UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: OXFORD TUTORS' ASSOCIATION.
THE Tutors' Association at Oxford, comprising among its acting members the greater number of those engaged in the discipline and teaching of the University, is a body whose opinion on any points connected with the University is entitled to respectful attention, and must carry great weight. So, on the other hand, the deliberate recommendation of the Commissioners, framed after a survey and comparison of all the plans suggested, cannot be lightly set aside. These two bodies, with the same facts, the same variety of opinion before them, have come to contrary conclusions with respect to the advisability of admitting students to the University without re- quiring them, as at present, to become members of some College or Hall, and to conform to the semi-domestic discipline of these institutions. It would be a very desirable thing if either party could bring the other by argument, and appeal to a wider experience than is to be gained in Oxford, to come over and join in an unanimous decision. But it is more desirable than likely. Nor can we seriously disparage the authority of the Oxford Tutors by reminding the public, that they are all engaged in College tuition, see therefore its good effects, and, on the old principle of" nothing like leather," are anxious to spread
and confirm so useful and familiar an educational influence, while they not unnaturally dread the introduction of a rival system, which proposes to do without what they know to be a valuable and deem an indispensable instrument. For the feeling is not confined to them ; it is, on the contrary, quite a commonplace to point to the Collegiate life of our Universities as their distinguishing and most valuable charaderistic ; and this position is immensely strengthened by the fact that the Cambridge Commissioners have noticed only to reject the proposed innovation in their own Univer- sity. It must be allowed Aid the weight of authority is on the side of the Tutors and against the Commissioners.
It would be presumptuous in a London newspaper to pretend to deliver a conclusive judgment between parties so competent to in- vestigate the case before them, and to view the proposed change in all its bearings. But we may be allowed to remark, that the ad- mission of this unattached class of University students is only one among many tentative schemes recommended by the Commission ; and that the simply experimental character of all their recom- mendations that refer to the extension of the means of University education is strongly marked. This fact the Tutors' Association do not appear to have allowed sufficient weight to, though in the other schemes, all of which they have simply adopted from the Report of the Commission and indorsed with their approval, they contemplate the possibility of failure, and allow a contingent ne- cessity of retracing their steps. We can see no reason why the scheme which of all others seemed to the Commissioners to unite the most advantages with the fewest inconveniences should not along with the coordinate schemes be allowed the benefit of its ex- perimental character. The Tutors say that it would violate a main principle of Oxford education ; but they ought to remember, that this main principle is not an original principle, not even a deliberately-adopted principle, but simply the onesided development of a protected interest. Were we called upon to decide whether the Collegiate system at Oxford should be abolished, and a purely Professorial and University system substituted, we should cer- tainly decline the responsibility, and shrink from destroying a vast actual benefit for an uncertain gain. But nothing of the sort is in question here. It is not proposed to substitute one system for another, but to test by experiment whether they will work to- gether. The Commissioners, be it remembered, propose all the schemes of extension adopted by the Tutors' Association encl, dis- cussed in their first published report; theirs is no onesided prefer- ence for their own pet scheme and a refusal to see chance of good in any other. There is moreover this to be said, that some of the schemes adopted by the Tutors involve a heavy outlay, and the construction of cumbrous machinery in the shape of lands pur- chased, buildings erected, teachers instituted, staffs of servants, etcetera, which, in case of failure, would entail a lamentable waste of money, and disarrangement of hopes and plans for life. The scheme which the Tutors refuse to discuss as utterly objectionable is free from both difficulties. It requires no outlay ; and if it failed conspicuously or did palpable mischief, the remedy would be simply a vote of Convocation, and no Professor, Tutor, or keeper of Ellen, would have to begin a new career in consequence. It has the further—and to us the highest—advantage, of alone se- curing to the poor student the opportunity of economy without the stigma of a definite mark or badge of poverty. This one consideration ought to insure its trial. But it was not our intention to argue in favour of this particular mode of Uni- versity extension, as indeed the Tutors have not argued against it, but to insist, what seems to have escaped them, that it is, like all the other schemes, experimental, and cannot consequently have the very dangerous character which would alone jus- tify them in refusing to give it a fair trial. It is important, too, to remember that the University students proposed by the Commissioners are not to be left to themselves, but are to be under a strict discipline enforced by University officers; and that, on the other hand, the so-called College discipline is limited in fact to some very simple rules, such as dining, or at least appearing in hall, so many times a week, not being out of college after certain hours, Sze., with, of course, decency of external conduct. We can- not understand that for the former sort of discipline it would re- quire great administrative skill to find effective substitutes; and decency of behaviour might be nearly as easily enforced by Uni- versity as by College authorities. The public would see their way better in this controversy if they were enlightened as to the exact amount of fact represented by the phrase "College discipline," and sometimes ludicrously misrepresented into a strong controlling or a gently suasive influence, that powerfully determines the good or bad conduct of the majority of young men who are brought within its range. Nothing, we believe, can be more wide of the truth ; though when exercised by men, as is soraetimes the case, who have high character, great talents, and that wisdom of the world with- out which both are ineffective in dealing with young men, it does become a power for good in our Universities, which we should deeply regret to see lost or seriously impaired. All that we ask is, that for a time students may be allowed to choose for themselves, or their parents for them, whether they will purchase this advan- tage at its required price, or endeavour to giude themselves with- out its aid.
Meanwhile, we hail the first report of the Tutors' Association, as a fresh proof of the sincerity and practical earnestness with which Oxford is engaged in that portion of her necessary reform that lies within her own power : Parliament will not hesitate to do its share.
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