THE APPOINTMENT
ELIGIBILITY, REQUIREMENTS, QUALIFICATIONS, EXAMINATION, METHODS OF
SELECTION, METHODS OF PROCEDURE AND INSTRUCTION
The Rhodes Trust now issues Memoranda which deal with the regulations and
instructions which govern the eligibility and selection of candidates
in their respective centres. Information may be had from the Local
Committees.[32] A brief condensation of these regulations as they appear
at present will answer most of the technical questions which may present
themselves to a prospective candidate.
Eligibility.
Candidates _must_ be _subjects_ of those countries which they represent,
i. e. Colonials—British subjects; Americans—citizens of the United
States; Germans—German subjects.
Candidates must be unmarried.
Candidates must have passed their nineteenth birthday (except: West
Australia—seventeenth, Queensland, Jamaica, and Newfoundland—eighteenth);
but must not have passed their twenty-fifth (Newfoundland—twenty-first,
South Africa—twenty-fourth) by October 1st of the year for which they are
elected.
Candidates, _except those who are exempted by the Colonial Universities
Statute or by special regulations (see, for various States, Provinces,
and Colonies, below)_, shall pass the ‘Responsions’ examination of the
University of Oxford or its equivalent before becoming eligible for
election.[33]
_This examination is in no way competitive._ It is merely a _qualifying
test_ to guarantee a degree of scholarship which will allow a student to
take up a course at Oxford.
The Examination.
[Sidenote: Papers.]
At the request of the Trustees, the University of Oxford named in 1904
and 1905 a Board of Examiners to prepare and handle papers for this
special examination. The same method will be adopted in 1907, and
probably with little change henceforth. Papers are arranged in Oxford,
printed, enclosed in sealed packages, and sent to the Chairman of each
Committee of Selection. These packages are opened by the supervising
examiner at the time and place announced for the examination and in the
presence of the candidates.
[Sidenote: Time and place.]
This examination will be held each year (except in the case of American,
German, and South African scholarships, as noted above on p. 24) in each
State or Territory, Province and Colony, not later than the month of
January, at suitable centres fixed upon by the respective Committees of
Selection. The Committees will appoint suitable persons to supervise the
examination and ensure its impartial conduct.
Stationery will be supplied. The packets of papers when opened will be
found to contain the examination questions, time tables, the printed text
of classical passages, &c., which are set in questions. Therefore _no
textbooks will be required_.
The subjects and books assigned may vary slightly from year to year. The
requirements, however, are as follows:[34]—
=1.= =Arithmetic=—the whole.
=2.= _Either_, =The Elements of Algebra=—Addition, Subtraction,
Multiplication, Division, Greatest Common Measure, Least Common Multiple,
Fractions, Extraction of Square Root, Simple Equations containing one or
two unknown quantities, and problems producing such equations;
_Or_, =The Elements of Geometry=.
Elementary questions, including propositions enunciated by Euclid, and
easy deductions therefrom, will be set on the subject-matter contained in
the following portions of Euclid’s Elements, viz.:—
Book I. The whole, excluding propositions 7, 16, 17, 21.
Book II. The whole, excluding proposition 8.
Book III. The whole, excluding propositions 2, 4-10, 13, 23, 24, 26-29.
Any method of proof will be accepted which shows clearness and accuracy
in geometrical reasoning. So far as possible, candidates should aim at
making the proof of any proposition complete in itself. In the case of
propositions 1-7, 9, 10 of Book II, algebraical proofs will be allowed.
The American student especially should note that _arithmetic_ includes
_circulating decimals_ and _English money_.
=3.= =Greek= _and_ =Latin Grammar=.
=4.= =Translation from English into Latin Prose.=
=5.= _One_ =Greek= _and one_ =Latin book=.
Any of the following portions of the under-mentioned authors will be
accepted as a ‘book’:—
Demosthenes: _De Corona_.
Euripides (any two of the following Plays: _Hecuba_, _Medea_, _Alcestis_,
_Bacchae_).
Homer: (1) _Iliad_, 1-5 or 2-6; _or_ (2) _Odyssey_, 1-5, 2-6.
Plato: _Apology_ and _Crito_.
Sophocles: _Antigone_ and _Ajax_.
Xenophon: _Anabasis_, 1-4 or 2-5.
Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, 1-4.
Cicero: (1) _Philippics_, 1, 2; _or_ (2) _In Catilinam_, 1-3, and _In
Verrem Actio_ I; _or_ (3) _Pro Murena_ and _Pro Lege Manilia_; _or_ (4)
_De Senectute_ and _De Amicitia_.
Horace: (1) _Odes_, 1-5; _or_ (2) _Satires_; _or_ (3) _Epistles_.
Livy: Books 5 and 6.
Virgil: (1) the _Bucolics_, with Books 1-3 of the _Aeneid_; _or_ (2) the
_Georgics_; _or_ (3) the _Aeneid_, Books 1-5 or 2-6.
Candidates, in preparation, may save time by noticing that _one_ Greek
and _one_ Latin book _only_ are required. Translations _only_ are
required; no questions being asked on the context or the grammar of the
passages in the set Books. _Greek and Latin Grammar and Latin Prose
should be given special attention_ for the separate papers set on those
subjects.[35]
[Sidenote: Texts.]
The Texts used are the Oxford Classical Texts (so far as published).
[Sidenote: Examination Papers.]
The papers written by candidates will be collected at the end of each
examination, sealed, and sent to Oxford, where they will be examined. The
names of those candidates who have satisfied the examiners will then be
listed and sent to their respective Committees, and from these and the
names of candidates who have otherwise qualified the Committee will make
a selection. A certificate of having passed Responsions or of exemption
from Responsions holds good permanently, so that a person once having
obtained such certificates need not take the examination again in order
to qualify as a candidate, and no holder of such certificate will be
required to take Responsions upon entering the University of Oxford.
[Sidenote: Selection.]
Any questions of doubtful eligibility are to be settled by the local
Committee of Selection.
The appointment shall be made each year; not later than the first of
March in Australia and New Zealand; not later than the end of March in
the other States, Territories, Provinces, and Colonies. The Scholar
elected will begin residence in Oxford in October of the year in which he
is elected.
LOCAL QUALIFICATIONS.
Australasia.
The Universities of Sydney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria),
Adelaide (South Australia), and Tasmania have applied for and been
admitted to the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute[36], so
that candidates coming from these Universities who have fulfilled the
stated conditions are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships
without further examination.
=New South Wales.= Candidates shall be undergraduates or graduates of the
University of Sydney.
Candidates shall have resided in New South Wales for an aggregate period
of four years during the five years immediately preceding the date of
election.
=Queensland.= Candidates shall have passed their eighteenth birthday,
upper limit (25) remaining the same. No candidate shall be eligible
for election who has been at a University for more than three years.
No person who has taken advantage of a Queensland Exhibition shall
be eligible for selection unless he consent to resign the Queensland
Exhibition on election to a Rhodes Scholarship.
Every candidate shall have attended a Secondary School or Schools in
Queensland continuously for three years, or his parents shall for the
period of five years immediately preceding his application have been
resident in Queensland.
=South Australia.= Candidates shall have lived in South Australia for an
aggregate period of four years during the six years immediately preceding
the date of their election.
=West Australia.= Candidates shall have passed their seventeenth
birthday, the upper limit (25) remaining the same.
Candidates shall have been educated in a recognized School or Schools in
West Australia for at least three years immediately before the election.
=Victoria.= Candidates must have been resident for at least seven years
in the Commonwealth of Australia or its dependencies, in New Zealand or
in Fiji, and for the three years immediately preceding the election must
have been resident in Victoria.
=Tasmania.= Candidates must have passed the first and second annual
examinations for any Bachelor’s Degree in the University of Tasmania.
Candidates must have been resident in Tasmania for five years prior to
being awarded Scholarships.[37]
Bermuda.
A candidate must be a natural-born British subject who was born in
Bermuda, or one of whose parents has been domiciled and resident in
Bermuda, for at least five years immediately preceding January 1st in the
year of selection, or in the event of his parents being dead, one of them
must have been domiciled and resident in Bermuda for at least five years
immediately prior to his or her death.
A candidate must have been educated in Bermuda for at least five years
between the ages of twelve and twenty years.
A candidate who has attended a Colonial University affiliated to Oxford
is exempted from Responsions.
Canada.
An elected Scholar must have reached at least the end of his sophomore
or second year’s work at some recognized degree-granting University or
College of Canada.
Candidates may elect whether they will apply for the Scholarship of the
Province in which they have acquired any considerable part of their
educational qualification, or for that of the Province in which they have
their ordinary private domicile, home or residence. They must be prepared
to present themselves for examination or election in the Province they
select. No candidate may compete in more than one Province, either in the
same or successive years.
The following Canadian Universities have applied for and been admitted to
the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute, so that candidates
coming from these Universities who have fulfilled the conditions
are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships without further
examination:—
McGill University Montreal.
Laval University Quebec.
Toronto University Toronto.
Queen’s University Kingston.
Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia.
King’s College University Windsor, Nova Scotia.
Acadia University Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Mount Alison University Sackville, New Brunswick.
Manitoba University Winnipeg, Manitoba.[38]
Jamaica.
Candidates must have passed their eighteenth birthday, the upper limit
(25) remaining the same.
The parents or recognized guardians of candidates must be actually
domiciled in Jamaica, such domicile to include at least seven years of
residence in Jamaica immediately preceding the election. In cases where,
during the seven years’ period, the parent or guardian has taken short
holiday trips off the island, such absence shall not be counted.
Candidates must have passed at least five years of their life in Jamaica.
If educated partially abroad, candidates must not have left Jamaica to
commence such part of their education before the age of eleven years,
their preliminary education having been secured in Jamaica.
Every third year the selection of the Rhodes Scholars will be made from
the candidates who have lived in Jamaica for the whole of the seven years
preceding the date of examination. In case of such candidate having been
off the island for the benefit of his health during this period, the
Committee of Selection may decide, if they think fit, that this does not
interfere with his eligibility. (Candidates who have attended a Colonial
University affiliated to Oxford are exempted from Responsions if they
fulfil the conditions of the Statute.) The qualifying examination will be
held in the city of Kingston each year.
Newfoundland.
Candidates must have passed their eighteenth birthday, but must not have
passed their twenty-first birthday, on the first of October of the year
for which they are elected.
Candidates or their parents must have resided in the Colony for the five
years immediately preceding the examination.
Candidates must have been regular attendant pupils or teachers _in one
of the public schools of the Colony for the three scholastic years
immediately previous to the examination_, provided that in alternate
years, beginning in 1905, candidates who have received their education
elsewhere subsequent to their fifteenth birthday, and who are otherwise
qualified, shall be eligible.
The qualifying examination shall be held in the city of St. John’s each
year.
New Zealand.
Candidates must be either graduates of the University of New Zealand or
undergraduates of that University. They must have been for five years
immediately preceding the year of election domiciled in the Colony, and
must have been educated in the Colony four of such years.
The University of New Zealand has applied for and has been admitted to
the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute, so that candidates
coming from that University who have fulfilled the stated conditions
are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships without further
examination.
The qualifying examination will be held in the city of Kingston each year.
South Africa.
