OXFORD.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 25 July 1933, Page 11

OXFORD.

♦ IMPRESSIONS OF GREAT UNIVERSITY. .ADDRESS BY DR. A. 1.. HASLAM. An account of his impressions of Oxford University was given at * meeting of the Canterbury College Graduates' Association last night by Dr. A. L. Haslam, a former Rhodes scholar. The colonial graduate generally came from a university that conformed to a general type, a university which was the centre of everything, and where lectures were compulsory, said Dr. Haslam. In Oxford things ware radically different. In the first place, a student who might have be«i someone of standing in his own university was apt to find on entering Oxford that little attention was paid to his former achievements. If he was a graduate of a reputable university he was allowed to take a B.A. in two years instead of three; and if he had very high qualifications he might b« allowed to proceed at once to a doctorate, but usually only after a tremendous amount of wrangling with the authorities. It was soon realised that the reason for this reluctance to grant privileges to overseas graduates was that the standard at Home was really immeasurably higher than in the Dominions. English students possessed on the whole a much greater mental maturity than colonial students of the same age. This was probably due to wide reading and to the cultural background of an older nation. Methods of Study. Methods of study were very different from those in the colonies. At Oxford the student was expected to be analytical and original; mere feats of memory might possibly earn poor second-class honours, but never a good second or a first. The student was expected to read perhaps a dozen books on one subject—some of them well outside the field—and to criticise them and give his own opinion of their respective merits. Each student had lessons once or twice a week from a tutor, who set essays and was often scathing in h'is criticism. As well as the tutor of studies, each student had over him a "moral" tutor, who wa* more or less responsible for his wellbeing and conduct. The session consisted of three terms of only eight weeks each, so that, with all the distractions of Oxford life, it was impossible to get much work done during term, and most students, especially in the final year, spent a large part of the long vacation in study. For this purpose it was fairly common for a number of students to form a reading party" and rent a house at the seaside, were they could spend a large part of the day at their work. Pass Degree in Disfavour. Oxford was the stronghold of the classics, though fewer were taking this course to-day, the "modern greats" course, which embraced modern problems in philosophy and political science, having become increasingly popular. All the Oxford courses were very broad. The pass degreevery easy to get, and formerly the goal of many who went merely for the «ke of social life—was now looked on with disfavour, and attempts were made to compel as many as possible to take the honours courses. Oxford was no longer the exclusive domain of the wealthy; a recent census had shown that about 50 per cent. • i students were receiving financial aid from the university and colleges in the form of scholarships, bursaries, etc. Greater Tolerance. . °" e of the most striking thing* about Oxford was its atmosphere of tolerance. There was no question there of liberty of speech; some of the most radical sayings and writings Q ui et rooms in Oxford colleges. Eccentricities of students did not cause the commotion that ther would give rise to here. On very few occasions had he seen cases of "ragging in which the victim had not gone out of his way to provoke it. in conclusion he said that too much plac «i on the age limit r proceeding to Oxford from * opinion, a graduate entering Oxford at the age of 22 or would Re quite capable of enjoying it to the full, and would probably get more out of it than if he went them at the age of 18.