ONE SHILLING
HAS IT A
FUTURE ?
H. j. MACKINDEH, M.A.
Reader in Geography in the U," ,sity of Oxford
Staff Lecturer to the Oxford University Extension
MICHAEL E. SADLER, M.A.
Student ann .r-'kimrd r\f Christ Church
to the Oxford Dcki/atcs for University Extension-
LONDON: HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
: 116 $)i$ gfmf
1890
LIBRARY
OF THK
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
A c cessions No. 4ifyB2£-/J0- - . Shelf No
r
SJmbemtg iSxtenston
A SERIES of University Extension Manuals will shortly be published by
Mr. MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, under the Editorship of Professor
KNIGHT, of the University of St. Andrews, designed to aid the University
Extension movement throughout the country, and to supply the need so
widely felt by students, of Text-books for study and references, in connexion
with the authorised Courses of Lectures.
The Series will include the following Works : —
Professor W. ANDERSON, Oriel College, Ox-
ford, and Frith College, Sheffield.
The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans.
ARTHUR BERRY, Fellow of King's College,
Cambridge (Senior Wrangler).
The History of Astronomy.
F. S. BOAS, Balliol College, Oxford.
Shakespeare •, and his predecessors in the
English Drama.
STOPFORD A. BROOKE, Trinity College, Dublin.
The English Poets, from Blake to Tenny-
son.
Professor BALDWIN BROWN, University of
Edinburgh.
The Fine A rts.
A. CALDECOTT, Fellow of St. John's College,
Cambridge.
English Colonization and Empire.
JOHN Cox, late Warden of Cavendish Col-
lege, Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge.
Energy in Nature, an Introduction to
Physical Science.
W. CUNNINGHAM, University Lecturer, Cam-
bridge.
The Use and Abuse of Capital.
Professor PATRICK GEDDES, University Col-
lege, Dundee.
Outlines of Modern Botany.
EDMUND GOSSE, Trinity College, Cambridge.
The Jacobean Poets.
Professor KNIGHT, University of St. An-
drews.
A n Introduction to Philosophy.
The Philosophy of the Beautiful.
Professor SIMON S, LAURIE, University of
Edinburgh.
Text Book oflhe History of Education.
Sir ALFRED LYALL, K.C.B., K. C.S.I.
British Dominion in India.
C. E. MALLET, Balliol College, Oxford.
The French Revolution.
Professor MCKENDRICK, the University of
Glasgow, and Dr. SNODGRASS, Physio-
logical Laboratory, Glasgow.
The Physiology of the Senses.
Professor MENZIES, University of St. An-
drews.
Comparative Religion,
HUGH ROBERT MILL, University of Edin-
burgh.
Physiography.
Professor MINTO, University of Aberdeen.
Logic, Inductive and Deductive.
JOHN H. MUIRHEAD, Balliol College, Oxford,
Lecturer on Moral Science, Royal
Holloway College.
The Elements of Ethics,
Professor RALEIGH, University College, Liver-
rl.
English Novel, from, its Origin to
Sir W: Scott.
WILLIAM RENTON, University of St. Andrews.
Oictlines of English Literature.
R. D. ROBERTS, Fellow of Clare College,
Cambridge, Secretary to the Cambridge
and LondonUniversity Extension Syndi-
cates.
Studies in Modern Geology.
M. E. SADLER, Senior Student of Christ
Church, Oxford, Secretary to the Oxford
University Extension Delegacy.
Problems of Political Economy.
Professor SETH, University of St. Andrews.
Psychology, a Historical Sketch.
Professor JAMES STUART, M.P., Trinity
College, Cambridge.
Mechanics.
J. ARTHUR THOMSON, University of Edin-
burgh.
The Study of Animal Life.
LONDON :
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
HAS IT A FUTURE?
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
HAS IT A FUTURE f
H. J. MACKINDEE,
READER IN GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
STAFF LECTURER TO THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
M. E. SADLER
STUDENT AND STEWARD OF CHRIST CHURCH
SECRETARY TO THE OXFORD DELEGATES FOR UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
UNI7EESIT7
Bonfcon
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.G.
OXFORD: 116 HIGH STREET
1890
[All rights reserved]
r\*
v-
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY.
PAGE
Elementary Education and Public Libraries necessitate .
Higher Education ........ 2
General as well as Technical Education .... 4
The Ideal System of Higher Education .... 5
Objects of this Enquiry ....... 5
CHAPTER I. UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT is.
V^\\S -N .
The Natural History of axTypical Centre .... 7
Variations from the Typical Centre . . . . .10
The Four Central Authorities n
The Central Offices 13
The Lecturers . 15
Statistics 17
Growth during the last Five Years . . . . .20
Finance 22
New Developments . . . . . . . 24
The Federation of Centres 27
Affiliation of Centres to the Universities . . . .28
Summer Meetings . . . . . . , .29
Scholarships .......... 32
Extension Journalism and Literature . . . . • 34
The Different Classes of Students 35
Long and Short Courses ....... 39
The Merits and Demerits of Extension as it is . . . 43
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II. UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: How
IT HAS COME TO BE.
PAGE
The Origin of the Phrase ' University Extension ' -45
The Seven Schemes for University Extension in 1850 . 48
The First Proposal for University Extension Teaching, 1850 . 51
Sir Thomas Acland and the Beginning of Local Examinations 55
Professor Stuart and the Beginning of Local Lectures . 61
Official Recognition of Extension Teaching by the University
of Cambridge ......... 66
The First Programme of University Extension Teaching . 71
The "Difficulties which it Encountered . . . -72
The Foundation of the London Extension Society . . 74
The University of Oxford enters on the Work . . • 75
The New Departure in 1885 78
The Oxford Travelling Libraries and Summer Meetings . 79
An Anticipation of the Idea of the Summer Meeting . 81
The Natural Character of the Development of University
Extension .... ..... 82
CHAPTER III. UNIVERSITY EXTENSION : HAS
IT A FUTURE ?
University Extension needs Men :
J. Lecturers . . . . . . . . . 85
The Training of Lecturers. . . . . 91
The Oxford Method of Selecting Lecturers . . 98
2. Organizers ......... 100
University Extension needs Money :
1. Locally 101
2. At Head-Quarters 107
The Three Sources whence Money may be drawn :
1. Private Munificence ....... 108
2. The Universities and Colleges . . . . .no
3. The State . . .112
CONTENTS. Vll
PAGE
The Justice of State Aid to University Extension . .113
The Expediency of State Aid to University Extension . 115
The Practicability of State Aid to University Extension . 116
The National Committee's Work 118
The Treasury Grant Scheme . . . . . .120
The County Council Scheme 121
The Possibilities of University Extension . . . .123
Summary and Conclusion . . . . . . .125
APPENDIX.
