Spanning the Great Divide
By ANTONY FLEW*
cl own call it Stoke or North Staffs. We call it 1.../Keele. For the University College of North Staffordshire, founded only in 1950, is being built around Keele Hall on a 630-acre estate near the village of Keele, west of Newcastle-under- Lyme. This is not just one more Redbrick. This college is different because it is the one thorough and systematic attempt to remedy at the university level some massive faults in English higher education.
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Very roughly speaking one can say that the standard pattern for the majority of university students, those reading Arts or pure Science, is to concentrate on three main subjects, and Precious little else, for the last two or three years at school; and then at university to read one subject only for hdnours, usually one of the three already taken at 'A' level for the General Certificate of Education. Usually, too, the student has had to commit himself to one side or the other of the Great Divide between Arts and Science immedi- ately after taking the '0' level of the GCE or even earlier.
This pattern seems still to be generally accepted as part of the very order of nature or at least as an inescapable response to the challenge of our time Yet it is nothing of the sort. It would be nearer the truth to say that this Great Divide between Arts and Science, this early and extreme specialisation, and this inflexibility which makes it so difficult for students to decide to venture into subjects unrelated to those they took at school, are peculiarities of the English system. But since, notoriously, conditions in other coun- tries are always far too different for us to learn from them, and since nothing is more worthless than talk in the abstract about education, let us onsider what happens at Keele.
First, it is entirely residential. With negligible exceptions all the 'students and all the faculty live on the campus. The Americanisms are apt. For in many ways Keele is much more like such small American colleges as Oberlin or Swarth- more than it is like any other university institu- tion in Britain.
Next, all undergraduates are supposed to study for four years and to take an honours degree. There is no pass course. Those who get only a Pass do so by doing too badly to be given thirds. This four-year programme is divided into two parts : the first or Foundation Year; and the remaining three Principal Years. In their Founda- tion Year all students are required to attend a single massive common lecture course taking eight to ten hours per week in each of the three terms. To this course all, the professors contribute. It Contains a bit of everything. The idea is to pro- vide background and to ,open windows. In addition, to this deliberately overwhelming lec- ture programme, all students have to attend two Sessional Tutorials, running, as their title indi- cates, throughout the session, and three Terminal Tutorials, one in each term.
All subjects taught at the college are divided into three groups: a social studies group; a humanities group; and a natural science and • PrOfessor of Philosophy at Keels, mathematics group. The list of subjects includes all the usual humanities and basic sciences, but no such technologies as engineering or medicine. The student's previous work in the sixth form will usually have been confined almost exclusively to the field of a single group. He has then to choose his Terminal subjects from that group and one of his Sessionals from each of the other two groups. The idea is that the Sessionals should strongly reinforce the lecture course in its work to fulfil the precondition which the University Grants Committee laid down for our founda- tion : 'that the basis of studies in Science and Arts be adequately broadened.' The idea of Terminals seems originally to have been simply to enable students to keep in touch with subjects they had already read to 'A' level. But in practice they fulfil two further functions as well. They allow students and departments to get acquainted before either side becomes committed to any longer liaison. And they give the more enter- prising student a further chance to launch out into new territory : thus many who have done, say, History and English at 'A' level take their first two Terminals in those departments, and then in their third term venture into Philosophy.
Finally, every Foundation Year student has to attend a weekly Discussion Group. This is chaired by a professor or other senior member of the faculty, assisted by two colleagues— ideally, one from each group of studies other than his own. Every member of the faculty is under the obligation to serve as chairman or associate chairman of a Discussion Group. Dis- cussion themes are usually related to lectures given in the previous week. But each group is autonomous.
From his Foundation Year the undergraduate proceeds to honours work; though some whose tutors' reports and examination results have been very bad are dropped. Everyone has in his next three years to do four subjects. At least one of these must be chosen from the natural sciences and mathematics group and at least one from one of the other two groups. At least two of the four subjects must be studied to the Principal level. Principals are studied right through the three Principal Years; and examined finally with ratings on the Cambridge system of I, II (i), II (ii) or Ill. Subsidiary courses last for one year only, involve less work than the same period of a Prin- cipal course and are examined at the end of the year in which they are taken with ratings of Distinction, Pass or Fail. You must at least pass your Subsidiaries to qualify to get a degree. In some subjects, notably Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, two different Subsidiary courses have to be provided : thus there is an extremely in- teresting Physics course specially designed for those with no school science background; and a more conventional one for the rest. Educaticn has an anomalous status: for making up your quota of four subjects it counts as a Subsidiary; but it demands much more time than any other Subsidiary, and that throughout all three Prin- cipal Years. But as those who pass out satisfac- torily get a Diploma in Education in addition to their BA, extra work wins extra reward.
