Churchill College

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28604, 5 June 1958, Page 12

Churchill College

One of the most alarming facts that Britain has been forced to recognise since the Second World War is its shortage of highly-trained scientists and technologists. British resources in this field are overshadowed by the vast ’scientific battalions of the United States and Russia. In 1954 Britain produced about 57 applied scientists for each million of population, the United States 137, and Russia 280; and there has been no significant change in the ratios since then. One factor that has hampered the development of British technical education has been a tendency in the academic world to refuse to scientists their due intellectual and social status. To remove this prejudice is as urgent a need as that of augmenting British strength in the higher echelons of science. Both purposes should be admirably served by the establishment at Cambridge University of a new men’s college to which Sir Winston Churchill has agreed to give his name and patronage. On May 15 it was announced that a trust, presided over by Sir Winston Churchill, had been formed to build and endow the college. The total endowment required was estimated at £3,450.000, made up of £ 1,350.000 for capital costs and £2,100,000 to yield an annual income of £105,000. On May 30 contributions received or promised amounted to £1.411,900. The Churchill College scheme has many unusual features. First, the college is to be established at Cambridge, and not at a provincial university or as a completely new entity. Again, though Government support is not in doubt, the scheme is an unofficial one, and perhaps the most useful that could be conceived for supplementing present Government

plans for an increased annual output of about 10.000 more graduates of science and technology from universities and technical institutions. Quantitatively, Churchill College’s output of science graduates will be very small—only about 100 a year; but qualitatively its contribution will be extremely valuable. Cambridge was an excellent choice as its site, because of the outstanding laboratory and ancillary facilities already available. Cambridge is still unrivalled as the centre of scientific thought in Britain. The sponsors of the college have been careful to ensure that the education offered will be as broad as possible, and to that end propose that up to 30 per cent, of the college members shall be arts students. The college will accept the unusually high proportion of one post-graduate student for every two who have not taken their degrees. It will offer about 50 fellowships at a level of very high attainment; and it will encourage graduates who have had considerable experience in industry to return for advanced studied. However, apart from the emphasis on scientific and technological training of the finest quality, Churchill will be a normal college. “ The “ collegiate character of the “ university ”, the trustees write, “ gives it a peculiar “ advantage in maintaining an “ educational system that “produces graduates who will “rise to the highest levels of “ professional and industrial “ life ”, In the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill was quick to realise how vitally the nation’s existence depended upon scientific knowledge. In fulfilling the aims of its founders, the new college will be an enduring and appropriate piemorial to him.