LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE NEW UNIVERSITY REFORMERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTITOR.1 SIR,—In your article on "The New University Reformers," you infer from the speech of the Rector of Lincoln that we "look
upon the cry for the extension of the teaching agency of the Universities to the greater local centres by the help of local pro- fessoriats with a somewhat contemptuous indifference, only not actual hostility,"—for a certain reason which you give.
I desire to be allowed to state that this, at any rate, is not true of me. These 'local professoriats ' are and have long been a pet
object of mine. I have urged the establishment of them for years
past in several great towns. I do not think them merely un- objectionable or moderately desirable, as the Rector of Lincoln does. I think them of immense importance, not only because the local professors will belong themselves to the class of savants that we want to create, but also because they will diffuse a high con- ception of culture, and because they will counteract the excessive centralisation of thought that now goes on. My views on this subject are shared by most of those who agree with me most on the subject of University Reform, and therefore I think it likely that they are shared by many who were present at the meeting.
But we may hold this, and yet think that such local profeasiorats ought not to be created by summarily appropriating the funds of the Universities to the purpose. I should be glad, indeed, to see the Universities coming forward, as they did in the far less important matter of local examinations, to superintend the crea- tion of the local colleges. But the towns themselves in which they are to be created ought themselves to experience the want, and be ready to make sacrifices for the satisfaction of it, if the scheme is to have any probability of succeeding.
You are persuaded that you differ from us about the value of examinations, and you will be confirmed in your opinion by the expression "far less important matter" that has just fallen from me. Nevertheless, I cannot discover that I differ from you at all upon the subject. There is nothing in your article to which I have any objection. Certainly I do think that examination is less important than teaching, and that teaching, again, is less important than mature study. But then this is not because I have a low opinion of the importance either of teaching or of ex- amination, but because I have a high opinion of the importance of mature study. I could not indeed go all the length that you do in praise of examinations. I do not doubt that they are of considerable importance ; whether they are "of extreme im- portance," I shall be able to judge when I see them in a form which is not abusive. But I am quite open to conviction. All I know is that, however important they may be, they are less im- portant than mature study and less important than teaching. It seems to me that at our meeting Professor Rolleston said quite as much in praise of examinations as there was any occasion to say. It will be time enough to make their panegyric when there is any fear of their being underrated.—I am, Sir, &c., J. R. SEELEY.
Previous page