Candidates must have passed their eighteenth, but not have passed their
twenty-fourth birthday on October 1 of the year for which they are
elected.[39]
=Natal.= (Additional Qualifications.) In Natal candidates are required
(1) to have been educated at a School or Schools in the Colony of Natal
for six years previous to the date of election, or (2) to have their
legal domicile in Natal for six years, though acquiring their education
or any part of it in other Colonies of South Africa. The Committee of
Selection is free to make allowance at its discretion for temporary
absences from the Colony or from South Africa during the six years
referred to.
The Trustees desire to have assurances of full preparation up to the
Oxford standard of Responsions of all Scholars elected by the four
College Schools to which Scholarships are assigned in Cape Colony.
To this end permission has been given to these Schools to allow their
elected Scholars, before taking up the Scholarship at Oxford, to pursue
their studies, for a limited time after leaving school, at the higher
institutions of the Colony.
In view of existing educational conditions, leave is occasionally given
at present by the Trustees for candidates for the Scholarships assigned
to Rhodesia who are being educated in other parts of Africa or in England
to compete, provided that their parents reside in or are intimately
connected with the Colony. In these instances the candidate is allowed
to take Responsions or its equivalent either in England or in the Colony
where he is receiving his education. Application for leave to compete
under these conditions must be made to the Trustees directly or through
the Director of Education for Rhodesia. Other things being equal,
preference will be given to candidates educated in Rhodesia.
The United States of America.
An elected scholar shall have reached, before going into residence, at
the least the end of his sophomore or second-year work at some recognized
degree-granting University or College of the United States. An exception
to this rule is made in the case of the State of Massachusetts, where, at
the request of the Committee of Selection, authority is given to appoint
from the Secondary Schools.
Candidates may elect whether they will apply for the Scholarship of the
State or Territory in which they have acquired any large part of their
educational qualification, or for that of the State or Territory in which
they have their ordinary private domicile, home or residence. They may
pass the qualifying examination at any centre, but they must be prepared
to present themselves before election to the Committee of Selection in
the State or Territory they select.
No candidate may compete in more than one State or Territory either in
the same year or in successive years.
Selection.[40]
In accordance with the wish of Mr. Rhodes, the Trustees desire that[41]
‘in the selection of a student to a Scholarship regard shall be had to
(i) his literary and scholastic attainments; (ii) his fondness for and
success in manly outdoor sports, such as cricket, football, and the
like; (iii) his qualities of manhood, truth, courage, devotion to duty,
sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and
fellowship; and (iv) his exhibition, during school days, of moral force
of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his
schoolmates’. Mr. Rhodes suggested that (ii) and (iii) should be decided
in any School or College by votes of fellow students, and (iv) by the
Head of the School or College.
Where circumstances render it impracticable to carry out the letter of
these suggestions, the Trustees hope that every effort will be made to
give effect to their spirit, but desire it to be understood that the
final decision must rest with the Committee of Selection.
As a separate memorandum is prepared for each of several groups into
which the scholarship system has been divided, it is impossible to
reproduce here all the details of each. The following clauses are taken
from the _Memorandum issued for the United States_:—
To aid in making a choice each qualified Candidate should be required to
furnish to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection:—
(_a_) A Certificate of age (showing that he is within the eligible limits
of age).
(_b_) A full statement of his educational career at School and College,
his record in athletics, and such testimonials from his masters at School
and his professors at College, in reference to the qualities indicated by
Mr. Rhodes, as will assist the judgement of the Committee of Selection.
(_c_) In cases where more than one Candidate from a single School or
College or University has qualified, the School, College, or University
should be required to select (in accordance with the views of Mr. Rhodes)
its chosen representative to go before the Committee of Selection for
final choice, and a Certificate that he has been so chosen shall be sent
to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection.
Each _Candidate should personally present himself to the Committee_ of
Selection before a final decision is made, _unless specially excused by
the Committee itself_, in which case a statement of the reasons should be
sent to the Trustees.
If a careful comparison of these records and personal interviews with
the Candidates do not furnish sufficient grounds for making a decision,
the Committee of Selection is free to apply to the Candidates, or to any
selected number of them, such further intellectual or other tests as they
may consider necessary (for purposes of comparison).
The _Chairman of the Committee of Selection_ should at once notify to
the Trustees and to Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, the
name of the elected Scholar, and should forward to the latter all the
records, credentials, and testimonials relating to the Scholar on which
the election was made. These papers should be transmitted _immediately_,
as they are used in consulting College authorities in regard to the
admission of Scholars. It has been the experience of the past two years
that Scholars have frequently been unable to gain admission to any of the
Colleges of their preference owing to remissness in forwarding to Mr.
Wylie the necessary information.
The following ‘Instructions’, issued to Scholars elected for the year
1905, indicate the course of procedure by which a Scholar is entered at
Oxford:—
‘1. In order to be admitted to the University of Oxford, it is necessary
to be first accepted as a member of one of the Colleges which compose the
University.
Election to a Rhodes Scholarship does not of itself admit to a
College.[42] Every College has its own standard for admission, for Rhodes
Scholars as for all other applicants, and accepts or rejects at its own
discretion. Moreover, the number of Rhodes Scholars which any one College
will admit is strictly limited. Few Colleges will admit more than five
in any one year; and in the majority of cases four is the maximum. From
the different candidates for admission a College will select those whose
records suggest that they are most likely to do credit to the College
to which they may belong. It is therefore essential that, in applying
for admission to a College, a Scholar should submit the fullest possible
evidence as to his personal character and academic record.
‘2. The procedure for a Scholar-elect should be as follows:—
(1) _Immediately_ on receiving notice of his election he should write to
the Oxford Secretary to the Rhodes Trustees, Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes
Trust, Oxford, stating in order the Colleges which he prefers.
(2) He should satisfy himself that the credentials which he submitted to
the Committee of Selection have been forwarded by the Chairman to Mr.
Wylie.
(3) He should himself forward _to Mr. Wylie_ any portion of the following
information which may not have been included in the documents submitted
to the Committee of Selection:—
(_a_) A Certificate of age;
(_b_) Testimonials as to character;
(_c_) Certified evidence as to the Courses of Study pursued by the
Scholar at his University, and as to the gradings attained to by him in
those Courses. This evidence should be signed by the Registrar, or other
responsible official, of his University;
(_d_) A Catalogue of his University;
(_e_) Evidence as to the general tastes and pursuits of the Scholar
outside his Academic Course;
(_f_) Information as to the intentions of the Scholar in regard to the
line of study he proposes to follow at Oxford.
It is also desirable that the Scholar should state to what religious
denomination he belongs.
_All this material must reach Mr. Wylie_ by the beginning of the Summer
Term—that is, _by the middle of April at the latest_.
‘3. When Mr. Wylie has the necessary information in his hands he will
attempt to secure for each Scholar admission to the College of his
preference. That will not be always possible. When a Scholar fails
to gain admission to the College which stands first on his list of
preferences, Mr. Wylie will enter into negotiation with the College
second on that list, and so on.
Where he is specially requested to do so, Mr. Wylie is prepared to select
a College for a Scholar, but it is greatly to be preferred that each
Scholar should, so far as possible, choose for himself.’
[Sidenote: Payment of the Scholarship.]
The Scholarship will be paid quarterly. The first payment (£75) will be
made in the course of the first week of the Michaelmas Term (October). No
request for any earlier payment can be considered.
After a Scholar has been once accepted by a College he should conduct
all further correspondence as to residence, studies, &c., directly with
the College in question.[43] A Scholar must arrive in Oxford not later
than the day on which his College assembles; and it will in most cases be
advantageous to arrive a few days earlier.
PART II
CHAPTER V
OXFORD AS IT IS
OR AS IT HAS SEEMED TO A RHODES SCHOLAR
[Sidenote: Difficulty of describing Oxford.]
What manner of place is Oxford? Every one knows Oxford; and yet, how
little is Oxford understood—even by those who enjoy a period of residence
within its gates! Tourists come for a day or a week, ask numerous
questions, consult a guide or a book, see a few buildings and a picture
postcard, and are ready to tell ‘all about Oxford’. Yet the longer one
stays in Oxford the more one hesitates to attempt description.
The University has its ‘Statutes’, its ‘Handbook’, its ‘Calendar’, its
‘Examination Statutes’, its ‘Programmes’ and ‘Lecture Lists’, which
contain the official information which an American inquirer expects to
find in his University ‘Catalogues’, ‘Bulletins’, and ‘College Annuals’.
Then there are numberless books which deal with various phases of Oxford
life, some of them serious, some merely impressionist sketches. But no
one book professes to give a really comprehensive description of Oxford
or to touch on all its phases; few persons have time or opportunity or
inclination to read all; and still fewer, after reading of Oxford or
living in Oxford, or doing both, agree in their impressions of what
Oxford _really_ is.
Oxford changes slowly, very slowly—and yet what one writes of Oxford
to-day may seem inaccurate to his readers to-morrow; Oxford mills grind
exceeding fine, yet what one person thinks wheat may seem to another
chaff. It depends on the point of view. This is where the difficulty
lies, and herein one feels his presumption when trying to make Oxford
real and comprehensible to the uninitiated.
[Sidenote: Two ideas: the abstract and the concrete.]
Really ‘Oxford’ means two things—it is the name of a place, and it
represents an idea. Bonaparte said of himself that he was ‘not a man but
an event’, and yet he was both. The word ‘Napoleon’ represents to us
a _man_ and an _idea_. The difficulty is to differentiate, to say how
far the concrete and the abstract may be separated, and how far each
is necessary to the proper understanding of the other. The technical
purpose for which these chapters are intended suggests that this attempt
to outline certain salient features of Oxford custom and practice shall
be limited to the concrete, avoiding as far as possible the ideal side,
especially where bordering on the lines of controversy.
[Sidenote: Oxford. Unique character.]
Oxford is unique among Universities. Only Cambridge approximates to it in
character and in system. No other English or Continental University is
like these two. It is from its manner of life and from its environment
that Oxford has acquired and maintained its individuality. The University
has a history which by tradition antedates the Conquest; it has grown
with England; its rights, its charters, its laws have undergone the
vicissitudes of centuries and have developed in the same process of
evolution with the charters and laws and Constitution of England.
The Colleges have been intimately associated with the great events,
constitutional, political, religious, and social, which have made English
history; and the University has fought for and won its rights side by
side with other English institutions.
[Sidenote: National position.]
As it exists to-day the University is ‘sovereign’ within its own borders,
subject to the National Government only in regard to those greater
obligations, such as an individual State in the United States owes to the
National Government.
Oxford and Cambridge are not National or State Universities in the
sense in which that term is applied to many Continental and American
Universities. The English Government makes _no appropriation_ for their
support. And yet they are—and they only—in character the great national
Universities of England.
[Sidenote: The University a federation.]
Visitors from abroad come to Oxford, are shown about through College
after College, and after many expressions of surprise and delight
exclaim, ‘Yes, yes; excellent, excellent, but where is the University?’
They are looking for the ‘main building’, the ‘administration building’,
something concrete which they may call the University—and they do not
find it.
The University is a federation—an academic United States, made up of
twenty-two ‘societies’—the Colleges—each of which has its separate
corporate existence.
[Sidenote: Revenues.]
The University is dependent for its running expenses on its endowments,
fees, and the _pro rata_ contributions from each of the Colleges. The
Colleges are also supported by their endowments, which, usually in
land, are considerable and yet decidedly variable, and also by College
fees as paid by undergraduates. The University is not as rich in income
as credited, and its yearly revenues are really insufficient for the
enormous work which it undertakes.[44]
[Sidenote: Expense.]