I. Application of the Extra Spirit Duty.
Statement by Mr. Goschen in the House of Com-
mons, July 21, 1890 ...... 130
II. Treasury Minute concerning Grants to Local Colleges 133
III. The Central Authorities for University Extension in
England 136
IV. The District Federations of Centres . . . .136
MAPS.
1. Oxford Centres 1889-1890.
2. Cambridge Centres 1889-1890.
3. University Extension Centres in England 1889-1890.
4. „ „ „ 1885-6.
THE ~^
WVEESIT7
INTRODUCTORY.
THE movement known as University Extension
seems to have arrived at a critical period in its
history. The wonderful growth of the last two
years, whether we measure it by statistics or by
the newly awakened interest of newspapers and
public men, seems to mark the end of the merely
experimental stage. Several new developments
are extending the operations of the system. We
begin to feel that its tentative organization ought
to give way to some more permanent arrangement.
At the same time it is clear that both political
parties have now come to the conclusion that the
State must henceforth play a larger part in national
education. On the 2 1 st of July the Chancellor of the
Exchequer intimated to the House of Commons that
the Government proposed that part of the money
accruing from the new Spirit tax should ultimately
be used for education 1. At once in Wales and
Monmouthshire, by and by also in England, it is to
be devoted to the promotion of intermediate,
technical and agricultural education. The post-
1 See Appendix I.
B
2 INTRODUCTORY.
ponement in th$ case of England is on the ground
that very little machinery at present exists for the
proper employment of the funds in question. We
claim that in University Extension we have already
in existence a system which might easily be em-
ployed as such machinery, so far at least as part of
intermediate education is concerned. In view
therefore of the present position of University
Extension itself, in view also of the impending
discussion and legislation on matters of educa-
tion, we think that a concise statement of what
University Extension is, of its history, and of its
aims, may not be without use. In the course of
our inquiry we shall have to make certain
suggestions. We wish it to be understood therefore,
that though we are personally connected with
University Extension, we do not express the
opinions of our colleagues or of the Delegates under
whom we serve. We would add also that though
associated, especially with one branch of the move-
ment, we aim at speaking in the interests of the
whole, and that on subjects which have come to be
matters of controversy we shall strive to represent
with fairness the views of all parties.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AND PUBLIC
LIBRARIES NECESSITATE HIGHER EDUCATION.
The fundamental idea and object of Univer-
sity Extension is to bring the University to
INTRODUCTORY. 3
the people when the people cannot come to
the University. It may be regarded as the out-
come of two great modern institutions, universal
Elementary Education and free Public Libraries. It
is possible in its present form, because of the recent
development of our railway system.
When Parliament, yielding to modern necessities,
enacted compulsory elementary education, it forced
on future generations a two-edged weapon. It was
certain therefore that as the first generation of the
new regime grew to maturity, strong voice would
be given to the necessity of yet further changes.
The training of early life having been revolutionised,
all the surroundings of later years were thrown out
of gear. It was obvious that, sooner or later, our
whole educational system would have to be recon-
structed. It is now being generally recognised that
we cannot leave things as they are. The output of
demoralising literature has greatly increased. An
intellectual diet too exclusively of newspapers
and novels threatens to emasculate the national
mind.
It is an open question whether the Public
Libraries have not so far greatly contributed to
the spread of the more insidious danger. Free
Libraries are essential to a community whose
masses can read ; it is clear however that alone
they are almost as capable of abuse as the mere
power of reading. Carlyle's idea that the library
is the real University is true only within narrow
B 2
4 INTRODUCTORY.
limits. It implies the conception of a University
as primarily a place of research, and this again
involves researchers who are both willing and
capable. The minds are rare which naturally take
to intellectual effort, and rarer still are those which
can in isolation grow erect and strong. Most men,
even of great opportunities, can trace their intel-
lectual life to the touch of one or two minds of
maturity and keenness. And even granting the
awakened interest, in an age when book-writing
is a trade, it requires an expert to distinguish be-
tween the true guide and the false.
GENERAL AS WELL AS TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Technical Education and Commercial Education
are crying wants, and in themselves excellent ; but
there is need of yet another kind of education,
unless reading is to become a very mixed benefit.
The immense multiplication of novels and news-
papers is evidence that, once admitted to the world
of letters, the minds of men and women demand
freer play than they can find in most ordinary
callings in life. That this play of millions of minds
should be on great thoughts rather than small ones,
is to be desired both for the avoidance of evil and
for the vast increase of good. The school life of the
millions ends too early to give them more than
the implements of learning. They need to be
INTRODUCTORY.
brought in contact with the living cultured teachers,
who are as essential to the complete University as
is the library.
THE IDEAL SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
Our ideal is that a centre of stimulus and guid-
ance should exist alongside of a Public Library in
every town in the country ; that they should sup-
plement one another, and that together they should
carry forward the education begun in the ele-
mentary schools. To do the greatest service, such
a centre must combine some of the functions of the
higher forms in the Public School, of the University
class-room, and of the Eoyal Institution. It must
teach the girl and youth, it must guide and stimu-
late the young man and young woman, it must
maintain the intellectual interest of the older
citizen. For lack of some such complete system,
a great amount of our immense expenditure on edu-
cation is running to waste. However incomplete,
however tentative, University Extension is the one
great agency in the field which seeks to fulfil this
ideal.
OBJECTS OE THIS ENQUIRY.
We propose in this pamphlet enquiring how far
University Extension, as it exists, is satisfactory ;
INTRODUCTOKY.
how it has come to be what it is; whether it is
destined to become a greater institution in the
future, and whether it is not now advisable for
the State to recognise and assist it.
CHAPTER I.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF A TYPICAL CENTRE.
WE shall commence our survey of University
Extension as it exists to-day by giving first what
we may describe as the natural history of a
typical centre. Some prominent inhabitant of
a country town hears of the scheme while on a
visit or is taken to a lecture, and being rather
an educational pillar in his neighbourhood, he is
pleased with the idea. He writes to Oxford or
Cambridge for papers, and gets the subject up.
He invites a few friends to his house and ventilates
his project. Being himself a busy man he seeks
another to undertake the burden of secretaryship.
As often as not the secretary is a lady. The Mayor
is now visited and a public meeting called. A
representative may possibly attend from one of the
Universities. Resolutions are passed, a committee
is elected, and the appointment of the Secretary is
8 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
ratified. A house-to-house journey or an ' at home'
raises the list of guarantors. The committee meet
to choose a subject to begin with and a lecturer.
The Secretary makes a formal application to one of
the Central Offices, and if the lecturer applied foi-
ls free, dates are fixed and advertisement is com-
menced. The editors of the local newspapers are
interested, and various members of the committee
undertake to dispose of a certain number of
tickets.
