THE COST OF LIVING IN OXFORD UNIVERSITY. [To THE EDITOR
OP THE " SPECTATOR."] Sts,—How has the war affected the cost of living in College at Oxford? Many are asking this, and perhaps a Bursar who has neither the virtues nor the vices of the Bursars of current fiction may give as good an answer as anybody to the question. I do not speak of increased cost of food, tobacco, clothes, &c., but only of expenses necessary and proper to academic life in College.
(1) Tuition fees will, in many Colleges, have to be increased by about twenty-five per cent. For the present thirty guineas may fairly be taken as the maximum annual charge for an ordinary student coming into residence in October. This provision will, however, not suffice to pay teachers adequately. Their stipends should be increased by at least thirty-five per cent.
(2) Wages of servants have risen, and I compute that for those servants only who actually keep the rooms of students it will be necessary to add from eight to ten guineas a year to the fixed charges.
(3) Rates in Oxford have risen from 4s. to 5s. 4f1. within the year. This item will press ever more heavily on Colleges, and the occupiers of rooms will have to bear their share in the form of higher rents or increased fixed charges.
(4) Colleges possess a good stock of sound old-fashioned tables, chairs, Sc. But this stock cannot be renewed at the prices of old times, and carpets and furniture cannot be let on the old easy terms. The same remark applies to practically everything supplied by a College for general use out of the proceeds of its establishment charges. • (5) Heating and lighting will cost more than in days when coal was bought at 24s. a ton and a unit of electric current east 4Id.
For all these reasons a parent must expect to find his son's Battel bill heavier than before the war by about twenty to thirty guineas a year on items which are not under his control. Whereas I used to take en average of £37 a term for all charges, including food, postage, gate-bills, &c., I shall be sur- prised if the average is in future much less than .R50, at all events while food is dear. The ordinary Caution Money (,130) will hardly be equivalent to a term's fixed charges paid in advance!
Some economies are possible, and we may hope that the undergraduates will get rid of solid lunches and elaborate teas. I do not myself recommend that all meals should be taken in the common hall, the only really economical system. This is a burden to the poor and a privation to the rich, and my experience is that it is only economical if it is applied rigidly. But I em open to conviction. Grouping of two students in one set of rooms, where fhb structure admits of it, may not be disadvantageous, if there is a good library where. A can escape from B's visitors, There ought also to be an inter-Collegiate system of tuition, saving C-olleges from making unnecessary appointments; and it may be practicable to trench on the " private hour " and do more by classes. The late Mr. J. Y. Sargent taught composition in the lecture-room. But the "private hour " is a very sacred thing. The University, which has three Finance Committees, but none quite competent to deal with this sort of question, might appoint an Educational Delegacy. IN first duty would be to work out the strict " business" cost of University education for students of various classes. By this I mean the cost of instruction -whether imparted by Professors and University Teachers or by College Tutors, who in all but stipend are University Teachers and should be recognized as such. Full fees should in all cases be charged, but in cases of need subsidies must be forth- coming. In concert with the Colleges, the University Delegacy would bring such cases to the notice of Local Authorities or of the Board of Education. The top of the educational ladder has at present several missing rungs!
The Colleges, in order to reduce for those in need the necessary cost of living in College, which they should unite to ascertain, ought to consider, (I) collectively, what co-operation is possible, e.g. to reduce unnecessary appointments, chapel services, &c.; (2) singly, what modification of limited trusts may be possible to set free revenue for assisting education. But behind all these schemes the Colleges must have the loyalty of their old members. If every man who now takes his name off the books before proceeding to the M.A. degree would insure his life in favour of the College even for .150, we should be far better able to move with the times. At present we receive generous gifts and loyal support, but from too few in each successive generation.—I am, Sir, &c., A. B. BOYNTON. University College, Oxford.
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