There are a number of reasons why the cost of living at Oxford is high.
The University, as explained, consists of a large number of separate
establishments—the Colleges. Students are ‘up’ but one half of the year,
and yet the College ‘establishment’ must be maintained the year round. A
large number of servants are necessary to the system, which in respect
to style of living and service resembles hotel life. The standard of
maintenance and service demanded by the students themselves is not
conducive to economy.
[Sidenote: The student body.]
It is somewhat misleading to characterize Oxford and Cambridge as ‘rich
men’s Universities’. The phrase is probably more appropriate to them
than it is to any other English-speaking educational institutions; yet
‘wealth’ is not the key to entrance or to success in Oxford. So far as
technical restrictions are concerned, the University is open ‘without
respect of birth, age, or creed to all persons who satisfy the appointed
officers that they are likely to derive educational advantage from its
membership’.[45]
In practice a considerable amount of ready cash is necessary for every
one who wishes to enjoy the advantages of Oxford College life.[46] The
sons of aristocratic and of well-to-do families in England, if destined
for University careers, are nearly all sent to Oxford or to Cambridge,
and the student bodies are recruited largely from these sources. It is
asserted that Oxford draws a large proportion of its students from some
twenty ‘Public Schools’. The boys who go through these ‘Schools’ have had
most of their education away from home since their ninth or tenth years.
The cost of living in an English ‘Public School’ is as great as, or
greater than, that of educating a boy in an American Private Preparatory
School or ‘Military Academy’. Men who have been in these Schools usually
come up to Oxford with a generous allowance.
But there are also in Oxford a large number of men whose means are
comparatively limited. There is no such thing as ‘working one’s way’
in Oxford, and practically the only way in which one’s allowance may
be supplemented is through the winning of a scholarship. The type of
student who under Western conditions in America not infrequently ‘starts
his College career on nothing and graduates with a bank account’ is
impossible in Oxford. Again, while it is true that many men in Oxford
consider themselves ‘absolutely poor’ on a sum which will keep a man
in most Universities altogether comfortably, yet for all purposes of
comparison there is an inconsiderable proportion of poor men in the
University.
Oxford life _is_ expensive—in many respects it _seems too_ expensive.
A high minimum allowance[46] is necessary to the student, just as some
knowledge of Latin and Greek is necessary for passing Responsions; but it
is as misleading to characterize the whole institution as a ‘rich man’s
University’ as it would be to say the whole student body is composed of
scholars.
[Sidenote: Democratic character.]
Within itself the University is very democratic. The lines of social
cleavage are rather vertical than horizontal. There is a thorough
atmosphere of personal independence. While peculiarities and
eccentricities are discouraged, yet originality—so long as it does not
annoy—is at a premium, and individuality is sacred to an extent best
known to Englishmen. The diversity of interests and the variety of
pursuits in which Oxford men are daily engaged cover almost as wide a
range as the catalogue of individual tastes.
With all this diversity of taste and pursuit, the students within the
University commonwealth are alike in this, that, whether from noble,
aristocratic, or middle-class families, they generally represent
achievement and ambition—and _most_ of them regard their University
course as a training for active political, professional, literary,
or social life. Oxford and Cambridge claim pre-eminently to fit the
men, who by reason of birth or merit succeed to the leading places in
British administration and thought, for the high places which they
are to fill. As Wellington gave credit for the victory of Waterloo to
the ‘playing-fields of Eton’, so England gives credit for innumerable
triumphs, military, civil, and political, for achievements, physical,
intellectual, and moral, to the playing-fields and the river, the
lecture-rooms and the firesides of Oxford. The University boasts that
it trains men to live lives both of achievement and of enjoyment, to
meet exigencies and emergencies as they arise—to be not only men but
gentlemen. Oxford and Cambridge degrees are accepted in England as
educational hall-marks.
[Sidenote: Social.]
Clubs and cliques and social discriminations, of course, exist, but they
are little paraded. One’s social relations and activities are little
known outside the circle to which they appertain. There is a rare freedom
from ‘’Varsity Politics’. Athletic professionalism is an absent quantity.
Oxford neither knows nor understands the spirit of the German student
_Verbindung_ or of the American ‘College Fraternity’. In fact many phases
of the ‘fraternizing’ spirit seem lacking in Oxford life.
The nearest approach to the ‘Class organization’ or organization
by Departments which influences University life in America, is the
predominance of the College in Oxford life. Clear lines between ‘Senior’,
‘Junior,’ ‘Sophomore,’ and ‘Freshmen’ are not drawn; there are no Class
organizations and Class activities—such, for instance, as football
matches, cane-rushes, editing the College Annual, and the ‘Junior Prom.’
There is some natural separation but no artificial cleavage between
students of different years. The relations between a ‘Fresher’ and a
‘Second year’ or ‘Third year’ man, for instance, are subject to certain
conventions and formalities of introduction which Oxford emphasizes only
in their practice, but, beyond that, social relations are only limited by
one’s own personality.
[Sidenote: Conservatism.]
To say that Oxford is Conservative is almost to state an axiom. The
‘town’ is Conservative; the University is Conservative; the students
are Conservative. Conscious of this characteristic, Oxford cultivates
it to some extent as an ideal. Pointing to history, and emphasizing
results, it justifies Conservatism, yet its Conservatism should not
be magnified. The town, rejoicing for the present in the artistic
inconvenience of horse-cars and some other like antiquities, nevertheless
continues a study and a discussion of motor-trams and motor-’buses, and
will doubtless some day adopt that form of conveyance which it decides
best. Likewise the University, feeling a certain prejudice against
innovations and a certain suspicion of new methods and practices,
looks with a critical eye upon new theories, new educational ideas and
suggestions, and yet it is generally ready to appropriate and to apply
those productions of modern thought and genius which prove themselves, by
surviving the experimental stage, really worth while. Oxford Conservatism
is essentially a thinking attitude. In the realm of politics, ‘Socialism’
as it is commonly cried in many of the Continental Universities,
is tabooed in Oxford. ‘Conservatives’—and every Oxford man has his
politics—outnumber ‘Liberals’, although not by any great majority. Oxford
has seldom stood for other than Tory principles; and yet one has not far
to look in English history to see how time and again reform movements and
the promulgation of new and radical ideas have originated and found their
support in ‘the Universities’.
[Sidenote: Comfort.]
Oxford would not be English if it did not emphasize comfort—personal
comfort. True, it has many inconveniences and lacks some of the fittings
which add to the perfection of modern buildings. It is hard to reconcile
old buildings and modern conveniences. Lamp and candle still shed the
only light in at least one College—but this is not the rule; nearly every
College building in Oxford has been ‘wired’, and table-lamps as well as
drop-light ‘switch on’ in student rooms at the ‘press of the button’.
Modern baths and showers (except a few new buildings) and a University
gymnasium are wanting; but every man has his ‘tub’; and the gymnasium
‘though missing is not missed’—for all outdoors is the Oxford gymnasium.
For boxing, wrestling, and fencing there are private gymnasiums.
But for the solid everyday comfort of well-furnished apartments, of good
cooking and excellent service, for freedom from bother with details, for
convenient arrangements for athletic sports and for social life, Oxford
provides as by a high art. The ‘strenuous life’ is frequently better
known by its absence than otherwise, and many people in Oxford dislike
even the sound of those words; yet there is a clear track and every
opportunity for the man who insists on being strenuous.
[Sidenote: Artistic surroundings.]
Added to the personal comforts are the artistic and scholastic
comforts—if one may speak of them as such—with which the student is
surrounded. The natural beauties of Oxford’s environment are a fit
setting for the classic treasures of architecture which have risen in
irregular grouping throughout the mediaeval town. As the student comes
and goes, as he sits at his lecture, he is, consciously or unconsciously,
living in an atmosphere of artistic realities. And then again, one
cannot but remember now and then that he is sitting on the same benches
or writing at the same table where once sat or wrote many of the men
whose lives or whose works he is set to study, and whose portraits now
stare down upon him from the walls opposite or whose coats of arms are
blazoned on the oak panelling around him. Then as for books and libraries
and reading-rooms—whether one wishes to dig among ancient texts or
manuscripts, to consult reference libraries, or to fill one’s own shelves
with books old and new, where can Oxford be surpassed?
[Sidenote: Cosmopolitanism.]
As a cosmopolitan intellectual centre Oxford is a Mecca to which
pilgrims flock from all parts of the world; pilgrims with brains,
pilgrims without brains; those who want to learn and those who do _not_
want to learn; bookworms, athletes, soldiers, ‘sports,’ workers and
idlers; sons of noblemen, sons of commoners; not Englishmen alone, but
Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Egyptians, Germans, and Frenchmen.
All this variety of student units go about looking very much alike in
the conventional ‘lounge’ garb of Oxford; so that only an intimate
acquaintance reveals the true cosmopolitanism of its personnel and of its
intellectual life.
[Sidenote: The ‘College’.]
Although the University encircles, and, in constitutional and
jurisdictional matters, exercises authority over the Colleges, it is
really only the sum of the Colleges, each of which is in turn only
the sum of its members. While the University is thus only a union of
the Colleges for attaining such ends and such status as can better be
attained by united than by isolated existence, the College is a real
and concrete thing, the foundation stone of the ‘Oxford System’. Each
College is within itself independent; each has its own traditions and
some characteristics of organization, life, and system which are peculiar
to itself. With the affairs of the College individually the University is
not concerned.
The Colleges as they exist to-day suggest some features of the monastery,
some of the ancient hostelry, some of the fashionable hotel, some of
the College dormitory, and some of the bachelor’s club—they combine
church, lecture-rooms, dining-halls, professors’ houses, College clubs
and students’ apartments, all within the radius of College walls, all
accessible only through College gates, all capable of being shut off from
the outside world, at once castle and prison.
To the University there come each year about 900 new men: there are in
residence about 2,800; of these each College has from 40 to 300. During
his first and second year the student is generally required to live in
College, while in his third he may (except in a few instances) and often
_must_ go out into ‘digs’, that is, into ‘licensed lodgings’ in the town.
The life of the College is real Oxford life. It was this which Cecil
Rhodes cherished most in his reverence for his University; it was this
which gave him his confidence in the ‘Oxford System’.
As with individuals so with these Colleges—the longer one’s acquaintance,
the better one realizes that each College is independent, has its
individuality, its own traditions, and its own personal character. This
makes College life again a difficult subject upon which to generalize.
Certain technical characteristics, however, are common to all. The
College buildings are arranged in quadrangles, in each of which are
several ‘stairs’. On each stair are a number of suites of rooms, eight
suites being perhaps the average. There are no corridors, so that each
stair is as it were a house by itself. Each student has rooms to himself,
a ‘sitter’, which serves as living and dining room, and a ‘bedder’
always; while often a ‘thirder’ adds the convenience of a separate
study-room. Each suite has also a small cupboard-pantry, and there is
usually on each stair a ‘scout’s pantry’ (or kitchen). Each stair has a
‘scout’ and one or two ‘scout’s boys’, who are servants-in-general to all
the men on the stair.