When the lecturer arrives for the first time
he is taken to the house of one of the com-
mittee. He learns from his host the nature of
the audience and hears of many local difficulties
and peculiarities. He delivers his inaugural lecture,
organizes his class and explains the method and
opportunities of the scheme. If he is successful,
the doubtful are convinced and the ' course ' is
satisfactorily floated. The lectures are delivered
at weekly or fortnightly intervals. There are
from six to twelve lectures in the course. A
universal characteristic of Extension lectures is
the syllabus, a pamphlet containing an analysis
of each lecture, a list of text-books and other
authorities on the subject, and such quotations and
statistics as the lecturer finds it expedient to put
into print. Wherever possible, the lectures are
illustrated by specimens and diagrams. Owing
to its intrinsic merits and to the difficulty of carry-
ing cumbersome diagrams and specimens about by
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 9
train, the magic lantern is in growing favour as a
means of illustration. In some cases the lecturer
is able to make use of the local museum and in the
case of one or two courses on musical subjects
a local chorus has been trained for purposes of
illustration. After each lecture there is a pause,
during which a portion of the audience withdraws,
leaving only the c students/ A ' class ' is then held,
during which the lecturer goes into further details
and explains difficulties. The lecturer gets to
know personally, at least the more active and
promising of his students. At each class questions
are given out on which the students write short
essays. These ' weekly (or fortnightly) papers ' are
regarded as one of the corner-stones of the system.
They are usually sent to the lecturer by post and
he returns them at the following class bearing his
comments. In the case of the Oxford lectures a
' travelling library ' accompanies every course.
It consists of a strong box containing about
twenty or thirty of the books recommended by
the lecturer. These bo.oks are either lent in rota-
tion to the students or deposited in some accessible
room for reference.
At the close of the course, the lecturer prepares a
list of those students who have attended at least
a certain proportion — usually two-thirds or three-
quarters — of the classes, and have written the same
proportion of the c weekly papers/ These students
are qualified to sit for the examination which is held
10 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
at the centre by the University authorities. Three
weeks or a month after the last lecture, the ex-
aminer, who is appointed by the University and is
other than the lecturer, issues a list of successful
candidates arranged in two classes, those who have
' distinguished ' themselves, and those who have
c satisfied the examiner.' A prize is awarded to
the student at the head of the list. At a later
meeting, not unfrequently the first lecture of a sub-
sequent course, the member of parliament or some
other local magnate distributes the certificates and
gives away the prizes.
VABIATIONS PROM THE TYPICAL CENTRE.
Of course there are many variations from the
typical centre. In some cases the course is ar-
ranged and the payment of the University account
is guaranteed by some already existing society, a
Mechanics' Institute, a Loc.al College, or a Public
Library, occasionally even by a wealthy individual.
The working-men's centres in the north of England
are in several instances organized by co-operative
societies. In all cases, however, the essential parts
of the local organization are the Local Secretary,
who maintains touch with the Central Univeisity
Office, and the person or persons who guarantee
the payment of the University bill.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 11
THE FOUR CENTRAL AUTHORITIES.
Four different bodies carry on the central organ-
ization of University Extension in England, the
University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge,
the London Society for the Extension of Univer-
sity Teaching, and the Victoria University. At
Oxford, the managing authority is a Committee
appointed for the purpose by the Delegacy of
Local Examinations. At Cambridge, it is the
Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate. The
Oxford Congregation elects the Delegacy 19 the Cam-
bridge Senate the Syndicate, so that both at Oxford
and Cambridge, University Extension is authorised
by the general bodies of resident Masters of Arts.
The London Society is governed by a Council,
which, on educational matters, is assisted and ad-
vised by a Joint Board, consisting of three re-
presentatives of each of the Universities of Oxford,
Cambridge, and London. The General Board of
Studies of the Victoria University has a Committee
for Local Lectures. Each of the four bodies entrusts
the detailed management to a Secretary, who, in
the cases of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, has
an office and clerks.
The chief function of the ' Central Office ' is to
supply to the local centres competent lecturers and
examiners.
1 Either directly or through the Hebdomadal Council. A few
members are added by the Vice- Chancellor and the Proctors.
12 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
Within the Metropolitan Postal District the
London Society has a monopoly, on the ground
that since Oxford and Cambridge are represented on
its Joint Board, they would be competing against
themselves if they entered this field. This is obvi-
ously a temporary arrangement, and it is worth
noting that- in the neighbourhood of London, but
outside the Postal District, the London Society
competes with the Universities. Speaking broadly,
Oxford and Cambridge are competitors in the re-
mainder of England, though the competition is of a
limited character. Neither seeks to supplant the
other, but both go wherever their services are in
request. The practice is increasing in many towns
of seeking a lecturer sometimes from the one, some-
times from the other. An exception, however,
exists in those centres which the University of
Cambridge has affiliated to itself for a term of three
or four years. In and near the cities of Liverpool,
Manchester, and Leeds, the older universities find a
third competitor in the Victoria University, which
has the natural protection due to its being on
the spot, but no monopoly. In Durham and
Northumberland, Cambridge works in conjunction
with the Durham University. There are various
opinions on tlie question of competition. Some
consider that it is detrimental to the standard of
work aimed at. Personally, we can quite see the
objections to it, and think that it is a principle
which should not be unlimited in its scope. We
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 13
believe, however, that hitherto it has contributed
greatly to the life of the movement, and done little
or no harm. It adds esprit de corps to the incen-
tives of the lecturer, a factor which we may note
plays a great part in the College systems of
Oxford and Cambridge .
Each of the four authorities has a staff of lec-
turers, a few of whom devote themselves wholly
to Extension work, but most of them hold some
second appointment. Some names appear on the
lists of two different staffs, and the London Society
makes all the Oxford and Cambridge staffs ipso
facto members of its own. If a London centre
desires to do so, it may, through the London office
therefore, make an offer of employment to almost
any extension lecturer in England. So far as
we know the payments to lecturers are in all cases
by fees, not by stipend.
THE CENTRAL OFFICES.
We have already looked at Extension from the
point of view of the Student, let us now consider
it from that of the central organizing Secretary
and the Lecturer.
By far the greater number of courses are de-
livered in the winter months. The session ex-
tends from September to April, and is divided into
two parts by the Christmas holidays. Hence the
busy time in the office is the late spring and the
14 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
early summer, when most of the arrangements are
made for the coming winter, and the report on the
past one is prepared. Details of organization differ
in the different offices, we therefore confine our-
selves to the Oxford method, with which the others
agree in the main outlines. In March a c file ' of
papers is sent out to every established centre. It in-
cludes a list of lecturers and of their subjects, and
a form of application, on which the Local Secretary
is to state in order of preference, the first, second,
and third choice of his committee in the matter of
lecturers for the following autumn and spring.
