HIGHER EDUCATION IN BELGIUM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 174, 28 July 1876, Page 7

HIGHER EDUCATION IN BELGIUM.

The Representative Chamber at Brussels has been occupied with a scheme of University reform, and from the ' London Tablet ' we learn that the violent unreason of the Radical party has had the remarkable effect of bringing pro Tide vice to the Catholic side so pronounced a Liberal as the ex-Minister, M. Frere Orban, -who in 1857 upset a Conservative Administration by means of a street imeute against convents, and who more recently attacked the clergy in a speech at Liege. M. Frere Orban has been threatened with the hostility of his liberal friends for the part he has taken on this question, and it is creditable to his patriotism and his moral courage that he has despised those threats and has adhered to the policy which he conscientiously deems most conducive to the best interests of his country. The state of things which it is now proposed to change was established by the law of 1849, under which degrees were conferred on University students by a mixed Board {jury combine) of examiners appointed by the State, and selected partly from the professors of one of the " free universities/ and partly from those of a State University. It is scarcely necessary to mention here that one of the universities' called "free" is the Catholic /University of Louvain, which is supported by the clergy and laity, and receives no direct pecuniary aid from the State. The working of the mixed Board system is admitted on all hands to be u:ost unsatisfactory. It was denounced as a failure seven years after its establishment, by M. De Decker, then Minister of the interior ; but it has nevertheless gone on until the present, when its evils can no longer be tolerated. They -were forcibly stated by M. Frere Orban to the Chamber on the 29th ult. He said that by the present mode of conducting examinations and conferring degrees education and science were enslaved to the State. It is gratifying to observe that enlightened Liberals are beginning to discover that University education, to be worthy the name, must be free, and that there are things in which state interference is invariably mischievous and paralysing. M. Frere Orban quoted a number of authorities to prove that the mixed Board wats destroying all freedom of teaching. Their action resulted in " collusion or collision." Their examinations were such as could be passed by the merest cram, and were therefore a sham [and had lost all value in the eyes of independent men. Their examination papers were printed, and might be got by rote as a catechism ; and he excited the laughter of the House by suggesting that the expense of a University course might as well be saved by allowing the candidates in law, medicine, and engineering, to obtain diplomas by reciting from memory before the board a cut and dried cathechism of their respective professions. To remedy the evils of the present system, it is proposed that the Government should for the future abstain from all direct interference in the holding of examinations, or in the

conferring of degrees, both which duties are to be left to the University authorities. When the Bill becomes law — the liberal professions will be open to all holders of the appropriate academic diploma, the genuineness of which is to be attested by a Government Commission to be appointed for that purpose. The State, however, reserves to itself full liberty of requiring such attestations of competency as it may see fit from those who seek employment in the civil or military service of the country. The fraction of the Radical party in the Chamber, led by M. Tesch, who offer opposition to this measure, do so, not on its merits, but on the rather barefaced pretext that it will confer some advantages on the Catholics. It would be more correct to say that it removes a portion of the injustice under which Catholics have long suffered, in having their programme of studies and their method of tuition dictated by the professors of rival establishments, and their students examined by unfriendly examiners. Even these, however, are advantages not to be lightly relinquished by the men who clamor for the repeal of the Budget of Worship, and for the imposition on the national Clergy of compulsory service in the rank 3of the army. Since the above was written, the Bill has passed the Representative chamber by a majority of 78 against 26. M. Frere Orban and two other Liberals voting against their party in favor of it. This measure is expected by the Belgian Conservatives and Catholics to have the effect of setting free to a great extent their higher education from State control, and of placing it under the effectual supervision of the Church. Its passage through the Legislature is therefore regarded by them as a most gratifying success, not only on account of the benfits expected to flow from the reform itself, but also on account of the indication it affords of political strength on their side. The lower grade of Radicals, who in Belgium are of a very low type indeed — have fought tooth and nail against the Bill, and have been beaten. Catholics in Belgium really possess so decisive a preponderance ie the country as regards numbers, wealth, intelligence, and respectability, that the time must sooner or later arrive, though its advent has been from various causes unduly delayed, when they will assume their legitimate influence over the affairs of the nation. As regards University education, Catholic superiority is already unquestionable. The scientific reputation of the University of Louvain which now has 1,200 students, stands first in the country, and is neither unknown noi unrecognized in the rest of Europe. Independent of that State support without which the other University oouia not exist, and with which it does not. fl««-ioii, ijouvain has progressed year by ypj« in academical strength as well as in public esteem, until now it may,be said with truth — as we are assured by those on i whose testimony we can rely — that its! graduates are to be met ' with in every profession, and in all the higher walks of life, doing honor to their Alma Mater. The animosity of the Radicals is therefore easily 1 intelligible, and of itself forms an attestation o€ ! the success of the Catholic University..