University College London

“ In University College and King’s College, London, the metropolis possesses two institutions each of which may be likened to a university and a polytechnic combined. In the nniversity of Cambridge there are mechanical workshops in connexion with the chair of engineering. The Royal School of Mines and the normal schools of science and art in South Kensington are the only technical institutions in England supported by state aid. The central institution in London has more in common with the German polytechnic school than any other institution in Britain. ”

“ The examinations of the Society of Arts, being primarily intended for artisans, are manifestly inadequate; and the University local examinations are limited to students under eighteen. The University of London, having adopted the principle of making its examinations simply a test and standard of acquirement, without enforcing upon students that their knowledge should have been acquired by attendance at college lectures, or under any particular system, is in a peculiarly favourable position for giving assistance in this matter. ”

“ In a word, an academical education is so much wanted in London, that everybody of ability and figure will readily come into it; and I dare engage, the place need but be chosen, and tutors approved of, to complete the design at once.
It may be objected, that there is a kind of university at Gresham college, where professors in all sciences are maintained, and obliged to read lectures every day, or at least as often as demanded. The design is most laudable, but it smells too much of the sine cure ”

“ The University of London, however, was intended to promote the education, not only of gentlemen, and of persons who could afford to live for several years at a college, but of all classes of her Majesty's subjects, without any distinction whatever ”

“ But the London University, like the Paris University, if the little history of science teaching I have given you is of any value, must leave our normal college alone, at all events till we have more than trebled our present supply of science teachers. ”

“ They were of opinion that if the College were in a position to enable the students to obtain the science degrees of the University of London its usefulness would be considerably increased, and the wider curriculum might be expected to result in an augmentation of the yearly entry. ”

“ The Baptists also have a fine College in the Regent’s Park, the students of which also occasionally are in the class lists of the London University. But the real fact is that in all the Dissenting Colleges the men who take university honours are the exception, not the rule; the reason is the course extends over but four or five years—and so much of that time is devoted to theological study and pulpit preparation that there is not the time to attain to the high standard prescribed by the London University. ”

“ By the middle of the fourteenth century, then, we find the students of what we may call a London University of National Law established in their Inns or Hostels, which clustered about the boundaries of the City, from Holborn to Chancery Lane, from{9} Fleet Street to the River. The Schools of Law, of which this University was composed, were distinctively English, and the University itself developed upon the peculiarly English lines of a College system, closely similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge. ”

“ A very large proportion of professors and college tutors have travelled widely; many are well known in London as contributors to scientific and literary periodicals or otherwise; while Oxford itself is constantly thronged with visitors from the metropolis. In ceasing to be clerical and aristocratic, the University has become far more cosmopolitan; all religions are there mingled harmoniously, nor is it uncommon to meet in the streets young men of Oriental race and complexion wearing academical costume. ”

“ The East London College, originally founded as a technical school in connexion with the People's Palace at Mile End, was admitted in 1907 as a school of the university, and under the statutes of the university certain teachers in the Polytechnic institutes became recognized teachers, and their students were admitted to graduation as internal students. Most of the students so admitted graduate in the faculty of engineering. ”

“ You will have to come to London and set up physiology at the Royal College of Science. It is the only place in Great Britain in which scientific teaching is trammelled neither by parsons nor by litterateurs. I have always implored Donnelly to keep us clear of any connection with a University of any kind, sort, or description, and I tried to instil the same lesson into the doctors the other day. But the "liberal education" cant is an obsession of too many of them. ”

“ The wealth of London seems to have impressed the alien printer, for he always applies the word “opulentissima” to that city.
The small Horae we have little information about, for we know of its existence only from nineteen leaves scattered about the country. There are eight in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, seven in the British Museum, four in Lincoln Minster, and two in the University Library, Cambridge. ”

“ Graduates are a very small minority of the men of England, and yet their education has determined the education of the great majority who are not graduates. It is by no means obvious that it would do women any harm to know enough for the B.A. (London) pass-examination. They are already expected to learn not much less at Queen's College, in Harley Street; and a degree would be to women, in their present stage of cultivation, what honours are to men. ”

“ Whether if the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford should be annihilated, and the revenues imployed to the publique affairs of this Commonwealth, (Religion being now out of date, and learning of no use, where men are so generally inspired,) it is not fitting that Brasen Nose College in Oxford should be exempted from that general devastation, as a memorial of the Respect they bore to Oliver late Lord Protector.
This period was not free from disputes between the university and the London Stationers. ”

“ Childers, like the young Marquis of Lorne, is a Trinity College, Cambridge, man, but not an Eton boy like the former.
FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY.
The next noticeable person on the ministerial bench, and by all acknowledged to be one of the ablest men in Parliament, [Pg 299] is the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, member for London University, an Oxford man, and son of a Church of England clergyman. London University, which Mr. Lowe represents, is the most liberal educational institution in England, and grants University degrees to students, irrespective of their religious belief. ”

“ It may be mentioned that, in 1878, London University had obtained a supplement to its Charter empowering it to admit women to its degrees, a step which marked both a recognition of the claims of educated women and an abandonment of London's first tentative measures in providing examinations for women. ”