This form has to be returned to Oxford by a
certain day in April. When the applications are
in, they are digested by the Secretary, and the
lecturers are consulted in order of the choice ex-
pressed by the centre. The senior having selected
from the offers in which he stands first, those which
he can find time for and which the railways allow
of easy grouping, the remainder are passed on. The
second will have before him his own first offers, and
those offers in which he stands second, but which
have been refused by the lecturer first named. This
process is repeated by the third, and so on. Thus
the groundwork of the next year's arrangement is
easily prepared. There is always, however, a resi-
duum of centres whose applications come late, who
desire one particular lecturer and refuse any other,
or who refuse to work amicably with their rail-
way neighbours, and so cannot be placed in a
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 15
circuit round which a lecturer travels weekly or
fortnightly. After much negotiation these are
fitted in. At last, in July, the list for the coming
winter is completed. It shows certain gaps ; and
new centres, which are started at all times of the
year, must either take a less experienced lecturer,
who has as yet little work, or must take advantage
of a gap — in other words, must forego choice and
take the lecturer who happens to be near them
and free.
THE LECTURERS.
The Lecturers are of two types, men of standing,
who, watching the growth of the extension scheme,
have seen it to their advantage to seek a place in
its j^ersonnel, and young men with as yet merely
academic honours. The former are an important
minority, but we need not here further consider
them. Of the latter, most; no doubt, look on Ex-
tension as a temporary occupation ; a few, how-
ever, who have met with marked success, are treat-
ing it as one of the chief chapters in their life. Of
the Lecturers whose whole career has so far been
in connection with the Extension, the most promi-
nent are Mr. R. G. Moulton of Cambridge and the
Eev. W. Hudson Shaw of Oxford. The chief diffi-
culty in the way of long service is the undeniably
arduous character of the work. A lecturer in full
employment lectures on five evenings in the week
16 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
and on three or four afternoons as well. Each
lecture and class requires two hours of concen-
trated effort and attention. In addition there are
the students' papers to be corrected, to the number
of say 200 a week. This lasts for twelve weeks in
the autumn and is renewed for twelve weeks in
the spring. Besides actual work, there are the long
journeys by rail and the absence from home for
the greater part of the week. More than one
lecturer has had to travel j 0,000 miles in a
session. On the other hand, there is abundance
of stimulus, — there is the constant interest of
touch with new audiences and new individuals,
there are wonderful opportunities for learning
the many phases of English social life and
the many aspects of the country, and there is
the delightful experience of almost unvarying
hospitality and consideration. There are long
holidays free for travelling and for literary work,
for taking in and arranging what is to be given
out in the following session. Still the wear and
tear is such, that the best men, the men with their
hearts in the cause, are constantly tempted to
accept the easier positions, which the publicity of
their work ensures to them. It speaks volumes
for their devotion that one of them, in Holy Orders,
recently refused a living in the Church of £1200
a year. The largest income ever yet made by ex-
tension work is probably between £500 and £600,,
and that by a man of most uncommon powers of
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 17
endurance. The problem of the future, so far as
the lecturers are concerned, is so to reduce their
work and their travelling, and so to increase their
emoluments as to make it worth the while of an
able man to refuse preferment for at least ten or
fifteen years after the completion of his University
course. We want the whole time and vigour of
many men of experience and energy, not only the
temporary services of young men who are waiting
at the gates of the professions.
STATISTICS.
Such is the nature of the University Extension
method and personnel. We have next to grasp the
scale on which they are at present employed.
In the session 1 889-90 1J 148 courses of lectures
were delivered in connection with Oxford, 125
in connection with Cambridge, 107 in connection
with London. The Victoria University pub-
lishes no annual report, but since during the last
three years twenty-one courses have been under its
management, we may safely add to our numbers
for the session 1889-90, seven courses. This gives
us a total of 387 courses. The average number of
lectures in a course has been, for Oxford between
seven and eight, for Cambridge and London just
1 The following reports are referred to in this section : — Oxford,
sessions 1885-6, 1889-90; Cambridge, sessions 1885-6, 1889-90;
London, 1885 and 1889; Victoria, Report for 1887-90.
C
18 UNIVEESITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
under twelve. We may therefore assume an
average all round of ten. We have thus a total
of 3870 lectures in one session, and this without
counting more than 100 in the Oxford Summer
Meeting.
In the same session 17,904 people attended the Ox-
ford courses, 11,301 the Cambridge courses, 10,982
the London courses. In three years the Victoria
courses were attended by about 2730, giving us a
yearly average of 910 to be reckoned to the total
for 1889-90. Irrespective of more than 1000 mem-
bers of the Oxford Summer Meeting, we have a
grand total of 41,097 attendants at the courses in
one session. The word c course ' has been used rather
than lectures to indicate the meaning of these
figures. The attendance at each lecture is noted.
The average attendance at each lecture of a course
can thus be found, and the averages of all the
courses, added together, give the above numbers.
It should be observed that the statistics of the
different authorities are not collected on quite the
same principles. The London Society gives ' entries
for courses ' instead of ' average attendances/ but
this probably vitiates the figures only very slightly.
The total number of students examined is not
attainable. In the case of Cambridge it is returned
at 1734 for the last session. Oxford and London
only publish the numbers of certificates awarded,
953 in the case of Oxford, 1361 in that of London.
Even these figures are not quite complete, for at
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 19
the date of publication, in all three cases, certain
of the examinations were not over. We shall
therefore be well within the mark if we say that
4300 or over ten per cent, of the audiences were
examined. If we bear in mind the facts that
the audiences are largely composed of adults, and
that the certificate has a direct use only for a few
people, this is not an unsatisfactory result. The
smallness of the number in the case of Oxford is
explained by the newness of most of the Oxford
centres. In all cases, many of the best students
refuse to submit themselves to examination, and
we must allow that examination is not the end in
view in University Extension, only a very valuable
method of inciting to thoroughness of work.
The number of lecturers actually employed in
the session 1889-90 was in London 30, by the Ox-
ford scheme 24, by the Cambridge scheme also 24.
Since eight of those who lectured in London also
lectured in the country for Cambridge, and two
also for Oxford, the total number of lecturers em-
ployed was sixty-eight. On an average they de-
livered nearly six courses each, without counting
Victoria, for which we have no returns under this
head.
The number of towns in which the lectures were
delivered cannot be accurately stated owing to the
difficulty of separating suburbs from their cities.
The maps at the end of the book will, however,
give a very fair idea of the distribution of the work.
c 3
20 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
The first shows the towns in which Oxford lectures
were delivered in the session 1889-90. The second
is a similar map for Cambridge. It should be remem-
bered that at present, owing to various circum-
stances, mainly financial difficulties, some centres
are intermittent, and for this reason some names
are absent from the maps in this particular year,
though in another they might have appeared.
