Abstract
BIRMINGHAM.—Mr. Chamberlain, the Chanwcellor of the University, presided at the annual meeting of the Court of Governors held on February 6. Speaking after the adoption of the annual report, Mr. Chamberlain said that when the governors of Mason College met some five or six years ago and came to the decision that the time had come to give Birmingham its own university, it was thought that the least sum of money which would justify them in applying for a charter was 100,000l. But very shortly afterwards they found that there was a great opportunity, not only for themselves, but for other great provincial cities, to create a series of universities which in the first place would bring home to all the population the advantages of the highest education, and in the second place, would specialise this highest education with some more definite idea of its application to science than hitherto had been found to be possible. The moment they decided on a departure of that kind they found that it meant something quite different from what they had previously supposed. New buildings had to be specially devised, a very large and expensive equipment had to be provided, and new chairs had to be created; altogether a completely new ideal had to be developed. And then they put their demand—a demand which, indeed, they did not strictly limit themselves to, but they thought it would probably be sufficient for the present generation—they put their demand at the expenditure of one million of money. They had received at once nearly half that sum, largely from Birmingham. And he might say in passing that the liberality of the local contribution was a ground for the claim which they made for some further State support. “It is something,” he said, “that we have found that the Government are becoming alive to our needs and to our deserts, and that they have been able to double the sum previously given for the university education. But we may bear in mind at the same time that the present Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised to double it again in his next Budget, and, therefore, I anticipate that from that source we shall receive a very considerable addition. I do not at all accept it as in any way a satisfaction of our demands, because it is my conviction that public opinion will soon insist upon larger sums being devoted to this purpose. When I think that we are spending 13 millions a year at least on primary education I say the sum now given for the purpose of the highest education, the most profitable of all the investments we can make in that direction, is altogether inadequate.”
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UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE . Nature 71, 356–357 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/071356a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/071356a0