Abstract
THE Association for the Organisation of Academical Study has inaugurated a good work, which must in the end have an important result. But in the expressions of policy as yet put out by that body we notice an omission which perhaps is intentional, but in any case a very serious, indeed a fundamental one. It is well enough to declare that the collegiate and other revenues of Oxford and Cambridge should be devoted to the encouragement of research, and to placing the highest kind of teaching in all subjects within the reach of the people of this country. It is most true that to this end prize-fellowships and non-resident sinecures must be abolished, and in their place we must have carefully-chosen professors, assistant-professors, and lecturers, teaching and carrying on original research in all departments of knowledge. With such a programme in hand the members of this association can very plausibly demand for the old Universities that they be not despoiled of their excessive wealth, but that this wealth be made operative and productive within the limits of the Universities themselves. Nevertheless there is a question which necessarily arises—whenever the future of the English Universities is mentioned—which the Association has not discussed, and which we think it ought boldly to meet, even though it should lead to a split in the ranks. That question is this—Are Oxford and Cambridge to remain as institutions exclusively for the elegant education—the “culture”—of the upper classes who may choose and can afford to allow their sons to while away certain years there? or are they to be made engines of national education where a poor man may go with as much reason as a rich one; and profitably spend his time in acquiring knowledge and training which have a real value in the world and place their possessor in the position to earn his bread and his standing among men?
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The Future of the English Universities . Nature 8, 61–62 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008061a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008061a0