Broadly, Oxford and Cambridge predominate re-
spectively on their two sides of the country. The
exceptions are due to various causes, the chief being
the personal connexion with one or other of some
prime mover in a neighbourhood, and secondly, the
occasional failure of a lecturer, a discouragement
which both schemes have sometimes to encounter,
and which not unfrequently leads to a transfer of
allegiance to the rival university.
GROWTH DURING THE LAST FIVE YEARS.
The third map shows the general state of Uni-
versity Extension in 1889-90. The outlying Lon-
don centres are shown by crosses, the remainder
are indicated by the number placed against the
word Londc^n. All the remaining centres are
Oxford or Cambridge.
The statistics just given belong only to the
moment. The present is a time of immense in-
crease. We have at our command numbers bear-
ing on the future in the case only of Oxford.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
21
Already ninety-one courses have been arranged for
the autumn term of this year, and the number is
still increasing. The number delivered in the
autumn term of last year was seventy-nine.
The fourth map will enable us to grasp the
growth in the immediate past. It is constructed on
the same principle as the third, except that the
Oxford centres are distinguished by stars.
Below we have in tabular form the contrast
between the present and five years ago.
OXFORD.
CAMBRIDGE.
LONDON.
TOTAL.
Courses delivered 1 : —
1885-1886
1889-1890
27
148
82
125
63
107
172
380
Average attendances 1 :-
1885-1886
1889-1890
3000
17,904
8557
11,301
5*95
10,982
16,752
40,187
University Extension in England has much more
than doubled in the last five years. Five years
ago Oxford had only just entered the field as
a serious competitor. There can be no question
that both directly by her efforts and indirectly by
her competition, Oxford has done much to atone for
her earlier inaction. We shall have to refer to
these figures again later on, especially with regard
to certain controversial points.
In the last five years University Extension has
1 In the case of London the numbers are for 1885 and 1889.
22 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
been started in Scotland, in Ireland, in America,
and in Australia. Official enquiries have also come
from France and India.
FINANCE.
A complete statement of the financial condition
of the movement cannot be given for lack of pub-
lished materials. The following facts may how-
ever be of service.
During the last five years, local committees have
expended on Oxford courses (exclusive of local
expenses) -£13,238 ; of this amount £7760 has
been spent during the last two years l. If we
estimate the local expenses at £10 a course, which
on the average cannot be far from the mark, then
in the last five years we have a local expenditure
of about ^4530 on 453 courses. In addition, the
University has granted during the same period
for office expenses sums amounting to ^1700
besides an office rent-free2. The Oxford Eeport
states that the Clarendon Press has also rendered
substantial assistance in the printing of syllabuses.
A special fund of ^600 has been raised by sub-
scription and spent on the subsidising of a senior
lecturer. A great number of books were presented
by publishers and others when the Travelling
1 Cf. Oxford Official Circular on University Extension, 1890.
2 Oxford University Extension Accounts presented to the Uni-
versity, 1885-1889.
UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 23
Libraries were first started. These have been the
chief items of income in the Oxford accounts for
five years.
The total cost of the Oxford system under all
the above heads during the year 1889-90 may be
set down at about £7000.
The balance sheet of the London Society for
1889 shows an income of about £3500, including
nearly £800 by subscriptions, and an expenditure
also of about £3500. The local expenses are in
London rather less than in the country, owing to
the sinallness of the item for the travelling of the
Lecturer. If we put them at ,^8 a course, we shall
have to add for local expenses say ^850, making
the total annual cost of the London scheme about
£4350.
We have no figures accessible for Cambridge,
but as the Cambridge courses on the average are
longer than those of Oxford, we may perhaps set the
annual cost down at £7500.
Let us add, say, £2,50 for the Victoria University.
Thus our rough estimate of the present annual
cost of University Extension stands thus : —
Oxford £7000
Cambridge 7500
London 435o
Victoria 250
Total £19.100
24 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
or less than ten shillings a head on the total
average attendance1. If we put the average
number of lectures in a course at ten, we have
a cost of a shilling a lecture for each attendant,
and this includes, besides the lecture, the right
to attend the class, to have an essay corrected,
in most cases to sit for examination and, if suc-
cessful, to receive a certificate. In the case of
Oxford it further includes the use of a small
library.
We venture on the assertion that University
Extension, as it exists, is one of the cheapest
educational institutions in this country.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS.
Hitherto we have spoken of the Central authori-
ties, the Lecturers and the Centres, in fact of the esta-
blished system of Extension. Our account would be
very incomplete, however, without some reference
to a number of experiments belonging to the last
two or three years, experiments whose general
tendency may be best described as the bracing up
of the system. It had hitherto consisted of a number
of isolated centres which slept during the summer
months, and which regarded the Universities merely
1 This is an average only. While some centres flourish, others are
struggling. See on this point Chapter III.
UNIVEBS1TY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 25
as purveyors of lecturers and examiners. The effect
of the new growths will be to make continuous the
life of the centres, to bind the centres to one another
and to bring them nearer to the University.
We have already stated that the normal Exten-
sion session consists of two terms, each of twelve
weeks, the one before, the other after Christmas.
For a long time it was assumed that the public
cared only to be taught in the long evenings of the
winter. Recently, however, a most unexpected
demand has arisen for courses in the early summer.
The London Report for 1889 shows no fewer than
thirteen summer courses. In the present year four
summer courses have been given for Oxford, and
already four have been arranged for the summer of
1891. Thus part at least of the long gap seems to
be bridged over during which enthusiasm cooled
and habits of study declined.
Largely owing to Mr. R. G. Moulton's initiative,
Students' Associations were started in a few Cam-
bridge centres some years ago. At first the idea
seemed very difficult of realisation, but experience
was gradually gathered, and within the last year
or so there has been a great increase of such asso-
ciations. A Students' Association is now the usual
mark of a good centre. No fewer than thirty-six
have been founded in 1889-90 in the Oxford
centres alone1. Their objects are to hold the
* students ' together, to engender esprit de corps, to
1 Oxford Keport, 1890.
26 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
prepare for courses announced, to hold discussions
on difficult points during their delivery, to continue
supplementary study when they are over, and to
organize scientific and historical excursions in
the summer. Their standing organization may
obviously be adapted to many purposes in the
future.
Partly in connection with Students' Associations
and partly not, each of the three great Extensions
has started a scheme for what is known as Home
Heading Circles. The idea was that isolated students
in small places out of reach of an Extension centre,
and Extension students in the off-season, should
join a circle to read on some definite subject under
the leadership of an expert. The members sent
periodical essays to the leader of the circle. The
scheme had the advantage of reaching the isolated
units in the villages. It seemed a promising new
development. An elaborate apparatus was con-
trived, a system of adhesive stamps for the pre-
payment of the fees on essays came from the Oxford
Office, but somehow the idea hung fire 1. It may
be that to some extent summer courses leave
little room for it. It seems more probable, how-
ever, that it lacks the^ essential element of success.
