UNIVERSITY CHANGES
By A CAMBRIDGE TUTOR
THE universities are approaching the end of their first year of grappling with post-war problems and readjustments. Last October all universities viewed with mingled pleasure and anxiety the return of large numbers of students from the forces. It was pleasure enhanced by the discovery that casualties had been much fewer than one had dared to hope in the autumn of 1939, when numbers first began to decline ; and anxiety increased by the know- ledge that the pent-up entry of six years would raise enormous problems of accommodation, teaching and administration. Now, with the annual orgy of examinations already begun or about to begin, it is possible to look back on an exhausting but exhilarating academic year, and forward to the second round of readjustments which will begin next October. For the universities are by no means back to normal yet.
Until only a month or two ago students were still trickling back to the universities as they secured release under Class B regulations. Total numbers in residence at Oxford and Cambridge have crept up to two-thirds or more of pre-war figures. As college buildings and lodgings have been vacated by their war-time occupants, adequate accommodation has been found for returning warriors. Meanwhile, tutors have been peppered with an incessant flow of applications from prospective entrants. The generous scheme of further education grants administered by the Ministry of Education has stimulated a tremendous demand from ex-Servicemen for a university education. For every place likely to be available next October, even with the utmost expansion possible on the part of the universities, there have so far been six or eight applicants, and there are still four months to go before October. Faced with the duty to reserve enough places for the hitherto unknown number of former members of the universi- ties likely to be released under Class B before October, tutors have had to tread cautiously, accepting only the most promising new applicants and stalling for time with more -doubtful applicants. It has been necessary to try—often on very slight evidence—to sort out those who would clearly benefit from a university education and those whose main consideration in applying was the prospect of three years' security and the "carefree life" which univerity students allegedly enjoy. But even traditional tutorial caution has not pre- vented the carefully-sifted worthy entrants from running to formid- able numbers.
Some ninety per cent, of students at all universities next October will be ex-Servicemen. The Ministry of 'Labour has decreed that this should be so. This means, on the one hand, that the prospects of the schoolboys of eighteen starting their university career before conscription are extremely slight. They are consoled by the know- ledge that in future those who have gained any competitive award will no longer have to collect various supplementary grants before their career becomes financially possible : they will have all further needs met by Government grant. It means, on the other hand, that the average age of university students will be twenty-two or twenty- three, instead of nineteen; and in October the student population will range in age from the fortunate schoolboy of eighteen to the elderly, married warrior.of thirty. Many university teachers believe that students will gain by being somewhat older and more mature than hitherto. The schoolboy entrant who has spent two year, doing national service between leaving school and coming to the university will benefit in many ways from his wider experience and greater maturity.
Certainly the experience of universities with the returned ex- Servicemen endorses this belief. Last October there were two categories of ex-Service student: those whose courses of study had been interrupted by the war, and who returned to complete one or two years of their courses ; and the ex-Service freshmen. The former at first felt that they were, in the caustic but not un- kindly phrase of one tutor, "returned empties "; the latter had the double problem of readjustment to civilian life and adjustment to university studies. But both categories, after a month ot a term of hesitancy and fumbling, have settled .down admirably to hard work and an enjoyment of university life that gladdens the heart. How far they have completely regained their former standard of academic ability (most of them had to be scholars or exhibitioners to secure Class B release) will be revealed only when the results of examinations now proceeding become known. Already there is no doubt about their complete recovery of pre-war standards of interest. At both Oxford and Cambridge clubs and societies which withered during the war years have bounced back into life with extraordinary vigour. The Union Societies at both have almost regained their old life ; though more slowly at Cambridge than at Oxford, because the buildings of the Cambridge Union were unfortunately damaged by a bomb, and lunches and dinners—that indispensable attraction of Union Societies—have not yet become available. Clubs like the Bryce Club at Oxford and the True Blue at Cambridge have leapt into- activity again, and larger societies like Cosmos at Oxford and Cusia at Cambridge, which survived throughout the war, find size of membership their only embarrassment. College clubs, naturally, abound in number as much as they vary in liveliness, and boat clubs and other sports clubs exert all their old fascination.
For these reasons, the universities will be better fitted next October than they were last October to absorb the further increase of munbers. They are more their old selves again, and the fresh- man, whether from school or forces, will find a more vigorous and more normal life into which he can merge. But from the point of view of administrators and teachers many headaches remain. One problem is the new distribution between faculties. There is in- evitably great demand to study the mechanical and natural sciences, and the problem of laboratory accommodation is acute everywhere. At Oxford there is an unprecedented clamour to read Modern Greats (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) which is having to be met by the employment of additional temporary lecturers. Teaching staffs will everywhere have to be increased at a time when there is a real scarcity of skilled and experienced university teachers. Since it is a golden rule that' the student should be free to study the subject that he most wants, and seems best fitted, to study, staffs, laboratories and even courses of study will have to be adapted to meet the new distribution of demand. Financially, the heavy costs entailed in this expansion and adjustment have to be met partially by increased fees, but mainly by an increase in direct Government grants to universities. The long-delayed revision of the stipends of professors and lecturers is only now being tackled: Cambridge, for instance, has prepared a scheme for marriage and family allow- ances to university staff which will come into operation in October if an adequate Treasury grant is forthcoming.
I have mentioned the main changes, and some of the main pro- blems, which confront our two ancient residential universities. Very similar problems confront London University and its great colleges, and if I omit details of the others; it is only because I cannot speal, with knowledge of their particular problems. All suffer, however, from general difficulties which deserve mention. One is the shortage of trained teaching staff. Another is the acute shortage of books. It is high time that a special allocation of paper was made, at least to the University Presses, for the special purpose of reprinting essential text-hooks. Even this would only touch the fringe of the problem. Books published abroad, often essential for university studies, are largely unavailable, and even when available are extremely costly. There are the problems of feeding and catering for an ever- increasing number of students, whether in college halls or in canteens and refectories, and here difficulties of adequate staffing and of adequate supplies are still acute. The towns of Oxford, Cambridge and London have all suffered very large increases in population as a result of the war, and the pressure on food-supplies and catering establishments is rivalled only by the pressure on living accommoda- tion. Academic studies are not easy in such circumstances, and such mundane, material problems matter enough to deserve more attention.
It is too soon to forth any clear idea of whither present changes will lead our universities. That they will become more widespread in their influence, both in range of studies and in social life, is clear enough. In conjunction with the other far-reaching changes in our educational system, the universities of the post-war world will adapt themselves—as they already are doing—to the needs of post-war society. But it remains their special duty to safeguard—in the process of adjustment to the new demand for advanced education— those standards of integrity of scholarship and that love of learning for its own sake which they alone can preserve.
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