“ He caught a Telegraph Avenue car that was going to Berkeley. It was crowded with youths and young men who were singing songs and ever and again barking out college yells. He studied them curiously. They were university boys. They went to the same university that she did, were in her class socially, could know her, could see her every day if they wanted to. ”

“ Matriculates and others, if they try for a scholarship, while they may not be successful in getting one, will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have added to the stock of their knowledge and done some useful work. It may, however, be thought more advisable for them to graduate in one of the Universities. Then comes the question of selection of a University. There are Cambridge and Oxford Universities on one side and London University on the other. So far as substantial knowledge is concerned, London University is by far the best. ”

“ And if a University is to be joined for enjoyment and pleasures, of course London University would lag far behind. Oxford and Cambridge would win the palm. There is no, what is called, University life in London of which there is plenty in Oxford and Cambridge. London University is an examining body merely and does not require candidates to have kept any terms. There is no doubt an opportunity of mixing with Professors in Oxford and Cambridge which is not to be found in London. It is said that education in Oxford and Cambridge is very costly. ”

“ Anthonies Hospital and to his brethren and their successors for ever his manor of Ponington, with the appurtenances” and other property “towards the maintenance of 5 scholars in the University of Oxford to be brought up in the faculty of arts, after the rate of 10d. a week for every scholar, so that the said scholars before their going to Oxford, be first instructed in the rudiments of grammar at the College of Eton, founded by the same king. ”

“ A university consisting of two, three, or more federated colleges is very little better than a mere outside examining body, and this is what London University has always been. I am glad that a change towards something better is now about to take place. A number of separate universities would be better, but in two years or less, probably, the colleges of London will conduct their own intermediate and degree examinations. One result will be that when a man gets his degree he will not shut up his books forever. ”

“ The University of London from the first decided that no one should become even an undergraduate who had not mastered his A B C, not merely the A B C of mathematics and certain selected languages, but the A B C of science also. There are many who still cavil at the breadth of the matriculation, and seem to forget that it comprises no subject that a decently educated man can in the present day ignore. ”

“ It is usually admitted that examinations are almost essential as a touchstone of successful study, and as a stimulus to continuous effort. Such a touchstone, and such a stimulus, are even more necessary to women than to men; and though we should be most unwilling to obtain these advantages by the sacrifice of others still more precious, we are of opinion that in the University of London our object might be obtained without any contingent risk. ”

“ There were the Oxford and Cambridge type, and the German type. Any other type was viewed with ignorant contempt. The seething mass of artisans seeking intellectual enlightenment, of young people from every social grade craving for adequate knowledge, the variety of problems thus introduced—all this was a new factor in civilization. But the learned world is immersed in the past.
The University of London is a confederation of various institutions of different types for the purpose of meeting this novel problem of modern life. ”

“ What benefits may we not in time expect from so glorious a design? Will not London become the scene of science? And what reason have we but to hope we may vie with any [Pg 5] neighbouring nations? Not that I would have Oxford or Cambridge neglected, for the good they have done. Besides, there are too many fine endowments to be sunk; we may have universities at those places and at London too, without prejudice. Knowledge will never hurt us, and whoever lives to see an university here, will find it give quite another turn to the genius and spirit of our youth in general. ”

“ A fierce opposition at length sprung up to a system of study so narrow and exclusive,—the growing wants of education demanded a university in London, which project was opposed by many of the friends of the old institutions. The elements of a party thus formed, were soon combined, and as the controversy waxed warmer, they attacked not only the venerable temples of learning, but the very study of the ancient languages itself, at first, perhaps, because the most celebrated abodes of this species of literature were to be found in the universities to which they had become inimical. ”

“ Teaching, however is found to be increasingly necessary, especially to examination, and for this the main field left open is in our last column, that of People. Their lore of the past, whether of sacred or classical learning, their history, literature, and criticism, are already actively promoted, or at any rate adequately endowed at older seats of learning; while the materials, resources, conditions and atmosphere are here of other kinds. Hence the accessibility of the new University of London to the study of sociology, as yet alone among its peers. ”

“ London University would be found better by vegetarians as there are more facilities for them in London than anywhere else. Now, this University is so exacting that even an M.A. or B.A. of any other University has to matriculate in the London University before he can appear for any of its degree examinations. But, after passing the matriculation examination, one can appear in its Law examinations without having to pass the B.A. examination, as is the case in the Bombay University. ”

“ So famous indeed had he already become, that at the age of twenty-two—when most young men are only just leaving college—he was chosen lecturer on science at the great Royal Institution in London. There he amazed men by the eloquence and clearness with which he revealed the mysteries of science. He was so bright and attractive a young man, moreover, that the best London society gladly welcomed him to its drawing-rooms, and praises of him were in every mouth. ”

“ It is a mere stumbling-block in the way of Progress especially barring the road to one of the main wants of English Education, a great London University which should not be ashamed to stand by Berlin, Paris and Vienna. ”