Reading and writing require the stimulus and
corrective of living touch with the teacher. It is
only fair to say, however, that an independent
organization, the National Home Reading Union,
1 See Oxford Keport, 1890.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 27
after a period of comparative failure, has now 7000
members. Were University Extension Lectures
made cheaper, and the centres far more numerous,
we doubt whether any scheme for associated study
would succeed which did not include face to face
intercourse with a teacher.
THE FEDERATION OF CENTRES.
The linking together of neighbouring centres has
recently begun to make some progress. The first
district federation formed was the South Eastern.
It now includes most of the centres, both Oxford
and Cambridge, in Surrey, Kent, Sussex, and
Hampshire. It has been followed by a South
Western Federation in Cornwall, Devon, and So-
merset, a Yorkshire Federation, and a Northern
Federation in the four northern counties. The
greatest advantage which has as yet come from
the rise of the federations is the breaking down of
the barrier between the Oxford and the Cambridge
centres. The personal acquaintance of neighbour-
ing local secretaries removes many difficulties of
organization. Both Universities have offered re-
duced terms to federations which can form con-
venient circuits for the lecturers.
28 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
AFFILIATION OF CENTRES TO THE UNIVERSITIES.
The binding of the centres to the University has
been promoted in two different ways ; by the offer-
ing of special advantages to a centre1 which submits
to the more definite guidance of its studies by the
University, and by the invitation of the students
to reside for a short time in the University itself.
Cambridge has led the way with the former, Ox-
ford with the latter.
The old Universities have now for some ten
years affiliated local colleges, and granted to their
students certain privileges, the most important of
which is the remission, on certain conditions, of
one out of the three years of residence necessary
to a degree. The Colleges affiliated to Oxford are
Lampeter, Nottingham, and Sheffield. Cambridge
has lately extended affiliation to those Extension
centres which undertake a systematic course of
lectures on Science and Literature extending over
a period of four years. The Centres that have as
yet availed themselves of this permission are Hull,
Scarborough, Newcastle - on - Tyne, Sunderland,
Derby, Exeter, and Plymouth l.
Oxford has not followed suit in this matter,
though she seeks to encourage continuity of work
by offering Higher Certificates of systematic study2.
1 Cambridge Report, 1889-90.
2 The London Society also otfers special Certificates of Continuous
Study.
TJNIVEESITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 29
The conditions which must be complied with to
obtain these certificates are practically identical
with those demanded in the Cambridge Affiliated
Centres, but Oxford remits no year of residence.
This, on the whole, we regret, though we much
doubt whether any but an infinitesimal percentage
of the students would avail themselves of the
privilege even if granted. Its value lies chiefly
in the definite stamp which it gives to the Higher
Certificate. The Extension student is as a rule
already pledged to a career in life. Two years of
residence are to him just as prohibitory as three.
We look for the element of residence not to any
remissions in the normal University course, but
rather to the development of the Oxford Summer
Meeting into a resident Summer University. We
are bound to admit, however, that this is merely
an opinion based on considerable knowledge of
Extension students. The Cambridge Affiliation
Scheme has been in force for too short a time
to give us any ascertained statistics on the point.
SUMMEE MEETINGS.
The Summer meetings are certainly the most
striking of all the recent developments. The
history of their origin will be stated on a later
page. Here we shall merely describe their work,
and point out their place in the general scheme
30 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
of University Extension. The first Summer meet-
ing was held at Oxford in August, I8881. It
lasted ten days, and was attended by 900 students.
Short courses of from three to six lectures were
delivered in the mornings, while the evenings were
devoted to addresses by eminent men on literary
and scientific subjects. The opportunity was
taken of holding conferences of the local secretaries
and other organizers who happened to be present,
and there can be no question but that the move-
ment has greatly benefited by the ideas then struck
out. The foundation of many new centres is di-
rectly traceable to the enthusiasm of this meeting.
It was thrown impartially open alike to Oxford,
Cambridge and London students.
The first experiment having succeeded, it having
been proved that, if invited, the students would
come to the University, the next point was to keep
them in residence for a longer time. The second
meeting in August, 1889, was announced to consist
of two * parts ' 2, of which Part I was in all essential
respects to resemble the meeting of 1888. Part II
was to be open to those students who could afford
to remain on for an additional period of three weeks.
It was to be devoted to quiet study and would
lack most of the element of intellectual dissipation
which enlivened Part I. 1000 students came to
Part I, no fewer than 150 remained on for Part II.
1 Eeport of Oxford Summer MeetiDg, 1888.
2 Ibid., 1889.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 31
On all hands it was admitted that both parts were
successes. As with the Winter courses in the
centres, so with the Summer meeting at Oxford,
several different classes of people with their dif-
ferent wants had to be kept in view. Of course
those who stayed for the whole month may be
assumed to have gained the most, but we protest
against the idea that Part I was the mere intellectual
orgy which a few people who were not present
have chosen to think it. Several hundred of the
students were teachers who came for new ideas and
new methods which should throw a new life into
their teaching. As in the earlier year, many new
centres derived their impulse from Part I. We
have therefore facts, as well as opinions, tending to
show that the work then begun was, in not a few
cases, continued with perseverance. Oxford is about
to hold a third meeting, but the feature of the
present year is that Cambridge has also entered the
new field. Owing to the circumstances that many
Undergraduates reside at Cambridge during the
long vacation, and that Cambridge has not yet
a splendid group of halls as fitted for the purpose
as the Oxford Examination Schools, the sister
University cannot undertake a great meeting simi-
lar to the Oxford Part I. Forty students have,
however, assembled for a month's study in her lec-
ture-rooms, libraries, laboratories, and art-galleries.
The idea of such a Summer meeting has been very
contagious. The National Home Beading Union
32 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
held a successful gathering at Blackpool both this
year and last. Edinburgh, it may be mentioned,
has tried to acclimatise the scheme in Scotland.
But, obviously, no place has the same available
wealth of educational appliances that are to be
found idle and ready to hand at Oxford in the
months of July, August, and September.
SCHOLARSHIPS.
There is one feature in connection with these
meetings which is, as yet, little developed, but which
has great significance. Ten days at Oxford, even
when the lodgings are put on tariff, together with
the travelling to and from the University, imply
an expenditure of about £$, the whole month one
of J^io1. To poorer Extension students these are
prohibitive sums. After the first meeting, several
subscribers came forward with the offer of scholar-
ships for poor students tenable at the second
meeting. These scholarships were given to Oxford
Extension students who had qualified by attending
certain courses of lectures in the centres in the
winter. They were awarded on the results of
a competition of essays, among others to two car-
penters, two clerks, a fustian weaver, a dockyard
artisan, and three elementary teachers 2. This year,
1 Oxford Summer Meeting Programme, 1890.
8 Oxford Extension Report, 1890.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 33
the number of the scholarships, by the kindness of
the donors, has been increased, and there will be
present in Oxford this month more than twenty
comparatively poor people holding scholarships of
<^5 or j£Jio. Of these at least six are working
men, and at least four elementary teachers1. These
numbers do not include scholarships tenable at the
Oxford and Cambridge meetings which have been
given to London Students.