From this outline of the peculiar institutions of Keele we can now turn to the more generally interesting questions. Consider the Foundation Year. The original and most often mentioned object of this exercise was to make an onslaught against philistinism, narrow-minded ignorance and complacency. But in the event it is seen to be performing a second important function. For it gives every student the chance to shop around sampling fresh subjects before he has to commit himself finally to a choice of what to read for honours. (It also at the same time gives the de- partments a chance to take their own good look at the potential honours student; and this, too, can save some mistaken choices.) It is obviously hard, if not impossible, to find any satisfactory direct measure of success or failure in the first object. What evidence there is suggests that the impact is frequently very great, though, of course, it is never as great or as general as we should wish. But with the second function there is a measure. What it shows is remarkable. This measure is provided by the fact that most candi- dates for admission recorded at the time of their selection what they intended to read as Princi- pals. But of those who did this, who were ad- mitted, and who then traversed the Foundation Year satisfactorily, less than one half are now reading as their Principals both the two subjects they had originally intended to choose. Even this certainly understates the impact of the sampling opportunities provided by the Founda- tion Year. For most of those who failed to specify two intended Principals before admis- sion presumably failed to do so because they felt that they were too ignorant of some of the pos- sible options. While even those who follow their original intentions have been able to make their choice after experience and not in innocence of alternatives.
So much for the Foundation Year. In the three Principal Years the pattern is of a joint honours course with two Subsidiaries. Now there 15 nothing new or peculiar about joint honours de- grees or Subsidiary requirements as such. Indeed, that doyen of British honours courses, the Oxford School of Littene Humaniores (`Greats'), is in fact a joint honours course in Ancient History and Philosophy; and Subsidiary passes, whether under that name or another, are required in many single honours schools. The uniqueness of Keele lies elsewhere. It is sometimes quipped that in America they have tea while in England we have to have tea. Similarly, whereas elsewhere under- graduates may take joint honours degrees, at Keele they must. There is no official restriction on which four subjects (usually two Principal and two Subsidiary) the student chooses; except that his choice, here again as in the Foundation Year, must bridge the Great Divide. However, for timetabling reasons, not all conceivable com- binations can be possible. But we try to arrange that the timetable shall rule out only those with- , out point, while bearing in mind that particular combinations can be justified on several different sorts of ground. They may provide stimulating contrasts and fruitful connections : as English- Philosophy or History-Geography. Or disparate disciplines may both be relevant to the same career :. the chemical industry shows continual interest in Chemistry-Economics. Or there may be students who just want to do two subjects not related either directly or indirectly.
These arrangements give rise to several further peculiarities of Keele. One is that many joint honours combinations which are not provided for anywhere else are possible here; and, of course, when you take the Subsidiaries into account, too, the additional variety is much greater still. Another peculiarity is that some subjects, which are elsewhere studied only in simon-pure isolation, at Keele run only in double harness. Another is that as all departments at Keele are concerned only with joint honours courses we have none of the tensions which arise from attempts to run these alongside single honours courses, which tend to harry and squeeze out the shared in favour of the monopolised student. Another, resulting partly from the in- sistence that everyone must take a joint honours course and partly from the sampling oppor- tunities of the Foundation Year, is that the enrol- ment for subjects not taken at school is proportionately far higher at Keele than at Red- brick. Students are encouraged to branch out: to take Philosophy as well as English; to add Politics to their History; besides Geography to read Economics. Another still is that both students and faculty members are linked into far wider and thicker nets of professional ties than their opposite numbers elsewhere. Every faculty member finds that he has had some students in common with every other faculty member : a geologist had in his Discussion Group a man now reading English as a Principal; and an economist had in his Subsidiary class some Physics Principals. The students, too, find the same sort of thing. For, quite apart from the effects of residence and of the shared experience of the Foundation Year, the system of combina- tions leads every student to share classes at one time or another with a far higher proportion of his contemporaries than does his opposite num- ber elsewhere.
Keele is a challenge, and a challenge raises questions. 'Are you not asking too much in ex- pecting students to do two Principal and two Subsidiary subjects in three years?' Well, 'Greats' at Oxford takes only seven terms, while each Subsidiary represents considerably less than one full term's work. 'Surely, then, doing two Principals must lower standards?' Not at all. Certainly you will be unable to do as much work in either as you could in a single school. But that is not to say that what you do has to be done less well. And Keele has not only the usual External Examiners, but also a special Academic Council appointed by three sponsoring univer- sities—Birmingham, Manchester and Oxford— to keep standards in step with those elsewhere. `But how can your graduates compete with specialists from other universities?' Well, our man (or woman) may have done less Physics. But he must have done more of something' else which can stand him in good stead. Certainly our best have proved acceptable and successful post- graduate students, especially perhaps when working on projects falling in the borderline be- tween their Principal subjects. While there is no reason at all why employers who have no direct use for the degree learning of their graduate staff should prefer to hire English and nothing but, rather than English with History or Philosophy. 'Could any of these Keele institu- tions be established elsewhere?' It would be quite impossible to cram into three years all that we struggle to do in four. Yet, given good will and determination, you could do something : you might, for instance, give students a chance to shop about in their first two terms and then re- quire two Principal subjects in the remaining seven. However, as the University Grants Com- mittee puts it, euphemistically : 'New institutions, starting without traditions with which the inno- vator must come to terms, are more favourably situated for such experimentation than established universities' (University Development 1952-7, p. 10). So if we are to see more of that 'constant experiment in the organisation of university and design of university curricula' which they allow that in these days we urgently need, then the best hope lies in the new college soon to be founded at Brighton. Will they let it become just one more Redbrick? Or will they insist on experi- ment .and nourish another but different new model college?
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