Abstract
As announced in Nature of August 13, p. 206, Mr. T. H. Marshall has been appointed to the newly instituted University chair of social institutions tenable at the London School of Economics. This chair has a double function. Within the general field of sociology the professor will be responsible for promoting the study of modern social structure, which includes both analysis of the functions of social institutions and investigation into the character and composition of social groups. At the same time, Mr. Marshall succeeds Mr. C. M. Lloyd as head of the Social Science Department. This Department has grown steadily in size and range under Mr. Lloyd, and has been working to capacity throughout the War to meet the demand for trained social workers. But the development and expansion of the social services is likely to be even greater after the War, and universities will be under pressure to take more students and to train them more rapidly. In such circumstances great care will be needed to ensure that quality is not sacrificed to quantity, and to prevent any deviation from the twofold aim of raising the academic status of the Social Science Department within the University and raising the professional status of the trained social worker in the world outside. An important step in this direction can be made by integrating the work of the Social Science Department more closely with that of the other departments of the School. The dual character of the new chair should make this easier than it has been in the past. Mr. Marshall is at present reader in sociology in the School.
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Chair of Social Institutions, University of London. Nature 154, 330 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154330a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154330a0