The system of breakfasting, lunching, and entertaining in one’s rooms
makes the undergraduate at once a host and a householder. When at
rare intervals a student wishes to be left alone with his books or
his thoughts he may ‘sport his oak’, that is, he may slam the heavy
oaken outer door, well known to readers of _Tom Brown_, whose inside
spring-lock bars entrance even to friends who may be familiar enough
to ignore the suggestion of its closing. The great elasticity of
the tutoring and examination system further makes it possible for
the undergraduate to study or not as he may choose, and to dispose
of his time practically at his own sweet will. In these respects
the Oxford student enjoys an independence which is almost unknown
elsewhere—excepting in some of the German Universities.
[Sidenote: The Oxford day.]
As the activities of Oxford readily resolve themselves into scholastic,
athletic, and social, so the Oxford day, the natural Oxford day, in
respect to morning, afternoon, and evening, approximately adopts this
order.
Voluntary early rising is not the fashion, but eight o’clock chapel or
roll-call compels it on half, or more than half, the days of Term, while
the demands of training prevent many men from sleeping as late as their
less strenuous fellows. As compared with American students, however, on
their native soil, the Oxford student is a late riser. The voice of the
scout and the slamming of a bath-tub on the floor rouse the student to a
consciousness of the new day. Morning hours begin invariably with a cold
tub. Chapel, if attended (ritual service only), requires about fifteen
minutes.
Breakfast is taken in one’s own rooms or in the rooms of a friend, alone,
or with three or four friends or guests—for the breakfast hour is a
favourite time for entertaining, and enjoying a social meal. An Oxford
‘brekker’ is very different from the coffee and rolls of the Continent—it
is a good, hearty meal, with satisfying solid courses.
Most lectures are given between nine and one o’clock. These four hours,
more than any others, are Oxford’s _formal_ work-time, while the hours
from eight in the evening on are those also given to work.
Luncheon, if the student lunch in his rooms or in the College Common-room
(only possible in a few Colleges), is a very light meal. But luncheon,
again, is a favourite medium for entertaining, especially on Sundays, and
when one has guests, luncheon loses its ordinarily simple character.
It requires a more or less elaborate system, especially in a large
College, to provide for and keep up with the wants of two or three
hundred tables. The cooking is all done in the College kitchen, and from
there are sent the dishes which the student orders through his scout.
Milk, bread, cheese, ‘drinks,’ and so forth are supplied by the College
buttery; cakes, candies, fruits, tea, coffee, and tobaccos are usually
obtained from the College ‘Common-room’—all are sent to the ‘stair’, and
the scout serves the tables upon the stair. Every student has tea and
coffee and sugar, and usually a shelf full of such edibles and drinkables
as he chooses, together with dishes and ‘plate’ in his pantry. A kettle
of water is usually boiling, or ready to boil, on the trivet before his
fireplace, so that he is always prepared to dispense a substantial as
well as a cordial hospitality.
[Sidenote: Athletics.]
The afternoon is given up to sport. Oxford students probably give more
time to athletics than any other body of students in the world. At
Heidelberg, aside from a few sporadic efforts on the river, the most
strenuous exercise indulged in seems to be on the blood-stained floor of
the duelling-room in the ‘Hirschgasse’, but less than half the students
indulge in this energetic crossing of swords. The French students
scarcely understand the term ‘athletics’ at all. America and England
lead, and although the American College has a good deal of athletics, and
sometimes too much, it is athletics for the minority, whereas at Oxford
almost everybody ‘goes in for something’.
The students come from that class which can and does take the greatest
interest in all manner of sports and athletic games. In the ‘Public
Schools’ the boys learn the rules and requirements of their games, and
get about all the coaching they ever get. Men do not often _learn_ games
at the ’Varsity; they play them. ‘Practice’ is a word little heard on
a College field; only in rowing is a systematic and an evolutionary
coaching-system in practice.
Each College has its own boats, its own football and cricket and hockey
teams, with its own playing-fields. There is a constant programme of
inter-college contests.
The Oxford idea is ‘exercise for every one’, a thing of vital importance
for keeping in condition in the climate of Oxford. Exercise is taught
the English boy with his A, B, C. Of the 2,800 students who keep Term at
Oxford, fully two-thirds are out engaging in some vigorous exercise every
afternoon. For games, it is not requisite that one be a ‘star’—every one
may find room at something or other. The men who show up best in their
College teams or in College crews are ‘tried’ for the ’Varsity. Thus the
’Varsity teams and crews are chosen from a _very large number_ of men who
are actually engaged in and practising the sports for which ’Varsity men
are needed, and under this system athletic ability is often discovered
which, under systems where only ‘promising candidates’ ever ‘try’, would
never even be suspected.
The game more than the victory is the objective in College contests,[47]
and although this may rob the play of a certain intense strenuousness, it
at the same time eliminates roughness and foul play.
With the exception of rowing, systematic coaching and serious training
are little applied. At times, this causes a decided lack of that
efficiency which results from precise ‘team-work’, and may be criticized
as leaving too much to the brilliancy of individual playing; but it
eliminates professionalism and trickery.
There is little business connected with College athletics. The expenses
of field and pavilion and barge and boats are met from subscriptions to
the ‘amalgamated clubs’—to which nearly every College man belongs. The
expenditure of a team is slight. The College provides the field. Every
man furnishes his own ‘togs’, of which a different sort are required
for nearly every sport. The clubs furnish boats and balls, and the few
requisites which must be common property. Only to ’Varsity matches
(and not to all of them) is admission charged. Almost no one watches a
College match, for the simple reason that every one who is not playing
on the field is engaged somewhere else at some other game. There is no
‘rooting’. A few scattered cheers break out at times, but there is no
organized ‘encouragement’. One feature of Oxford athletics which is in
striking antithesis to American College athletics is, that here, the more
prominent and successful an athlete becomes, the greater his expenses, as
he buys his own outfits, his own ‘blazers’, often pays his own railroad
fares, usually incurs numerous social obligations, and receives no
‘compensation’ further than a row of shining prizes which may adorn his
mantle-shelf.
From the river and fields the men come in at about 4.30 for tea. Years
ago a German traveller wrote in his diary, ‘To the Englishman tea is as
necessary as to the German his beer.’ The customs have not changed.
In this respect as in others ‘Oxford is nothing if not the reflection
of English life’. As a social institution the tea-hour, with rest
and ‘something to eat’ and lively conversation ‘after the game’, is
thoroughly enjoyable; while as a practical institution it is a necessity,
as dinner is two and a half hours away and the inner man needs immediate
fortifying after the vigorous exercise of the past two hours.
The hard-working man, then, has a chance to get in two hours of reading
between tea-time and dinner.
[Sidenote: Evening.]
After the bells have struck seven the students stream, in gown and
bare-headed, toward their College halls. At this one time during the day
the students of each College really gather in a body. In the semi-gloom
of the long hall, with its high ceiling and panelled, portrait-hung
walls, with fireplaces glowing and electric lights illumining white
cloths and bright silver, the tables are arranged in long rows, with
flanking of narrow, backless benches on each side. Students file in;
dons and Master enter, in evening dress, their loose gowns flowing back
from their shoulders as they stride to ‘high table’. After the reading
of a _Benedictus benedicat_ all sit down and fall-to right merrily.
The dinner hour can hardly be styled a social hour—in hall; in fact,
so business-like does it become at certain undergraduate tables that
it might well appear to the casual observer——but, as a matter of fact,
casual observers are not allowed entrance.
After dinner the men gather in little knots about the bulletin-boards or
drift into the Common-room, there in the College club-rooms to spend a
few minutes over the newspapers, writing notes, consulting the bulletins,
athletic reports and predictions, or engaging in conversation over
coffee-cups and a quiet smoke. Or little groups go off to this or that
room for ‘coffee’ and a social hour or evening; while many go straight
away to libraries or work-tables.
The possible divisions for the evening are too numerous for even a
summary; but of the serious possibilities there are numerous debating
and literary societies in every College. There are University Clubs,
literary, musical, social, political; the Union Debates, parliamentary
in their training, occur every Thursday evening; on Sunday evenings
the Balliol Concerts provide excellent programmes of music, open to
undergraduates; under town auspices and under University auspices, Oxford
is given opportunity throughout Term-time to hear much of the best
musical talent; visits and addresses by the leaders of English political
and ecclesiastical thought are frequent, and are thoroughly appreciated
by the undergraduate body.
An attempt to describe the difference between the activities of one
Term and another would lead too far afield. Three times each year the
men ‘come up’, spend eight weeks in Oxford, and go down again for the
three Vacations, which last six, six, and sixteen weeks respectively. No
small amount—in the case of many men the major portion—of the student’s
‘work’ is done during these Vacations. To some men the Vacation is the
‘dull season’ and Term-time is play-time; to others Term-time is a
season for filling up notebooks and Vacation a time for learning what
has been written into them. To some the object of life seems to be
reading; to others, athletics and sports in general. There is no ‘dull
season’ in Oxford athletics. Football, hockey, lacrosse, &c., are played
in the two winter Terms; rowing goes on the year round, as does track
practice; tennis, cricket, and the ‘slacking’ forms of river exercise are
favourites in the Summer Term. The Oxford-Cambridge Rugby match is played
in the Christmas Vacation; the Oxford-Cambridge Boat-race and the field
sports take place in the Spring Vacation. The pleasures of Oxford Summer
Term, ‘Eights week,’ ‘Commem.,’ and Henley, lead to the realm of poetry
and have no place in a handbook.
Some critics complain that men waste their time in Oxford. So they do,
_some of them_—and so they do elsewhere. It is all a matter of manner and
degree, and a question of what constitutes waste. One might do almost
no work in Oxford and yet do just the opposite of wasting his time—if
he use his eyes and ears. There is that about Oxford which breathes of
History, which exhales Romance, which is redolent of culture, which
fills the very atmosphere with the spirit of hospitality. One need only
walk through the College ‘quads’ and cloisters, follow the windings of
the ‘finest architectural street in Europe’, ‘the High,’ wander through
meadow and park, along the banks of Isis and Cherwell, through Addison’s
Walk, through ‘Mesopotamia’, or out on the hills where Shelley delighted
to pass long afternoons, or off to the north where Gladstone walked
alone; one must, if he have any capacity, get something of a liberal
education; he cannot fail of inspiration. One may go to lectures on
Literature and History, and, without ever taking a note, carry away
impressions of what _has been_ and what _is_ and what _is going to be_ in
the world, especially in the English world, and in life and thought both
ancient and modern.
It is impossible to tell some one else just what Oxford _is_—but Oxford
_as it MAY BE_ is a question with which every Oxford man has to deal
for himself. Oxford is a home of ‘influences’; it is all too frequently
referred to as the ‘home of lost causes’; what it becomes for each man
who trusts himself or is entrusted to its ‘influence’, depends largely
upon himself. The University offers each man wide fields for the
investment of his time and talent—it offers much for one to learn—but
it does not do much choosing for one, nor does it set itself as a
task-master.
It is often hard to take Oxford seriously. Examinations seem a far-away,
hazy something, too often forgotten, as each day unrolls a tempting
programme of delights other than books. Unlimited credit causes many
an unthinking undergraduate to step deep into debt before he stops
to reflect that tradesmen _do_ keep accounts. The freedom of a life
where every man is expected to think and act for himself offers every
opportunity for self-improvement or self-destruction. But there is
always a day of reckoning. Sooner or later examinations stare one in the
face and bills roll in from every side. The student has kept his Terms
and Oxford has offered him what he has chosen to take. The man who has
reckoned well with his time and his money will take something far more
valuable than his degree from Oxford. The man who has looked upon his
’Varsity years as a mere summer of pleasure has also gotten much out of
his ‘College course’, but in its last days he may find much cause to
quote from the ‘grasshopper and the ant’.
