UNDERGRADUATES OF TO-DAY

Evening Star, Issue 20555, 6 August 1930, Page 5

UNDERGRADUATES OF TO-DAY

AN EHGOURAGIKG NOTE “ I consider this present generation of undergraduates to be the finest lot of fellows I havo ever encountered. I have been in Oxford for many years and have watched undergraduates come and undergraduates go, and it is my firm opinion that the present generation is tho. best of all. It is true that from time to time there have been deplorable delinquencies among the undergraduates, but it is not fair to judge the great mass of the university by misbehaviour on tho part of a very small section,” said Mr A. D. Lindsay, master of Balliol College in an interview reported in the ‘ Evening Standard.’ “ Let us be fair to tho undergraduates of to-day.. Wo cannot cqmparo him with the undergraduate of the days before the war. In pre-war days there was a settled, ordered outlook on life. But the war has intervened and upset everything. Now, what man knows to-day what to-morrow will bring forth? Taking this general atmosphere of unsettlemqnt into consideration, I find that the student of to-day, is tackling his problems in a satisfactory manner. I will not say it has been so ever since the war. On the contrary, I think that just after the war there were reasons for_ grave doubts. But now we have the university in its stride again, although it is striding in an unsettled world. These young men work harder than did tho pre-war generation. And I say that from my experience, both as master and tutor. Of course, there are exceptions but not many. -If you want a final word concerning the outlook and alleged idleness of Oxford undergraduates, let me say that in my opinion the undergraduate of to-day is inclined to have too wide an interest in lifo and affairs. Sometimes ■their wide interests are bad for their work. I have to pull more students for devoting too much time to political societies and literary associations than I do for their not working."