UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN THE FAR WEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 277, 3 April 1869, Page 3

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN THE FAR WEST.

(Frotn the Australasian, March 6.) One of the noblest features in the American character is the extraordinary zeal of the people for education. Not only are primary schools established as a matter of course -wherever the nucleus of a population can be got together, but the higher branches of knowledge are regarded with a solicitude unknown in other countries. The Government, both federal and local, and private benefactors vie, as it were, with each other in providing educational endowments. It is incalculable how much has been done in this direction in the eastern and central states ; but even west of the Mississippi the appropriations for educational purposes have been upon the most splendid, scale. Twenty-two millions of acres have been already granted in these western states far the education of the people, and fifty-nix millions more, or an extent exceeding the who'.e of Victoria, are reserved for similar gifts. In all these states schools and public libraries are supported from the rates, and universities whi«. h profess f o:give instruction in almost every branch of human knowledge are established. The most important of these western universities is that of .Michigan, situate at Ann Arbor, near Detroit. There twelve hundred students are engaged in their studies. They pay ten dollars entrance fee, and five dollars a year during residence, and live where they can in the town. There is an entrance examination ; and after ;he has been admitted, the student may either give his entire time to the practical study of law or. physic or divinity, or, if he . pleases, maygo through a course of arts. There is also what is called a "University course,!'

for those who have taken the bachelor's degree. This course includes twenty branches, which range over philology, philosophy, art, and science. Provision is made in it, among other things, for criticism, for fine arts, for arts of design, for astronomy, ethics, and oriental languages. To what extent so ambitious a design is, or can be in a young country, successfully carried into practice we do not attempt to say. But the avowed object of the Michigan University, as of most others in America, is not so much the extension of science as instruction in some definite and practical art.

There are two peculiarities in the western universities which at once strike the mind of those accustomed to the great educational institutions of the United Kin. 'dom. They are not governed by their own members, and they do not admit competition. The government of the university is vested not in its graduates, not in its professors — not in officers appointed by the Government, but in a parliament of "regents," elected directly by the inhabitants of the state. The inconveniences of such a method are obvious, and the persons elected as " regents " are often by no means such as the interests of education require. The system seems to be due to the reasonable reluctance of the ratepayers to intrust the Government of the institution exclusively t<> New England professors, to the usual American jealousy of the Government, and to the impossibility of obtaining a suitable governing body in so young an institution. As Michigan grows older, she will doubtless seek to conform the government of her university to the practice of older academic institutions. The absolute independence of the Executive and the power of self government, subject only to proper legal control, which characterises the British universities is fully appreciated in the older states of the Union. Within the last two years the connexion of the Harvard University with the commonwealth of Massachusetts has been dissolved, and the members of the board of overseers, or governing body of the university, are now no longer appointed by the state, but, as in the cass of our own university, are elected by the university itself. The other peculiarity of university education in the Far West— the absence, namely, of competition — is said to have obtained many supporters among the most distinguished educationists of the eastern states. They allege thsit toil performed under the excitement of a fierce struggle between man and man is unhealthy work; that a higher average of true work and real knowledge is obtained where no honor lists are made out than under the regime of competition. Evon if there are some men to whom competition would do goo'l, it is contended that these are rather the exception than the rule. AH the evils, both moral and intellectual, which we are accustomed to attribute to the " cramming " system, the Michigan men charge against competition. We are not likely in thi3 country to follow in this respect the example of Ann Arbor. We may, however, learn from that example a useful lesson, both as to that love of learning which characterises even the illiterate settlers of the Far West, and as to that spirit and earnestness which all their students throw into their work.