The _University Calendar_ for 1906-7 shows a total of 3,663
undergraduates at present enrolled.[48]
Matriculations, 1905-6 926
B.A. Degrees, ” 660
M.A. Degrees, ” 382
COLLEGES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
------------------+--------------------------+----------+--------------+
| | |Correspondence|
The Colleges. | Name of Head. | Title of | should be |
| | Head. |addressed to: |
| | | The |
------------------+--------------------------+----------+--------------+
All Souls |Sir William Reynell Anson,|Warden | |
| Bart., M.P., D.C.L. | | |
Balliol |Edward Caird, M.A., Hon. |Master |Senior Tutor |
| D.C.L. | | |
Brasenose |Charles Buller Heberden, |Principal |Principal |
| M.A. | | |
Christ Church |Thomas Banks Strong, D.D. |Dean |Dean |
Corpus Christi |Thomas Case, M.A. |President |President |
Exeter |William Walrond Jackson, |Rector |Rector |
| D.D. | | |
Hertford |Henry Boyd, D.D. |Principal |Principal _or_|
| | |Senior Tutor |
Jesus |John Rhys, D.Litt. |Principal |Principal |
Keble |Walter Lock, D.D. |Warden |Warden |
Lincoln |William Walter Merry, D.D.|Rector |Rector |
Magdalen |Thomas Herbert Warren, |President |President |
| M.A.[49] | | |
Merton |Thomas Bowman, M.A. |Warden |Warden |
New |William Archibald Spooner,|Warden |Warden |
| D.D. | | |
Oriel |Charles Lancelot Shadwell,|Provost |Provost |
| D.C.L. | | |
Pembroke |The Rt. Rev. John |Master |Master |
| Mitchinson, D.C.L. | | |
Queen’s |John Richard Magrath, D.D.|Provost |Provost |
St. John’s |James Bellamy, D.D. |President |President |
Trinity |Henry Francis Pelham, M.A.|President |President |
University |Reginald Walter Macan, |Master |Master |
| M.A., D.Litt. | | |
Wadham |Patrick Arkley |Warden |Warden |
| Wright-Henderson, D.D. | | |
Worcester |Charles Henry Oliver |Provost |Provost |
| Daniel, D.D. | | |
St. Edmund Hall |Edward Moore, D.D. |Principal |Principal |
Non-Coll. Delegacy|Richard William Massy |Censor |Censor |
| Pope, D.D. | | |
------------------+--------------------------+----------+--------------+
------------------+--------------+---------+---------+--------------
| Number of | | | Abbreviation
The Colleges. |Undergraduates| Date of |Order of | sometimes
| enrolled |Founding.|Founding.| used for
| 1906-7. | | | the name.
------------------+--------------+---------+---------+--------------
All Souls | 4 | 1437 | 9 |
Balliol | 236 | 1268 | 2 | Bal.
Brasenose | 111 | 1509 | 11 | B.N.C.
Christ Church | 304 | 1532 | 13 | Ch.Ch.
Corpus Christi | 93 | 1516 | 12 | C.C.C.
Exeter | 204 | 1314 | 4 | Ex.
Hertford | 116 | 1874 | 20 | Hert.
Jesus | 140 | 1571 | 16 |
Keble | 215 | 1870 | 21 |
Lincoln | 99 | 1427 | 8 | Linc.
Magdalen | 169 | 1456 | 10 | Magd.
Merton | 127 | 1264 | 3 | Mert.
New | 317 | 1379 | 7 |
Oriel | 138 | 1326 | 5 |
Pembroke | 104 | 1624 | 18 | Pemb.
Queen’s | 159 | 1340 | 6 |
St. John’s | 203 | 1555 | 15 | St. J.
Trinity | 172 | 1554 | 14 | Trin.
University | 200 | 1249 | 1 | Univ.
Wadham | 111 | 1613 | 17 | Wadh.
Worcester | 123 | 1714 | 19 | Worc.
St. Edmund Hall | 48 | 1269 | | St. E.
Non-Coll. Delegacy| 216 | 1868 | | Non-Coll.
------------------+--------------+---------+---------+--------------
CHAPTER VI
THE OXFORD SYSTEM
UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE GOVERNMENT, METHODS OF INSTRUCTION, COURSES OF
STUDY, DEGREES
[Sidenote: The point of view.]
Some one has said that a University, primarily considered, is less a
school than an atmosphere. This applies with peculiar force to Oxford.
Unlike American or German Universities, Oxford aims not primarily
to provide instruction, but rather to provide an atmosphere for the
many-sided Oxford life. For centuries, Oxford has been the training
school of the English gentleman. It stands pre-eminently for culture and
good breeding, for a liberal education in the widest and best sense, not
merely the knowledge that comes from books, but especially and above
all for the knowledge of men and affairs. It is the difference between
a training to make a living and a training to make a life, to put the
best _into_ life rather than to make the most _out_ of it. The highest
Oxford ideal is the scholar _and_ the gentleman, but the gentleman
first of all. A faithful reflex of English society, Oxford reflects its
most marked characteristic conservatism. Yet underneath this stratum of
healthy conservatism runs the current of twentieth-century life. Hence
its uniqueness, its complexity, its paradoxes. Conservative by force of
tradition and custom, Oxford breathes the liberal and tolerant spirit of
the twentieth century; exclusive and aristocratic, the Oxford life is
nevertheless very democratic; open to all, Oxford is not for all people;
faithful to her heritage of the Past, Oxford is still a leader in the
Present.
[Sidenote: The ‘system’.]
Yet, oddly enough, from the undergraduate’s point of view, the University
is practically a thing apart, an abstract intangible something which
touches the life of the well-behaved ‘undergrad’ only at examination
time, that is to say, twice during his Oxford career, or on that
more ceremonious occasion, ‘degree-day.’ The uninitiated stranger,
searching for information in the _Student’s Handbook_, is told that
the ‘University is a body corporate invested with all the usual powers
of corporations and also with various peculiar privileges, such as the
right of exercising jurisdiction, civil and criminal, over its members,
the right of returning two representatives to the House of Commons, and
the power of conferring degrees’. Not a word about the teaching Faculty
of the University or about courses of study. Instead, an institution
whose main function, as far as the student is concerned, is to hold
examinations and to confer degrees. Further inquiry leads to the
College. The collegiate system, both in regard to undergraduate life
and undergraduate instruction, is the counterpart to the more formal
functions of the University. Here is a dualism between College and
University unknown to most foreign students,—each a separate, independent
unit, a University existing side by side with twenty-one corporate
Societies, each leading an independent existence, and yet most intimately
connected with one another. If an attempt is here made to sketch this
complex and intricate system in its barest outlines, it is with a full
realization of the difficulties as well as at the risk of saying much
that is obvious. The background must be filled in by the reader from the
remarks made in the preceding chapter on the Oxford life. The point of
view of the prospective Rhodes Scholar has been kept in view throughout,
all unnecessary details or obscure and ambiguous terms being, as far as
possible, avoided.
[Sidenote: University government and administration. Vice-Chancellor,
Proctors.]
The acting head of the University is the Vice-Chancellor, the office
of Chancellor being purely honorary. The Heads of the several Colleges
are nominated by the Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellorship in order of
rotation, each holding office for a period of four years. Assisted by
the two Proctors, originally the heads of the two ‘nations’ of mediaeval
Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor exercises a general supervision over all
University affairs. It is the Vice-Chancellor who presides at all the
meetings of the governing bodies of the University. He also enjoys
extensive judicial powers. The University occupies a peculiar position
not only in relation to its own members, but to the city of Oxford as
well. In most criminal as well as in all civil cases, the University
has the right to try its members before its own court, popularly called
the Vice-Chancellor’s Court. The Vice-Chancellor, ably assisted by the
two Proctors—for in the eyes of the undergraduates this is their most
conspicuous function—is responsible for the maintenance of order and
discipline. No public entertainment, for instance, can be held in Oxford
without the consent of the Vice-Chancellor and of the Mayor.
[Sidenote: Convocation.]
[Sidenote: Congregation.]
[Sidenote: Hebdomadal Council.]
[Sidenote: ‘Statuta.’]
The constitution of the University of Oxford rests on a much wider basis
than that of most American or Colonial Universities. All graduates
who have kept up their connexion with the University through their
respective Colleges, whether resident in Oxford or not, and who have
taken the degree of Master of Arts, have a voice in the government of
the University, constituting the body known as _Convocation_. It is the
members of Convocation who elect the two University representatives
in the House of Commons. The majority of these graduates are not in
residence at Oxford, so that in actual working practice and under normal
conditions Convocation is almost identical with _Congregation_. This body
is composed of all resident members of Convocation, together with certain
_ex-officio_ members. The ordinary routine of University government is
transacted by means of standing Committees of Congregation, known as
_Delegacies_. All University legislation must originate with and in the
_Hebdomadal Council_, no proposition can even be discussed by the large
governing bodies of the University unless sanctioned by a majority of the
members of this Council. This consists of the three executive officers
of the University and eighteen other members elected by Congregation,
six each from the Heads of Colleges, University Professors, and
University graduates—Masters of Arts—of at least five years’ standing,
respectively. A new statute framed by the Council is then ‘promulgated’
in Congregation, where it may be rejected or passed with or without
amendment. If passed by Congregation, the statute is submitted to
Convocation, which must confirm or reject the measure in toto; it cannot
amend.[50] It may be said, in passing, for the benefit of those who are
labouring under the impression that reform from within is impossible at
Oxford, that, strange as it may seem, the non-resident graduates are
often, if not generally, the most conservative.
[Sidenote: The College.]
[Sidenote: Admission.]
[Sidenote: Non-Collegiate Delegacy.]
Entirely separate from the University in its corporate life and
existence, yet federally incorporated in the larger University body,
are the twenty-one Colleges or ‘Societies’ of Oxford. Each of these
twenty-one States of this larger Academic United States is an independent
unit, a self-governing, self-sufficient corporation, with its own
traditions, and its own history. The ‘Fellows’ of the College elect
their own Head; Christ Church as a Cathedral Chapter is an exception,
the Dean of Christ Church being appointed by the Crown. Each College
has its own endowments and its own property; each fixes the conditions
for admission to membership in the ‘Society’, each is responsible for
the discipline and conduct of its members, and provides for their
instruction and general welfare. No one can become a member of the
University unless he has been previously admitted to some College (or to
the body of Non-Collegiate Students). Most Colleges require candidates
for admission to pass an entrance examination, practically the equivalent
of the first University Examination, known as ‘Responsions’. Rhodes
Scholars, in virtue of having passed the qualifying examination for
the Scholarship, are excused from all other entrance examinations.
Four Colleges—Balliol, University, New College, and Corpus Christi
College—will admit only those candidates who intend to read for Honours.
It is as a member of some College (or of the Non-Collegiate body) that
a College-man becomes a member of the University, and it is the higher
degree of Master of Arts, conferred by the University upon the graduate
who has kept up his connexion with his College, which confers upon him
also the privilege of sharing in the government of his Alma Mater as
a member of Convocation. Recently, there has been established what is
known as the ‘_Non-Collegiate Delegacy_’. This approaches in organization
and administration an ordinary Oxford College. But there is this great
difference—Non-Collegiate students do not live within College walls, but
in lodgings in the city, much on the American or German plan.