The report of the Examiners who awarded the
Oxford Scholarships, indicating as it does the
standard of excellence reached by the poorer stu-
dents of the Extension, is worth reproducing in
extenso 2.
' There has been a great increase in the number
of essays sent in, and the high level reached in the
competition last year has been fully maintained.
' The historical and other essays written by work-
•/ j
ing men are worthy of special praise.
'In science, the number of good and deserving
essays was far in advance of anything experienced
in previous years. The best essays were extremely
good, and proved that very hard and conscientious
work had been done. The majority of the essays
were up to Scholarship standard.
' The best essay written on the literary subject
showed a remarkable amount of reading and
thought, but the Examiners regret that more essays
1 Oxford Official Circular for University Extension, 1890.
2 Ibid.
34 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
were not written on the subjects drawn from
English Literature.
J. FRANCE BRIGHT.
(Master of University College.)
A. SlDGWICK.
(Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College.}
L. R. PHELPS.
(Fellow and Tutor of Oriel College.}
E. B. POULTON.
(F.R.S., Late Lecturer at Keble and Jesus Colleges.)'
EXTENSION JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE.
The various recent developments which we have
now described, the Summer Courses, the Students'
Associations, the Home Reading Circles, the Fede-
rations of Centres, the Affiliated Centres and the
Summer Meetings have all helped to make Ex-
tension a constantly present factor in the life
of the student, and to create an Extension
' public.' Hence the newest feature of all, a
sudden growth of Extension Literature, both
newspapers and books. Oxford led the way last
year with a tentative effort, a circular issued from
time to time giving the latest arrangements. The
object was the modest one of saving a large
amount of letter-writing in the office. Then the
South Western Association began to issue a small
journal of its own. This appears quarterly at
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 35
Exeter. In February this year a Monthly Maga-
zine was started in London, entitled the University
Extension Journal. Though it claims to represent
the whole movement, it is managed by the London
Society, and a large part of it is taken up with that
Society's official announcements. It is understood
that the Oxford Delegates have, therefore, decided
to convert their private circular into a Monthly
Magazine. Perhaps at some later stage, when the
movement has been given greater consistency and
unity, these various organs may find it to their
interest to unite.
Finally, Mr. John Murray has announced his
intention of issuing a series of University Exten-
sion Manuals under the editorship of Professor
Knight of St. Andrews. Several other publishers
are understood to be preparing to follow his
example.
THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF STUDENTS.
In our introduction we linked Extension with
Elementary Education and the Public Library.
We sketched an ideal based on the conception that
Extension is to be the university of the toiling
millions. We are quite prepared, therefore, for the
criticism that Extension so far has belonged to the
middle class, and above all to the women. We
even admit the truth of the criticism, and, so far
D 2
36 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
as it goes, glory in it. We are especially proud of
the part Extension is taking in the great move-
ment for the education of women. Men have far
fewer difficulties in getting touch with living
knowledge than have women, and the Extension
system comes, therefore, as an especial boon to the
women of the middle and even the upper classes.
But we believe in the flexibility of the Extension
system, and we believe that that flexibility will be
put to the chief test when it comes to be applied
on the grand scale to the higher education of the
masses. We wished, therefore, to turn the reader's
attention to this aspect of the movement from the
very outset of our discussion. This is a matter to
which we shall have to recur ; let us here merely
ask what classes are actually being reached ?
Many courses of lectures are delivered in the
afternoon. Probably 90 per cent, of the audiences
at these are ladies of leisure and older schoolgirls.
These are the audiences which are the chief cause
of the derision of the narrower type of educational
enthusiast. He forgets, in his anxiety for the
working men, that all classes should move forward
together, and that many of those who have what
are called the 'accomplishments/ have had very
few opportunities of acquiring some of the broader
culture on which generous and tolerant views of
life are based. We have, personally, been told
several times by shrewd observers, of a change for
the better in the conversation and social tone of
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 37
some suburb of a manufacturing town, as the result
of the delivery of a course of Extension lectures.
A few courses are delivered at local colleges and
other fixed seats of learning. Cambridge Extension
Lecturers do much of the work at University College,
Nottingham1. Oxford has much of the Literary
teaching at the Huddersfield Technical School2.
The London Society gives lectures at the Birkbeck
Institute, Gresham College, and the Eoyal Holloway
College, Egham 3. This is an important point to
note when we come to deal with the project of
state aid.
The great majority of courses are delivered in
the evening to audiences composed in the main
either of tradesmen and their families or of work-
ing men. These are the rank and file of Extension
centres, and our quarrel is not that the tradesmen
centres are too numerous, but that the working-
men centres are too few. What has already been
done is, however, enough to show that if the right
kind of teacher is forthcoming, and the financial
difficulties are surmounted, the working men are
quite ready to avail themselves of opportunities.
During the last winter, the Rev. W. Hudson Shaw
has delivered for Oxford, courses to audiences
almost exclusively composed of working men, of
450 at Hebden Bridge, 600 at Oldham, 500 at
1 Cambridge Extension Reports, 1886-90.
2 Oxford Extension Reports, 1886-90.
3 London Extension Eeport, 1889.
38 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
Todmorden, 260 at Ancoats, Manchester, and 500
at Sowerby Bridge 1. There is a special point in
connection with two of these centres. Oldham
and Todmorden are managed exclusively by work-
ing men through Co-operative Societies2, and all
financial difficulties are got over by taking ad-
vantage of the sums which such Societies are per-
mitted by Act of Parliament to devote to education.
The same was true of Barnsley, but the work there
has been suspended. When we consider that each
of the Societies counts many thousands of mem-
bers, we shall realise that these fine audiences are
after all, but a small percentage of the numbers
that contribute to the cost of the lectures.
In London great success has attended the de-
livery of short courses of People's Lectures 3.
Similar facts could be stated with reference to
a few Cambridge centres, especially in the North 4.
One very important class remains to be spoken
of, the elementary school teachers. They have
availed themselves very largely of the system.
Since much of the effects filter through them to the
next generation, their attendance is generally felt to
be of the utmost importance, and it has become a
frequent practice to allow them tickets at reduced
prices. At a course delivered by one of the writers
at Manchester, some two or three years ago, out of
1 Oxford Report, 1889-90.
2 Oxford Report, 1890.
3 London Report, 1889.
4 Cf. Dr. Roberts' Report to Cambridge Syndicate, 1890.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 39
a total average attendance of 400, no fewer than
105 were elementary teachers.
