OXFORD AND READING

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21116, 17 March 1934, Page 15

OXFORD AND READING

The rulse of Oxford. By D. F. Karaka. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 80 pp. (2/6 net.) Making: a University. An Account of the University Movement at Readins:. By William Macßridc Chitds, M.A., D. Litt, L.L.D., First Vicechancellor of the University of Reading. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 313 pp. (6/- net) Mr Knraka's account of life at Oxford to-day and the outlook of the students is an interesting prelude to Dr. Childs's record of the growth of a modern university. Mr Karaka, an Indian, spent three years at Oxford, and took a vigorous part in its political and social activities. A quotation from the close of his survey may serve to show his perspective: It has not been possible to include in so short a space many other phases of Oxford life. There is, for instance, "sport." And in a single paragraph he disposes of the subject. The picture which relegates sport to this position has in the foreground a sharp and comprehensive view of the social and political life of the university. The author writes with enthusiasm—enthusiasm for youth and for Oxford. He sees misjudgment by press and public, failure to understand the value of the training which Oxford, thoroughly adapted to the modern world, can give. In "Making a University" Dr. Childs presents a document of intense interest to the many advocates of more widely extended university education. Reading University, chartered in 1926, is an example of amazingly quick growth. In 1892' it was a university extension centre, soon to incorporate the work of the first branch of the newly-formed Workers' Educational Association. Its development under Mr (now the Rt. Hon. Sir Halford) Mackinder, and from 1903 under Dr. Child s, was exceedingly rapid, though accompanied by much that called for patience and effort on the part of its sponsors. Generous benefactors, however, and a gratifying measure of State assistance enabled it to make sustained headway, broken only by the war. Till 1926 it had had the status of a university colledge, preparing students mainly for the London University external degree examinations, and noted for its agricultural work, its successful blending of technical and liberal studies, and its encouragement of the residential system. The National Institute for Research in Dairying was one of its important adjuncts. The steady advance made after it became an independent university is noted as a most satisfying justification of this step, and a proof of public recognition of the function of an institution which grew to University status during a period when traditional University education has been subjected to the severest criticism. The story of this progress is not i. anv wav shaped as the author's autobiography, but it has a personal character and a concern with personalities which give it interest and a stimulating quality. To those who believe that modern social development involves the extension of traditional university education to a widening public it may well seem a guiding textbook.