[Sidenote: Residence.]
For the attainment of the ordinary University degrees there are certain
requirements of residence and scholarship. These requirements emphasize
the two most conspicuous features of the Oxford system, features which
most clearly reflect the dualism between the University and the Colleges,
viz. residence within College walls, with all that this means—the
Collegiate system,—and the distinctively University function of holding
examinations which lead to University degrees; the responsibility for
providing the necessary facilities and instruction for passing the
examinations resting in the main with the individual Colleges. It is the
College which must see to it that all its members who are candidates for
University degrees have satisfied, first of all, the statutable residence
requirements, and then that they are prepared to meet the examination
requirements of the University. No candidate, even though he may be
able to pass all the necessary examinations with success, can take his
degree without the necessary residence as a member of a College (or of
the Non-Collegiate body). This suggests again the great stress laid on
the larger aspect of an Oxford education, the great value of the larger
Oxford life as described in the preceding chapter.
[Sidenote: University Terms.]
For all practical purposes the academical year consists of three Terms of
eight weeks each:—
1. Michaelmas Term,—beginning on the first Monday after October 10.
2. Hilary or Lent Term,—on the first Monday after January 14.
3. Easter and Trinity Term,—kept continuously as one Term, beginning on
the second or third Monday after Easter Sunday, according as Easter falls
late or early.
For degree purposes, however, Easter and Trinity Terms are reckoned
separately, so that _four University Terms_ go to make up a year of
residence (or standing).[51]
These University Terms may be still further reduced. Michaelmas and
Hilary Terms may be kept by a residence of forty-two days respectively;
Easter and Trinity Terms by residing twenty-one days in each Term, or
forty-eight days in the two Terms conjointly.
Residence, or, in the words of the statute, ‘_victum sumendo et
pernoctando_,’ is no longer confined to living within the College
walls. Candidates for University degrees may under certain conditions
‘pernoctate’ in lodgings.
[Sidenote: Lodgings.]
The Rhodes Trustees have decided that every Rhodes Scholar shall reside
in College for at least the first two years at Oxford, except in cases
where the College is unable to offer him rooms. At the end of two years
of residence in College, Rhodes Scholars who have either taken an Oxford
degree, or who are of ‘mature age’ as defined by University regulations,
i. e. twenty-five years or over, may, with the permission of the College
authorities and the consent of the Rhodes Trust, live in _unlicensed_
lodgings during their third year. All others who cannot satisfy one of
these two conditions are required to live in _licensed_ lodgings, which
are under the direct supervision of University authorities.
[Sidenote: Degrees.]
[Sidenote: Possible to Rhodes Scholars.]
The University of Oxford grants degrees in Arts, Music, Medicine
(Surgery), Law, and Divinity, to which must be added the recently
instituted ‘research’ degrees in Letters and Science. Special advanced
courses, extending over a year or two, are offered in Education,
Geography, Public Health, Economics, Anthropology, Mining and
Engineering, and Forestry, for which a certificate or diploma, but no
_degree_, is granted. We are concerned here only with those degrees
which are possible to the Rhodes Scholars. As has already been stated,
all candidates for an Oxford Bachelor’s degree (except the degree in
Music) must satisfy certain requirements of residence and scholarship.
The degrees which will be open to the Rhodes Scholar who remains in
Oxford _only_ for the three years of his Scholarship are:—
1. _The ordinary Bachelor of Arts_ degree,—which, except on certain
conditions, requires twelve University Terms of residence, i. e. three
academic years; and
2. The more advanced, or ‘post-graduate’, _degrees_ of _Bachelor in
Letters_, _Science_, or _Civil Law_,—which can only be taken, upon
satisfying certain preliminary qualifications, after a residence of at
least eight University Terms, i. e. at the end of the second year.
[Sidenote: ‘Standing.’]
To proceed to the higher degrees, there are no further requirements of
residence, but only of _standing_. This consists in keeping the name
on the books of the College whether resident or not, and paying the
quarterly dues to the University. In practice it amounts to paying a
nominal sum annually to the College, which pays the University dues for
the candidate for higher degrees. This is technically known as keeping
Terms of standing.
_Master of Arts._ This degree can be taken only by an Oxford B.A. upon
entering on his twenty-seventh Term from matriculation, i. e. after six
and a half years. There are no further requirements of scholarship.[52]
_D.Litt._, _D.Sc._, _D.C.L._ Candidates who have taken the Bachelor’s
degree in Letters or Science may proceed to the Doctorate in the
twenty-seventh Term from the date of their matriculation. Bachelors of
Civil Law cannot take the degree of D.C.L. until the expiration of five
years from the time of their admission to the B.C.L. In any case, all
candidates for the Doctor’s degree in Letters, Science, or Civil Law
are required to submit a dissertation which has contributed to the
advancement of knowledge in their particular field.
[Sidenote: Advanced standing.]
The University grants advanced standing, Junior or Senior, to students
from Colonial and Foreign Universities upon certain conditions which
are prescribed by Decree in respect of the individual Universities.[53]
Students from these Universities or Colleges enjoy the following
privileges:—
[Sidenote: Junior standing.]
Any Undergraduate who has pursued a course of study extending over at
least two years at some recognized University or College, and who becomes
a candidate for Honours at Oxford, is allowed to take his degree of
Bachelor of Arts at the end of his _eighth_, instead of the _twelfth_,
Term of residence. As far as the Rhodes Scholars are concerned, Junior
standing merely reduces the necessary residence requirement from three to
two years, and exempts from no University examinations except Responsions
(including the ‘Additional Subject’).[54]
[Sidenote: Senior standing.]
Three years of study, with final Honours, at some recognized University
or College, is demanded as the necessary qualification for Senior
standing. This exempts from Responsions _and_ the _Intermediate
Examination_ (including the Holy Scripture Examination),[55] and reduces
the necessary residence requirement for the B. A. in some one of the
Honour Schools to two years. A Rhodes Scholar, therefore, who has been
granted Senior standing is required to take _only_ some Final Honour
Examination, and may take his degree at the end of his second year.
Students from other than Affiliated or Privileged Universities may
make application for advanced standing. Each case will be considered
on its own individual merits, on the evidence of scholarship furnished
by the applicant as well as on the general standing of the College
or University from which he comes. If his claims are approved, he is
admitted to the same privileges as students from the Affiliated or
Privileged Universities. All such applications should be made through the
proper authorities of the applicant’s Oxford College, and as early as
possible.[56]
[Sidenote: Certain Colonial students exempted from the qualifying
Examination.]
[Sidenote: The ‘Rhodes examination’ exempts from Responsions.]
[Sidenote: Oxford System.]
Students of Affiliated _Colonial_ Universities or Colleges, who satisfy
the conditions for advanced standing prescribed by the particular Oxford
Statute for their respective Universities or Colleges, are excused from
the qualifying examination held by the Rhodes Trust for the Rhodes
Scholarships. At present all Candidates for Rhodes Scholarships in
the _United States_ are required to pass this examination, though it
is probable that a similar exemption will soon be granted to students
of Privileged American Universities. All Rhodes Scholars are accepted
by Oxford Colleges and by the University without further test, the
qualifying examination for the Scholarship being accepted by the
University of Oxford as the equivalent of ‘Responsions’, the first
University examination.
Less than a half-century ago, the collegiate system was still supreme;
it was to the College, that the undergraduate looked for ‘nutrimentum
spiritus—et corporis’. There was but little University teaching and no
University life. The examination system—introduced in 1805—was gradually
raising the standard and requirements of scholarship. But for a few
Professorial lectures, the University did practically nothing to provide
for the teaching of its members; it merely conducted examinations
and granted degrees. With the widening bounds of knowledge, and the
incorporation of new subjects in the University Examination Statutes,—and
especially with the successful invasion—despite Ruskin’s defiance
of ‘Science’ and the scientific spirit, the inevitable duplication
of instructors and the consequent necessary increase in College
expenditure made the need of a closer and more effective organization
of the teaching body more and more imperative. One of the first steps
in this direction—which also marked the first encroachment on the
old collegiate system—was the establishment in 1877-82 of the new
University Professorships and the extension of the University Museum
and scientific laboratories. This was followed by the large development
of the system of inter-collegiate lectures and by the appointment of
University Professors and of lecturers and tutors from other Colleges
to assist in the tutorial and lecture work of the separate Colleges.
These developments have overcome most of the serious defects of the
decentralization of the collegiate system of teaching, felt in the lack
of continuity or in the unavoidable overlapping of lecture-courses, as
well as in the duplication and the inadequacy of the instructional force
at any one College. They have provided the material out of which is
being gradually evolved and organized a ‘graduate School’. In the closer
relations between University and College, and in this more effective
organization of the teaching body, Oxford is approaching the American and
the German systems.
[Sidenote: Character of courses.]
Before giving a brief sketch of Oxford methods of instruction, it
will be well to warn those unfamiliar with the system against certain
very natural but entirely erroneous ideas and misconceptions on this
subject. First of all, there is at Oxford no sharp line of division
between undergraduate and post-graduate work. A Bachelor’s degree in
Arts (Honours), Letters, Science, or Civil Law can hardly be compared
with an American B.A. or B.Litt. The requirements for the ordinary
Bachelor’s degree in the Honour Schools are very high and rigid; all work
is concentrated along one definite line. ‘Specialization’, as generally
understood, is not an apt designation of the course of study. There
is a very considerable amount of general reading to do—much of it in
private and during the Vacations—of which the examination requirements
hardly give an adequate idea. And while method, _as method_, is not
particularly emphasized or taught, some of the original sources in the
field of work are studied, and thorough scientific work is done in the
laboratories. An Oxford (Honour) B.A. therefore represents much more than
mere routine undergraduate work. The work for the degree of Bachelor in
Letters, Science, or Law may be fairly described as the equivalent of
‘post-graduate’ work. Thorough research, a dissertation or a special
course of advanced study, followed in the case of the degree in Law by
a very difficult examination, written and viva voce, are required, and
a very high standard is set. One of the first ideas of which a Rhodes
Scholar must disabuse himself is that the path to an Oxford Honour
degree is smooth and easy.
[Sidenote: Pass and Honour courses.]
Another point must be emphasized. The ordinary and traditional course of
procedure of an Oxford ‘Freshman’ is to register for the B.A. degree.
But this is not all. He must decide whether he will read for the Pass or
the Honour examination. In the former, there is only one standard, and
there are no limits of standing within which the course of study must
be completed. The Pass-man comes up to Oxford to live the social life,
to take advantage of all its many opportunities for self-improvement,
self-culture, self-development, and, incidentally, to acquire a modicum
of knowledge. The man reading for ‘Honours’, on the other hand, naturally
has to meet much higher requirements for the examinations. His success
is measured by his place in the ‘Class Lists’, those who have passed
the examination being distributed into three or four ‘Classes’, each
representing a different level of merit. Furthermore, the Honour-man
cannot take his examinations at his leisure. No one who has exceeded a
certain number of Terms reckoned from his matriculation is admitted to
the examination.
