SCIENCE COURSES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 7

SCIENCE COURSES

TOO MANY STUDENTS

ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES

BIG COST TO THE STATE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 7.

Mr.. H. T. Tizard, Eector of the Impcriul College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, in his address from the chair to the Education Section of the British Association meeting at Aberdeen, discussed the place of science at tho universities, a subject on which his scientific status and administrative experience make him a high authority. Mr. Tizard considered that science was bound to go on increasing in. importance in university teaching. He could not imagine the classics. being widely taught in 500 years' time; he could not imagine a time when science would not be taught; "I was at a public school at a time wheu to take an interest in science was held to be a sign that you were not quite a gentleman. At my. school there were 'close' scholarships . to. Oxford and Cambridge, but I was soon given to understand that these were not availablo for boys on the science side. ' They were made so! available soon after I left, at about the time when baths were first installed'in'col-i lege:—an interesting coincidence of sanity and sanitation. "It does not seem so very long ago to me; yet the changes that have taken place since then are. so profound that it is now considered quite respectable1 to be a scientist, even at a public school." UNIVERSITIES TOO FULL. Today, the House of Commons was not sufficiently critical of expenditure on scientific research, "because it's faith is greater than its understanding." For university education the State provided a sum ten times as great as before the war, and the public spent nearly £200 a year on each student of science with the possible exception of those at Oxford and Cambridge. But ho thought the time had come seriously to consider ■whether a further increase in the number of students at universities could be justified. Where should they ' draw the line? Judged from the standpoint that only those who could make the best nse of universities should remain there, he thought the universities were too full. Consequently the tendency was towards over-organisation, too little latitude, and too much spoon-feeding. INDUSTRY AND THE GRADUATE. Did graduates find any difficulty in getting suitable employment at the end of their university career? Different branches of industry held different views about the value of university education in science. In some branches of tho engineering industry the graduate was as welcome as he was in most branches of the chemical industry, but in many he seemed to be regarded as a misfit. One prominent manufacturer, who had lived most of his life near a university, boasted that he employed no graduates. "My experience is that too many engineering graduates find themselves in blind alleys from which they have little opportunity to escape," said Mr. Tizard. The fault lay both with the employers and with the universities, who had too many students of engineering. There were ten university schools of mining in Great Britain, but that number could hardly be justified by tho demand for mining engineers at home or overseas.

■ With all the increase of scientific activity there had arisen an urgent need for skilled administrators and men in public life who had a real knowledge of the general principles' of science— not the kind of knowledge derived from conversation, broadcast talks, and popular books, however good those might be. . " .

The time was ripe to establish a school where such general knowledge could be obtained. Universities could not develop the qualities of leadership if they fell into the temptation of mass production. Individuality needed to be deliberately encouraged at universities in these days of committee rule.