THE UNIVERSITY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 178, 23 April 1919, Page 10

THE UNIVERSITY

US NEW PLACE IN THE NATIONAL LIFE

MR. FISHER'S VIEWS

The place of llio University in national ife was the subject on which the Ihgnt Hon. H. A. L. fisher, I'residcnt of tlVo Joard of Education, i.ddresscd a Barnett ffonso Conference in *ho Sheldonian I'heatre, Oxford, on a recent occasion, riio Master of Ualliol (Mr. A. L. Smith) presided, and the largo gathering which issembled included liumcroils distinguished members of the University, educationists, and teachers. Mr. I'isher said that great changes had ;ome over tho educational world since he irst came up to Oxford in 1881. The new Universities had developed and nuiltililicd. Their system cf public education bad . been transformed by the Acts of WO2 and MB, and the State had now bcim to exercise an influence over tho lircction of scientific research through the creation of a Department of the Privy Council, which had been formed for the purpose of encouraging the application of science to the practical aflairs of hie. To their original functions of extending Hie bounds of -knowledge and of educating undergraduote students, the Universities iiiul now taken on themselves the burden of providing education of a university character to adult men and women wire- hail missed their opportunities in early life. The State had now become fully conscious of its responsibilities to learning and education, and of the place which institutions for the humane and scientific studies should pioperly hold in tho national life. The war had also brought into clear relief a fact of which many of them had long been conscious, but 'which coutd not otherwise have secured a lodgment in the general consciousness of the community. All over the countiT people had begun to realise that the Universities and technical colleges had stood for a great deal in tho national equipment during these times of stress nn'd strain. At the beginning of the war it would be no exaggeration to say that there was a most inadequate appr'eoialion of Fife results which might be derived from the laboratories and brains of their Universities, but by degrees tho Universities imposed themselves on tho State as indispensable instruments of public efficiency, and the largest drafts were made on their resources of energy and goodwill. Differentiation of Functions, Prom the point of view'of the Slate, Hie universities of the United Kingdom ind of Ireland formed a single body, furnishing a crop of workers, upon whose researches, in. the main, the advance if their higher knowledge 1 must depend. I'hcy- could not all do everything; they should, not all attempt to do the same things. ]n the sphere of applied science at least, where cost was highest ind expansion most rapid, there slion'd be some differentiation of functions imong universities if men and money ivcre not to be souandered rnd if the nation was to derive the best pdvantaga for "its outlay. How much should he common to all, how much peculiar to ?ach or to few. would be left to the joint forces of, tradition, local. circumstance,' nulual agreement, and the discriminating igency of tSatc grants. "For' some years past the universities bad been develoning special lines pi stmlv' suggested by local or industrial conditions or by some accident of tradition or individual genins. What now needed some consideration was the x exc L ent to which those who were responsible for directinc the noliey in then' imivcrlities should act in unison and upon a ximnrohensive view of what was best 'or the country as a whole. Tie did not Ihink Hint they could lie content to leave events to the blind plav if competition, and he would be sorry if ill? deciding factor sh.inld rest with the 'lovernment It, would -be altogether More wholesome and more in accordance ivith ,the tradition of English academic ife if the noliey of University develooment over the whole country were (n he shadoed in the interests of the whole ( 3onntry and upon a view of national nepds by the universities themselves. Thirty Years Hence. The new educational legislation would, by its enlargement of the area of State, aided education, affect the universities in three ways. Presumably it would lit n greatly increased number of young men mid women for a. university life, and so increase the number of candidates for tho Bachelor Degree, and certainly it would create a greatly increased demand For teachers in tho State-aided schools, all sf whom would, it was to be hoped, at some time or another come within the in. ftuenco of tho universities. Lastly it would jreate a new clientele of extramural university leading.. At present the appeal of the Extension Movement and tho Workers' Educational Association, was severely limited by the fact that for tho vast majority of the population education ceased with the elementary school, and it was only the fit and the few who wero willing at a later stage in life, to submit themselves to any regular form of intellectual discipline. All this would bo greatly changed by the development of cheap secondary schools and by tho introduction under tho Act of 1018 of a system of part-time 'day continuation classes. Tho effect would not lie immediately visible, but thirty years hence it would be found to' have been profound and all persuasive, for it would havo stamped the university on the consciousness of the people as a democratic institution, open to all, and spreading its influence over the whole surfneo of national life. (Applause.) The business of a university was not to equip students for professional posts, but to train them in disinterested intellectual habits, to give them a vision of what Teal learning was, to refine taste,' to' form judgment, to enlargo curiosity, and to substitute for a low and material Outlook on life a lofty view of its resources and demands. The New and the Old. ' "What heeded emphasis was the value for an industrious community of an intellectual influence which was capable in a thousand and one ways of altering for the better the general tone and temper of industrial life, both on the side of Capital and on the side of Labour. The workers were now beginning to look to tho Universities, and were half Inclined to trust them. (Laughter.) .The} had begun to regard them as institution's which exist for the benefit of the ge. eral public, and which represent a <liinterested outlook on life, and if the'Ui' versifies succeeded in maintaining their reputation for strict imparliiility in v ], o political and industrial quarrels of. the age, while at the same time they exercised a humanising influence upon the general mass of the population -through"the secondary schools through the Workers' Education Association; through Extension Lectures, and through the association of their leading members with all the best philanthropic and intellectual enterprises of tho neighbourhood, it was reasonable to hope that if some of the most intractable difficulties which now appeared to confront them would lie toned down and eventually disappear. The newer Universities cniild not affect indifference to the practice and purpose of Oxford and Cambridge, and the obligations which in _ former times were onesided were beginning to be recinrocal. In this interchange and intcr-coniniun-ion there were seeds of rich nromise for the moral and intellectual development of (ho nation, (Cheers.)