UNIVERSITIES AND UNEMPLOYED [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] S
IR n your interesting article on "Universities and Employment" you refer to "the higher status which is sup- posed to be the perquisite of a 'university man.'"
To a septuagenarian who graduated at Oxford over half a century ago, this statement would appear in those days to have been in accordance with fact. But tempora mutantur. At that period the word university was wont to comprise only the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge par excellence, and those of Durham and Dublin. Now, all oyer the country there have sprung up numberles3 educational bodies, undoubtedly doing very ;excellent work, which when incorporated under charter are entitled to grant degrees. As a natural consequence of this, the old and original Universities have lost in prestige, and the "social status" to which you refer has ceased to exist as such, since their privilege of granting degrees has been given indis- criminately to so many other and modern universities. While the degrees conferred by the latter are per se no doubt excellent and thoroughly well earned, yet at the same time they are undoubtedly shorn of any real social value.
To draw on the analogy of the differentiation between elementary and secondary schools it might perhaps be more correct to designate these modern universities as somewhat of the nature of tertiary schools for older and advanced students in order to distinguish them from the ancient Universities. If this were the case, the question as to mis- employment would appear to be answered by the fact that the modern universities must inevitably produce "square. pegs" quite unsuitable for the only "round holes" available to be filled, and not in any sense suited to the taste or talents of those who apply to fill them. Per contra, all seriously- minded undergraduates go up to Oxford and Cambridge with the set purpose of entering some definite profession and thus endeavour to take as high a class as possible in the particular "Honours school" or " Tripos "—as the case may be—the best suited to their bent and inclination, with a view to ensuring their ultimate success in later life, and thus do not fall under the category of the " mis-employed."—Yours, &c.,
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