The Press Saturday, May 1, 1926. An Interesting Programme.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18680, 1 May 1926, Page 14

The Press Saturday, May 1, 1926. An Interesting Programme.

On July 12th next the third Quinquennial Congress of the Universities of the British Empire will assemble in London; and, after receptions by the Government and London University, will proceed to Cambridge for the regular business of the gathering. Seven sessions will be held, four in forenoons and three in afternoons; and over eaeh a Chancellor of a British or overseas University will preside. We have before us an advanced copy of the subjects fixed for discussion, which, we understand, were selected from suggestions received from all the Universities of the Empire. It may be o£ interest if we glance briefly at each and state in a word or two the points on" which discussion is likely to turn. The first is " The " State and the University." Here any discussion must rest on the basic fact that, in the present state of evolution and multiplication of faculties, no University can be self-supporting; no University can live and function on students' fee 3 alone,, unless they are on an absolutely prohibitive scale. Subventions or subsidies, then, being indispensable, we find that in actual practice they are generally drawn from one or more of three sources: the State, local bodies, and individual benefactors. Perhaps the best examples in the world of a fairly even distribution over all three sources are the British Universities. The State contribution is in the form of a lump sum annually voted by Parliament, the allocation to each institution being in the hands of a University Grants Committee. There is an apprehension, widely diffused, that State subvention means State control or interference. But it is astonishing how little the liberty of the British Universities is interfered with on the strength of a grant. The Grants Committee, of course, requires to be informed of the scheme of expansion or increase of expenditure to which the grant is to be appropriated; there is probably a little discussion; but there the matter ends. The varied experiences of the overseas Universities will, no doubt, be fully stated and discussed at the Congress. The second subject for discussion is "The Desirability of Establishing "in London a School of' Advanced "Legal Studies." This has, at least, the charm of novelty; but the .proposal has much more than that. It appeals to the imagination. The school would, no doubt, be a chartered body, doing for Law throughout the Empire what the Royal " Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons do' for Medicine and Surgery. It would .be ' a centre and focus of juristic research throughout the Empire, on problems of Roman and Mediaeval Law, on the ever-shifting phase 3of international law, and on that conflict of laws which*the genius of. Dicey illuminated arid yet found so difficult. We next reach the subject, " Co-operation in Research Through- " out the Empire." This is important, just as the present position is rather anomalous. Whit we need to introduce into our research work is organisation. At present it is all being conducted in detached units; no research worker (with few exceptions) knows what problems are absorbing the thoughts and attention of the others; fifty or sixty of them may be engaged on the same problem, be it in Physics, or Chemistry, or History, or Philosophy. In the scientific world there is a tacit convention or self-denying ordinance, whereby when a scientist is known to be engaged over a'specific problem, no one else will touch it .until; the researcher has found a solution or given it up. To make that effective throughout the Empire we should need a central Bureau of Informatios which would keep record of all research problems, and of the individual who had " pegged out" each for himself.

Wo next come on a " hardy annual," or rather, " quinquenrlial": " Mutual " Recognition of Examinations or of " time • spent in study elsewhere." This is an old grievance; we can only baldly state the point at issue. In it 3 extreme form the overseas demand is, that one of their students, migrating to Britain after, say, one'year's work in his own University, should be credited with one year's work and corresponding examinations in any British University. The British Universities (not all alike, but in substance) say that this is impossible. A University course is not a crude lump which one can slice up with a knife, and give a slice to anybody who has earned an equivalent slice in his own University; it js a living organic whole, and every layer of that whole has a living relation to the other layers and to the whole. The year's work done by the applicant may have no relation whatever to the first year's work from which he seeks exemption in another University. We cannot discuss the subject here. Wc may remark, however, that, in actual practice, the modern British Universities are not unreasonable. They will give to a New Zealand B.A. "their own degree on two additional years' with them; which is, perhaps, as much as can be expected, as the hall-mark is theirs. The next subject deals with the authoritative organisation and supervision of athletics, games, and physical exercises generally, such as holds in most of the American and Canadian Universities. This subject was discussed at the Annual Conference of the British Universities last May, and we made some comment on it then. It will certainly be interesting to hear what the overseas delegates have to say on it. The Congress will next proceed to discuss "The Actual Working of the Ph.D. Scheme." This degree was established in the later years of the war, mainly at the instigation of Lord Balfour, whose main idea was to organise a scheme which to Allied nations might supply the place which had been previously occupied by German doctorates. The British Universities took np the scheme warmly, but with a view mainly to a provision fori

their own Dominions. Since then both the Dominions and foreign countries have availed themselves, to a moderate extent, of this title. The last subject at the Imperial Congress will deal with the articulation of pension schemes. The present position is this: If a Professor in a British University migrates to a Professorship overseas, his pension under the British Federated Superannuation scheme lapses, and his accrued rights disappear. And conversely, to a Professor returning from overseas his accrued overseas rights disappear. The object which is at present occupying the minds of both sides i 3, to formulate a scheme whereby the rights under both systems would be articulated and continuous, so that a Professor changing from one side to the other would carry his accumulations with him, according to the tixae spent at each end.