable England. Wo cannot deal with the- various remedies eug* gested, but pass on to notice the more striking and unexpected of all the recent indications of a revolution of sentiment in and towards Oxfprd. There wee held in August in tho examination schools of the University itself a conference between tho energeticbody known as the Workers' Educational Association and representative:) of various working-men's organisations, the object being to formulate a scheme for bringing the educational boncfita of Oxford more witljin tho reach of tho working classes. Hero surely is a remarkable phenomenon. Tito meeting waa presided over by tho Bishop of Birmingham, who had opened the debate in the House of Lords, and thoro were present Sir W. Anson and a number of other leading Oxford men. The discussion was of a rory practical and etimulating character, and a joiutcommittee was set up to prepare a definite plan for submission to the University. This was remarkable enough; but tho really extraordinary thing about the meeting was tho clear and emphatic assertion of the working-men's delegates that the institution to which tho democracy of England waa looking for the satisfaction of its needs in tho mutter of higher education was, not the modern universities of tho manufacturing towns, but the so-called stronghold of reaction and plutocracy by tho banke of tho Isis. Wo have hero a promise of an "Oxford movement" widely different in aim from that of the early Victorian era, but perhaps fraught with still larger possibilities.