Swiss Universities.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 254, 25 November 1903, Page 3

Swiss Universities.

The Swiss Universities are beginning to protest against their invasion by ii. crowd of foreign students many o ! f whom taiiso' political disturbances and Complications with foreign powers. The evil has spread to such a.degree that the majority of the students in the Swiss universities are not Swiss subjects.' MO'S't of them are Russians, and of these 75 per cent are women. These students do mot occupy themselves so much with the ordinary branches of study as with Social and political theories: Nihilism; Socialism, and Anarchism are their favo'urite subjects of cfis'cussio'rt, ami they endeavour to put their theories iti practice by a systematic political agitation, which gives ; no little trouble to the police and the Federal Government of the Swiss Republics. Owing to their machinations, Switzerland, and especially such towns as Geneva and Zurich; have come to b<e regarded as a sort of revolutionary and anarchistic elements. Moreover, the maintenance df th*r costly staff aiid other equipments of the' University imposes on the Swiss Treasury a much larger expense than wotild be the case if Svfiss students only were admitted to them: At .Geh'eva; for instance, the number of S"\vis£ bludents has never been more than 250, while the total number, including foreigners, that attended during the lirst six months of the present year was 1722, This, of course, necessitated a much larger number of professors, etc.j and as the fees for lectures are very small the excess cost has to 'be borne by the Swiss public. Nor do the Swiss, tradespeople make any profit worth mentioning out of thpse students, as they are nearly ail very poor. A further objection is that the' foreign students who come to Switzerland are not sufficiently prepared for study at a university, and this causes a lowering of the educational standards, the professors having to adapt themselves in their teaching to the educational level of the .Majority of the students. The result is tfiat the medical, legal, and other graduates of the Swiss Universities are no longer so highly qualified as they used to be. For all these reasons it is being seriously considered whether some steps should not be taken to restrict the excessive and damaging influx of students from abroad, and more especially of Russian female students.