Abstract
EDINBURGH.—The election of the lord rector in each of the four Scottish Universities is one of the great events in a student's life. As a rule the candidates are chosen on account of their political eminence, and the election runs on purely party lines. For ten days preceding the election proper the Conservatives and Liberals vie with one another in the issue of posters, pamphlets, and cartoons. They raid each other's ternporary offices at all hours of night and day; and in Edinburgh University when the great day of the election comes and the votes are being recorded in the various class-rooms, there is a gigantic tussle in the quadrangle so as to gain and hold a certain position of vantage below the clock. A torchlight procession finishes the day's doings. Early in the summer the two parties among the Edinburgh students chose Sir J ohn Simon and Sir Edward Carson as their candidates, and had affairs developed normally there would have been very lively times. The shadow of the war, however, stayed the coming strife, and with great wisdom the leaders of the Liberal and Unionist Associations agreed to invite as their lord rector an eminent man of no political party. Their choice fell on Lord Kitchener, himself an honorary graduate of Edinburgh University. A new lord rector is chosen every three years. He represents the students on the University Court, the governing body of the University, and when present presides at the meetings of the Court. This, however, is a comparatively rare occurrence. His one imperative duty is to address the students of the University once during his tenure of office. The addresses of Lord Kitchener and of President Poincar, who, as announced last week, has been elected rector of the University of Glasgow, will be looked forward to with great interest.
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University and Educational Intelligence . Nature 94, 272–273 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/094272a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/094272a0