In all cases, however, candidates for any Bachelor’s degree (except
occasionally for the ‘research’ degrees), will find the system of
instruction the same. This consists partly of lectures, University or
College, and partly of personal tuition, provided by the College. All
work, whether it be lectures or work done for and with the Tutor, is
governed by, and planned to meet, the requirements as fixed by the
Examination Statutes.
[Sidenote: Lectures. System.]
All lectures are sharply divided into ‘Pass’ and ‘Honour’ lectures, and
are designed to meet the requirements for Pass or Honour examinations.
Most ‘Pass’ lectures are delivered by College Lecturers and Tutors for
members of the particular College only (no members of other Colleges
being admitted). ‘Honour’ lectures, however, are practically open to
all members of the University, under the new system of inter-collegiate
lectures. Both University Professors and Lecturers and College Lecturers
and Tutors deliver Honour lectures, University and College lectures being
practically merged in one system. The distinction between Professorial
and College lectures has become one of origins only; in practice, it
has been almost obliterated. Occasionally, Professors give a series of
‘Public Lectures’, that is, lectures open to the general public as well
as to members of the University.
Lectures, however, are not the most important part of the system.
The best and most telling work is done privately under the Tutor’s
direction. There is no ‘credit’ or ‘hour’ system; there are no ‘required
courses’. Strictly speaking, attendance at lectures is not compulsory.
Theoretically, it is even possible to take an Oxford degree without
attending a single lecture. However, as all lectures are based on, and
intended to meet, the examination requirements, undergraduates find
it advisable to attend those lectures which will be of use for the
‘Schools’—the final examinations. Few men go to more than ten lectures
a week, and after passing the intermediate examination the average
tends to become even less. Since the introduction of inter-collegiate
lectures, a well-organized system of lectures has been made possible,
especially in the Classical and Modern History work, Theology, and
Mathematics, together with very complete and efficient private tuition.
Due largely to the expense involved, as well as to the character of the
teaching required, the University provides for most of the instruction in
Theology, Law, Natural Science, and Medicine.[57]
[Sidenote: The Tutor.]
Perhaps the most characteristic and salient feature of the Oxford system
is the personal tuition, the private and informal teaching, which each
College provides for its members. On admission to the College, the
newcomer is assigned to a Tutor under whose guidance and supervision he
is to pursue his studies, not only during Term-time at Oxford, but also
during the Vacations. The conscientious Tutor gets to know his protégé
intimately, his strong and his weak points; he can gauge accurately and
justly his qualities, capacities, and possibilities; he is in a position
to recognize and to provide for his particular needs. The personal
equation is here all-important. The strongest point in the system may
be at once the source of its greatest weakness. A few sober-minded,
persistent, and strenuous individuals may achieve moderate success
despite an incapable Tutor. On the other hand, a strong, sympathetic, and
conscientious Tutor may often work wonders with unpromising material.
[Sidenote: The method.]
An Oxford man ‘reads’ for his degree. This is characteristic. Much as
depends on the Tutor, in the last resort the student is dependent on
himself—on the ‘reading’ he does privately. The Tutor is merely an
adviser and a guide; there are disciplinary rules, to be sure; but there
are no final grades at the end of each Term’s work, and there is no
actual compulsion. A man may do much or he may do little—that will depend
entirely upon himself. This is ‘his business’, and so long as he conducts
himself properly, the Tutor has practically no means of constraint,
except to remind the student of the Damocles’ sword in the shape of the
University examinations. The whole system is based on individualism—on a
free and easy relationship between Tutor and taught. It is conscientious
individual effort under capable and sympathetic supervision that leads to
success in the final examinations—‘the Schools’. The Tutor advises the
student to attend certain lecture courses; he suggests certain books for
private reading, the result of which is generally embodied in the form
of an essay, or essays, to be read to the Tutor once or twice a week.
The Tutor makes his comments and criticisms, and an informal discussion
almost invariably follows, not always restricted to the subject in hand.
Whatever may be said of ‘reading for the Schools’, it is a powerful
factor and incentive in the cultivation of the reading habit, apart
from the literary atmosphere of Oxford, which of itself fosters general
reading for the sake of self-culture. Moreover, the academic year is very
short—less than six months. The Oxford man is therefore obliged to do the
bulk of his reading at home, during the Vacations which make up more than
half the year—a striking contrast to the American or German programmes.
The Tutor’s work and influence is not restricted to the eight weeks of
Term-time, so largely given up to the amenities of life. A certain amount
of well-planned reading is assigned or suggested for the Vacation. This
again, however, is not ‘required reading’. There is no compulsion. Under
such a system the responsibility resting on the individual undergraduate
himself is only too evident, and is keenly felt. The lectures being
purely formal, it is in his College rooms or at home that he does his
reading, his writing, his thinking. It is to the Tutor that he looks
for guidance, advice, and inspiration. It is in ‘the Schools’ that his
scholarship, the results of his private reading, of the weekly essays, of
ripe reflection and solid thinking, are tested. With only two University
examinations in the course of his three or four years at Oxford, the
training of the memory means more than mere memorizing. There is no
opportunity of finishing each Term’s work in succession, and forgetting
during the next what has been painfully acquired in the preceding
Term. It means training the judgement and the powers of reflection,
introducing unity and consistency into the mass of acquired facts and of
contradictory points of view, assimilating it all, making it a part of
one’s self. ‘Reading for the Schools’ has its limitations and its dark
side, but the best products of the tutorial system may well challenge
comparison.
[Sidenote: The teaching staff.]
Each College has its own teaching staff of Tutors and Lecturers. It
is, of course, impossible for the ordinary College Tutor to supply
instruction in all the various fields of knowledge. The difficulty has
been met by appointing members of the instructional force of other
Colleges, and very frequently also University Professors and Lecturers as
College instructors, who in this way become responsible for some part of
the ordinary College tuition. Thus it happens that an instructor may be
lecturing as University Professor or Reader on one day, and on the next
in his capacity as College Lecturer. By means of this closer organization
of the teaching force, together with the system of inter-collegiate
lectures, the tuition supplied by each College is very complete. Many
of the College Tutors have their own special field of work, or are
engaged in research; but most of their time is given in this free
personal intercourse with the students entrusted to them, which, begun
perhaps at a breakfast table, has come to mean much more than the mere
professional interest of a far-away instructor to his wards. If Oxford
has been reproached for a lack of the scientific spirit and the spirit of
research, a very just and adequate reply may be made in the words of a
present-day Oxford Tutor, that ‘the energy which elsewhere goes entirely
to the advancement of knowledge is with them (the Tutors) largely devoted
to the training of character’.
[Sidenote: ‘The Schools.’ University Examinations.]
At American and at most Colonial Universities, the instructors and
lecturers are at the same time the examiners. There is generally a final
examination in each subject or course of lectures at the end of each Term
or semester; no further tests in the particular subject being required
for the University degree. At Oxford the examiners are an entirely
separate body of University officials, chosen directly or indirectly
for a period of two or three years, for the most part from among the
instructional staff—University and College—in each field or subject.
Since the introduction of the examination system in 1805, the constant
addition of new subjects and the growing demands of scholarship have
built up a very complex and intricate system of examination requirements.
These are published each year as the _Examination Statutes_, which
rigidly define the field to be covered in each case, and in which
special books, as well as works for general reading and reference, are
suggested. ‘Reading for the Schools’ has undoubtedly been one of the
most serious obstacles to the growth of Professorial and other advanced
lectures which have no direct bearing on, and which are not intended
to meet, the demands of ‘the Schools’; it has also discouraged the
spirit of research and the demands for training in scientific method.
However, it has the advantage of promoting thoroughness and accuracy as
a result of concentrated and steady, persistent effort along a definite
line of work, _non multa sed multum_. The standard of scholarship is
high. Great stress is laid on ease and facility of expression, on the
ability to form independent judgements, on originality. No one can get
a ‘First’ in the Class Lists on mere hard work and ‘grinding’, or by
a display of erudition and an imposing array of facts. The examination
papers are really a series of essays. The examination generally consists
of written papers, followed some days or weeks later by a ‘viva voce’
examination. In Science, practical laboratory tests are required. The
strain of the examinations—especially in the Final Honour Schools—is
very severe. The examination in ‘Greats’—i. e. in the School of
Literae Humaniores—consists of thirty-three hours of paper-work on six
consecutive days. There is very little opportunity for ‘cramming’, as
physical fitness is a most important factor. It is quite a general
custom for candidates to ‘go down’ for a week’s rest before undergoing
the ordeal of ‘Exam. week’. Informal examinations—‘collections’—are held
in most Colleges at the beginning of each Term by College tutors and
lecturers to test the progress their students have made during Term-time,
as well as the reading they have done or ought to have done during the
Vacation. These examinations, however, in no way directly affect the
student’s final grade. Everything depends on the result of the University
examinations.
[Sidenote: Elective studies.]
Rigid as the examination system appears to be, it is yet very elastic.
Not only has the candidate to choose one of the many avenues leading to
a degree—no one has yet succeeded in calculating the total number of
permutations and combinations which can be made to lead to a degree at
Oxford—but he has abundant opportunity for election from a wide range
of subjects required for the particular ‘School’ chosen. Moreover, all
work for the B.A. degree—lectures, tuition, and examinations—is sharply
divided into ‘Pass’ and ‘Honour’ work, and the course of study pursued
will naturally depend on the student’s own choice.
[Sidenote: University Examinations for the B.A.]
All candidates for an Oxford B.A. degree, apart from satisfying
the residence requirements of three years or more, are obliged to
pass certain University examinations, viz. (1) Responsions, (2) an
Intermediate Examination, as a part of which is generally taken the
examination in Holy Scripture; and (3) a Final Examination. The
University accepts as an equivalent for Responsions the qualifying
examination which every American candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship is
required to pass. There remain for the Rhodes Scholar, therefore, only
the Intermediate (including Holy Scripture) and the Final Examinations.
As the work for these is sharply divided into ‘Pass’ and ‘Honour’, four
alternatives present themselves:—
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE B.A. DEGREE.[58]
------------------+------------------------------+----------------------
_Before or upon | _Intermediate._[59] | _Final._
Admission._ | |
------------------+------------------------------+---------------------
|Holy Scripture or substituted | I. _Pass School._
|book (compulsory) and one of |
|the following:— | Five Groups (see
| | _Examination
_Responsions_ | I. _Pass School_ (one only). | Statutes_,
(compulsory). | | p. 38 ff.).
(Rhodes |1. Pass Moderations. |
Scholars |2. Jurisprudence Preliminary, |
exempt, | with ‘Additional Subject’.|
p. 69.) |3. Science Preliminary, with |
| ‘Additional Subject’. |
| |
|I. 1. Qualifies for all |
| examinations |
| in the next column |
| except II. 8. |
| 2. Qualifies for all |
| examinations |
| in the next column |
| except II. 1 and II. 8.|
| 3. Qualifies for all |
| examinations |
| in the next column | _or_
| except II. 1. |
| | II. _Honour School._
|_or_ |
| | 1. English Language
| II. _Honour School._ | and Literature.
| | 2. Literae Humaniores.
|4. Honour Moderations. | 3. Mathematics.
|5. Honour Mathematics, with | 4. Jurisprudence.
| ‘Additional Subject’. | 5. Modern History.
| | 6. Theology.
|II. 4. Qualifies for all | 7. Oriental Studies.
| examinations. | 8. Natural Science.
| 5. Qualifies for all | 9. Modern Languages.
| examinations |
| in the next column |
| except II. 1. |
------------------+------------------------------+---------------------
Advanced degrees for which an Oxford B.A. is a necessary
preliminary:—M.A., B.D., B.M.
