LIFE AT OXFORD

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 61, 14 March 1927, Page 9

LIFE AT OXFORD

THE RHODES SCHOLARS

PLEASURE AND WORK

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 26"th January. In the course of an interview in England, Dr. C. M. Focken, who has been appointed lecturer in physics at Otago University, outlined some phases of the life of the Ehodes Scholars at Oxford. There are at any time during term some two hundred Ehodes Scholars in residence, he said, not gathered, as might be oxpected, in a clan at one college, but scattered about in the twenty colleges of the university. There is room for much divergence of opinion as to the effect that this body of under- ' graduates has on, the university, but there can be no doubt-to one who has passed through those three pregnant years that Oxford has a very great ef_fect on these scholars, developing in "them interests and giving them a breadth of outlook that they would have no opportunity of acquiring in the relatively isolated parts of the Empire from which they are sent. Not only are the terms spent at Oxford crammed full of activities, but the Jong and frequent vacations provide ample time for travel and study, and the al-" lowance is sufficient to do both comfortably. The allowance is now £.400 a year. . • . '

It is important that the Rhodes Scholar should meet and make friends with men from other countries and -with other viewpoints and ideas than Ms own, especially with Englishmen. The Ehodes Scholar-is on the average two or three years older than the English undergraduate entering from one oi' the public schools, so, ia rather more developed and maturer in judgment. This makes it more difficult for him to associate intimately with the English undergraduate,, whose customary shyness is often taken for reserve or even snobbishness. The student body at Oxford i 3 strikingly cosmopolitan—the whole world mingles in its streets, halls, and lecture rooms. '■ Owing-to the-munificence of Cecil Ehodes the British Empire is fully represented, oven to the point of including Malta and Jamaica, as well as every State in the American Union. But this is only a small proportion of the overseas population. Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and an occasional negro complete the colour scheme, and there are students from all the European countries. The Heir-Apparent to the Throne of Irak dined last year at tlio same collego hail as the -Crown Prince of Norway, and at Christ Church a member of the Eoyal Family of Siam answers to the call of "Jumba"! SPOET AND GAMES. No one doubts that the Ehodes Scholars do play an important part in university sport, but somo are of. opinion that this may tend to be detrimental to the teams, as it leads to the neglect of the younger aspirants to places in the inter-Varsity teams, who only require a little careful coaching to reach the requisite standard, but are not at the outset of the same calibre as tho riper athletes from overseas. But one realises that this is not a potent argument when one considers that games at Oxford take up a large part of the ordinary student's time. One does not need to get into a university team to get sport on five or six afternoons a week. Exercise is necessary owing to the relaxing climate of Oxford, and the games provide exercise and recreation for everyone, not only for a few score of crack athletes as in American universities. Intercollegiate competitions are organised and capably managed in all sports, and the standard of these is such as to be within the reach, of the average undergraduate. Nearly everyone is familiar with the system of education at Oxford, where a method of personal tuition forms the basis and lectures play a subsidiary and often unimportant part. This gives the student great freedom to regulate his own_ studies and to do just as much or as little as he pleases. To a Ehodes Scholar who has had experience at another university this is a distinct advantage, as it gives him scope to widen the range of his Teading to embrace subjects related to his own particular branch, and to take some interest in art, musicj or architecture.

There are, however, quite as many loafers at Oxford as at any other university, but they do loss to hinder the earnest students. A considerable number of men who come do so with no intention of working, but because it is part of an English gentleman's life. He is born; he learns to walk, to talk, and piay cricket or hunt. In the same inevitable way he goes up to Oxford or Canbridge. .There are others again, who, though they arrive intending to work, find they have not time to do so, after attending to the other essential features of college existence. If anyone, bearing in mind Oxford's enormous reputation as a centre of learning, is inclined to doubt this, lie must remember, that a largo number study quite consistently and earnestly; a few—and these have the makings of the great scholars—work prodigiously. Further many who do not pretend to work while at Oxford do serious study during vacations.

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