Advanced degrees for which an Oxford B.A. is _not_ a necessary
preliminary:—B.Litt., B.Sc., B.C.L.
To take (_a_) the Pass Examination in both the Intermediate and the Final
School;
(_b_) The Pass Examination in the Intermediate and Honours in the Final
School;
(_c_) The Honour Examination in _both_ the Intermediate and the Final
School;
(_d_) The Honour Examination in the Intermediate and the Pass in the
Final School.
While under no compulsion to take any degree, the Rhodes Scholar reading
for the B.A. degree is expected to take Honours at least in the Final
School. That is to say, he is confronted with a choice between the second
and third alternatives just mentioned. To state it more simply, he may
take _either_ the Pass _or_ the Honour Examinations in the Intermediate;
he is expected to take Honours in the Final School.
[Sidenote: The Intermediate Examination, Pass School.]
To take up first of all the Intermediate Examination in the _Pass_
School. This may be _either_ what is known as ‘Pass Moderations’, _or_
the Preliminary Examination in Jurisprudence, _or_ the Preliminary
Examination in Natural Science. Pass Moderations will admit to the Final
Examinations in all of the nine Final Honour Schools except Natural
Science, and is required of those reading for Honours in English Language
and Literature. For all the other Final Schools, except the School of
English Language and Literature, a candidate may qualify by passing _any
one_ of the three Intermediate Examinations just mentioned. A glance
at the chart on p. 77 will perhaps make this a little clearer. The Law
Preliminary Examination is generally taken by men who intend to read
Jurisprudence, frequently also by candidates for Honours in the Modern
History School. The ‘Science Preliminary’ is seldom taken except by men
reading for the Final Examination in Natural Science.
The requirements for these three _Intermediate Pass_ Examinations are as
follows:—
[Sidenote: ‘Pass Mods.’]
‘_Pass Moderations_’ is along the lines of ‘Responsions’, the first
University examination,—but of a more difficult grade. The subjects
are:—(1) translations from certain prescribed Classical authors with
questions on the text and contents, (2) Logic _or_ Algebra and Geometry,
(3) Latin Prose Composition, and (4) Unprepared Translations in Greek
and Latin.
[Sidenote: ‘Law Prelim.’]
The subjects of the Preliminary Examination in Jurisprudence are:—(1)
English Constitutional and Political History after 1485, _or_ European
History, 800-1494; (2) Gaius, _Institutes_, Books I and II to be read in
the _original_, with reference to the history and sources of the law; (3)
Unprepared Latin Translation; (4)(_a_) Logic, or Bacon’s _Novum Organum_,
Book I, _or_ (_b_) a portion of a prescribed Greek, French, or German
author, with unprepared translations in the language offered. Greek is
optional, but a fair knowledge of Latin is required.
[Sidenote: ‘Science Prelim.’]
The subjects of the Preliminary Examination in Natural Science will
depend on the candidate’s choice of subjects for the Final School in
Natural Science. Examinations are held in (1) Mechanics and Physics, (2)
Chemistry, (3) Animal Physiology, (4) Zoology, and (5) Botany.
[Sidenote: ‘Additional Subject.’]
Candidates who take either the Law or the Natural Science Preliminary
Examination are further required to pass in an ‘Additional Subject’,
additional, i. e., to the Stated Subjects for Responsions. The
examinations may be in the nature of translations from (1) a prescribed
Greek or Latin, (2) French, German, or Italian author, or on (3) Book
I of Bacon’s _Novum Organum_, or (4) Elementary Logic. This Additional
Subject may be taken any time after matriculation; except that it must
be taken before the student enters for the Law Preliminary Examination,
and it must be passed before any candidate is admitted to the Final
Examination in Natural Science.
All candidates who have passed in the written papers in any one of
the three Intermediate _Pass_ Examinations must undergo a ‘viva voce’
examination in the subjects offered.
[Sidenote: ‘Honour Mods.’]
Instead of taking one of these three Pass Examinations, the more
ambitious and scholarly _may_ decide to take Honours in the Intermediate
Examination—‘Honour Moderations.’ This examination is of more than
average difficulty and requires thorough and conscientious preparation.
The candidate must be prepared (1) to translate any passage set from
Homer and Virgil and from the orations of Demosthenes and Cicero; (2) he
must choose for special study at least three authors from a list of eight
Greek and eleven Latin authors, and be prepared to answer questions on
the text, contents, style, and literary history. (3) A fairly difficult
Latin Prose Composition is set, also (4) unprepared translations in Greek
and Latin, and (5) a general paper, covering the field of Greek and Latin
grammar, literary criticism, and classical antiquities in general. In
addition there are certain optional subjects, which may mean a better
place in the ‘Class Lists’. Great importance is attached to the literary
character and the style in which the examination papers are written.
There is no ‘viva voce’ examination.
[Sidenote: ‘Honour Maths.’]
Those who wish to escape the Classical part of ‘Honour Moderations’ may
take instead the Intermediate Examination in ‘Honour Mathematics’ and an
‘Additional Subject’, although this is not often done. The subjects to
be offered are (1) Algebra, (2) Trigonometry, (3) Pure and Analytical
Geometry, (4) Differential and Integral Calculus, (5) Elements of
Mechanics of Solids and Fluids.
[Sidenote: Examination in Holy Scripture.]
_All candidates_ for the degree of Bachelor of Arts are required to
pass an examination in Holy Scripture. The subjects of the examination
are (1) the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, and (2) _either_ the
subject-matter of the Acts of the Apostles _or_ one of the two Books of
Kings. Those who may make objection on religious grounds are allowed
to substitute the _Phaedo_ of Plato. In either case, a ‘viva voce’
examination follows. This examination in Holy Scripture may be taken
before or with the Intermediate Examination; it must be passed before a
candidate for the B.A. is admitted to the Final Examinations.
Those who enjoy Senior standing are exempted from the Intermediate
Examination—Pass or Honour—altogether, including also the Examination in
Holy Scripture.
[Sidenote: ‘Final Honour Schools.’]
The candidate who has successfully passed the Intermediate Examination,
Pass or Honour, is now prepared to proceed to one of the Final Honour
Schools leading to the Bachelor’s degree. Of these there are nine:—
1. Literae Humaniores.
2. Modern History.
3. Mathematics.
4. Natural Science.
5. Jurisprudence.
6. Theology.
7. Oriental Languages.
8. English Language and Literature.
9. Modern Languages.
The names themselves will convey some general idea of the subjects to be
pursued for each of these ‘Schools’. A few words about the requirements
and work to be done for the Final Examination in each of these nine
Schools may not be amiss here.
[Sidenote: Literae Humaniores.]
‘The Final Classical School or the School of Literae Humaniores is the
oldest, and is admitted on all hands to be the premier School in dignity
and importance.... The course of combined studies for this School is
peculiar to ... Oxford. It is believed to confer a fine mental discipline
and to favour a catholic and genuine culture.’ The general programme of
studies includes the classical languages and literature, Greek and Roman
History, and Philosophy. While textual criticism receives due attention,
it is literary study and treatment that is emphasized. The study of the
classical historians, in the original, forms the basis of the work in
history. In Philosophy, which includes Moral and Political Philosophy and
Logic, the work is based on Plato and Aristotle, but includes also the
general history of Philosophy. The ‘Greats’ man is generally familiar
with the works of Maine, Mill, Green, Bryce, and other authorities. He
is also expected to be acquainted with the outlines of the Theory of
Knowledge from Descartes to Kant, more especially with the philosophy of
Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, and the study of Psychology receives some
attention. The essay work for and with the College Tutor is especially
valuable and a most important part of the classical training received.
The subjects of study range far beyond the limits of classical antiquity.
‘The dominant note of the examination is ... general culture upon a firm
classical basis.’ Quite a number of University prizes and scholarships
are offered in Classics.
[Sidenote: Modern History.]
This is the first in numbers and the second in importance, of the Final
Honour Schools. The reading to be done is very considerable, and a
knowledge of French or German is now compulsory. The subjects of the
examination include the Political and Constitutional History of England,
some special period of European History, Political Science, and Political
Economy. Those who aim at a ‘First’ or ‘Second’ in the Class Lists must
further select one of a list of special subjects to be studied with
reference to the original authorities, e. g. the Crusades, the French
Revolution, &c. Certain other subjects connected with the history of
Literature and Art are optional. Much stress is laid on Geography—for
which special instruction is provided—and on the social and literary
history of the period of European History studied. The courses of
inter-collegiate lectures are particularly well organized and complete
in Modern History, and an adequate teaching force supplies efficient
tuition. There is no special training in historical method except as
this is incidentally developed by independent work under tutorial
supervision. The object of this School, as of most Honour Schools, is
not to produce specialists but to lay the foundations of a liberal
education. To stimulate and encourage historical study the University
offers three prizes—the Stanhope, the Lothian, and the Arnold prizes.
Special attention should be called to the splendid library facilities at
the Bodleian Library, in addition to the various College libraries.
[Sidenote: Mathematics.]
An inter-collegiate association provides a very complete list of
lectures in Mathematics. The subjects of the examination are Pure and
Mixed Mathematics. The ordinary Professorial lectures ‘aim more at the
introduction of students to advanced study than at preparation for
the University examinations’. The Professors and College Tutors and
Lecturers are always prepared to give personal advice and instruction.
The University awards each year a Senior and a Junior Mathematical
Scholarship.
[Sidenote: Natural Science.]
The Natural Science School really embraces seven distinct co-ordinate
subjects or courses of study, viz. (1) Physics, (2) Chemistry, (3) Animal
Physiology, (4) Zoology, (5) Botany, (6) Geology, and (7) Astronomy.
Special work may be done in any one of these subjects, and combinations
of several are possible. The course of study will depend on the
student’s choice of subject or subjects for his final examinations. It
is impossible to go into all details here. Attention ought, however,
to be called to the excellent facilities provided, which are generally
underrated. Because of the heavy expenditure which would be involved
under the distinctly collegiate system, the University undertakes most
of the teaching in Natural Science as well as making provision for the
practical work necessary and incidental thereto. Those who intend to take
up the study of medicine are recommended to select either Physiology or
Chemistry as a preliminary.
Excellent facilities for laboratory work are provided for at the
University Museum. In addition, there are the College laboratories at
Christ Church, Magdalen, Queen’s, New College, Balliol, and Trinity.
Others are in course of construction at Jesus College and at St. John’s
College (Rural Economy and Forest Botany).
In the Radcliffe Library are to be found more than 600 current scientific
periodicals (English and foreign), and some 60,000 volumes dealing
with all branches of scientific work. The University Museum contains
excellent Zoological, Mineralogical, Geological, Palaeontological, and
Petrological Collections. Here are to be found also the Hope Collection
of Anthropoid Animals, the second in importance in the British Empire;
the Hope Library, containing perhaps the most complete collection in
the world on the Arthropoda; the Pitt-Rivers Museum, containing a very
comprehensive Ethnological collection; and also the collections in
Physical Anthropology, Human Anatomy, and Pathology. The facilities both
as regards Working Staff and practical laboratory work deserve special
attention.
[Sidenote: Jurisprudence.]