We have spoken of various classes attending the
lectures, let us hasten therefore to add that audi-
ences wholly of one class are rare. One of the
most conspicuous and gratifying characteristics of
Extension work is the way in which it brings to-
gether students of very different ranks. ' In an
examination recently held at a lecture- centre,
among those who were awarded certificates of
distinction were a national school-mistress, a young
lawyer, a plumber, and a railway-signalman V
LONG AND SHORT COURSES.
The last point to which we shall refer in our
survey of University Extension, is a matter which
has given rise to some controversy. It will be
dealt with more completely when we speak of the
history of the movement. We mention it here
because it still forms the greatest distinction be-
tween the methods of the different branches of
University Extension. Under the heading £ Sta-
tistics,' we drew attention to the shortness of the
Oxford courses as compared with those of London
and Cambridge. With Oxford, the normal course
consists of six lectures, with Cambridge and
London of twelve. It is the exception for the
Oxford courses to be longer than this, and for the
1 Oxford Keport, 1889-90.
40 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
Cambridge and London courses to be shorter1. Cam-
bridge and London refuse to give ' certificates ' for ex-
aminations on courses of less than eleven or twelve
lectures, Oxford has until this year given them on
courses of not less than six 2. It was felt by some
of those who were chiefly interested in the Cam-
bridge and London work that the Oxford policy
was dangerous. It might depreciate the value of
the certificate, which had hitherto been associated
with the idea of the full course of twelve lectures.
Some centres might be led to save themselves the
trouble of collecting the necessary funds for twelve
lectures, if they were given the opportunity of
taking only six instead.
The contention of Oxford, on the other hand, was
that a very large number of small towns, and the
poorer districts of many large ones, were prevented
from adopting University Extension by the con-
siderable expense involved in a course of twelve
lectures ; that working-men's societies, especially,
felt the outlay required for twelve lectures beyond
the means at their disposal. It was pointed out
that it was particularly desirable that University
Extension should spread exactly in those places
and among those classes to which experience had
shewn the cost of twelve lectures to be often pro-
hibitive. There were also a number of towns in
1 Oxford and Cambridge Reports for 1889-90; London Report
for 1889.
2 Cf. Oxford, Cambridge and London Regulations.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 41
which University Extension teaching had been
suspended. In some of these its original promoters
had suffered from a deficit. It was extremely
desirable to get these towns to try again. £ Only
let these small towns and poorer districts begin on
a modest scale/ it was argued, ' and you will find
them ready to venture on the work or to renew
their connection with it. The local committees
consist of men and women who are sincerely inter-
ested in education ; you may trust them not to rest
content with an incomplete course as soon as they
can afford a complete one. Financial reasons, not
want of educational interest, hold them back.
Many of them, too, are not well off and are unable
to afford the risk of a heavy outlay. Above all,
they may be trusted not to deal with the two
Universities as between rival shopkeepers. They
are loyal to the University with which they have
been so long connected. While they would no
doubt gladly avail themselves of freedom to employ
indifferently Oxford and Cambridge lecturers, no
local committee would, in a spirit of mere com-
mercial competition, transfer its allegiance to the
cheapest market.5
To this it was subsequently replied that there
was no harm in offering six lectures to towns
which could not afford twelve. But that if a town
took only half a course, it should be debarred from
having an examination on it. The full privileges
should be reserved for those who availed them-
42 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
selves of the full system. If a town could have an
examination and certificates on six lectures, there
would be no incentive for it to make a further
effort to have twelve,
Those who believed in the Oxford system still
held their ground. The object of University Ex-
tension, they pointed out, was to provide systematic
teaching for adults. Unless the students attending
the lectures were encouraged to look forward to
an examination at the end of the course, their
attendance might become irregular ; they might
become slack in writing weekly exercises ; the
quality of their work might deteriorate. Besides, it
was expedient to show those towns which could
not arrange the full course of twelve lectures, what
the University Extension method really was. This
would not be done by merely showing them part
of it. It was necessary to maintain the com-
plete educational system of University Extension
wherever it was established.
Such were the two sides of the question in
debate. Happily the controversy is now at an end.
It has been found that by the short course system
a large number of new centres have been founded,
but that this increase in the Oxford work has not
been made at the expense of either the Cambridge
or London systems, both of which have also con-
tinued to grow. First, by the arrangement of
courses at fortnightly instead of weekly intervals ;
next, as their means permitted, by the increase in
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS. 43
the number of lectures, the Oxford centres have
steadily lengthened the period of study covered by
the course1. And in the present year (1890) a
modification has been made in the Oxford regula-
tions which has met with the approval of all
parties 2. The Oxford certificate will in future be
awarded only after courses of twelve lectures : ex-
amination will be permitted, as before, on all
courses of six lectures and upwards : but students
who are successful in examination on the shorter
courses will receive, in lieu of a certificate, a printed
statement of the examiner's award.
THE MERITS AND DEMERITS OF EXTENSION
AS IT is.
We have now completed our sketch of University
Extension as it is. We claim that it contains all
the elements required in a great teaching system,
the personal touch with the leading mind, the read-
ing of selected books, the writing of essays and
their criticism, the discussion in the class and in
the Students' Association, the test of the examina-
tion. It includes even the nucleus of a system of
residence in the midst of academic surroundings.
It does all this at a very small cost. The weak
points in the scheme are the lack of sequence in
1 Oxford Report, 1889-90.
2 Oxford Official Circular for University Extension, 1890.
44 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION AS IT IS.
the subjects of the courses ; the fact that, com-
paratively speaking, so few young men attend the
lectures ; and, above all, the small degree to which
the system has been made available f r the working
classes, despite the fact that under occasionally
fortunate circumstances they have shown that they
might be its most enthusiastic supporters. All
three weak points are ultimately due to the diffi-
culties of men and of money. These will be con-
sidered presently. With money the courses might
succeed one another in regular educational sequence.
If the courses were in sequence, and if the lecturers
could be retained through their prime, when they
had gathered experience and power of speech, the
young men would be attracted. With such lec-
turers, and with money to c eapen the courses, the
working classes would be reached.
CHAPTER II.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: HOW IT HAS
COME TO BE.
SUCH, then, is the present scope of University
Extension. Our next step is to trace the gradual
growth of the idea, and the stages by which, from
being little more than a pious opinion cherished
by a few individuals, it has become an organized
system in almost every part of the country.
ORIGIN or THE PHRASE 'UNIVERSITY
EXTENSION/
The phrase ' University Extension ' seems to
have first become current in the discussions on
University reform which were prevalent in Oxford
during the years immediately preceding 1850. A
great number of influential members of the Univer-
sity had become deeply impressed with the import-
ance of extending the benefits of University educa-
tion to classes of students who were then excluded
from the University by its regulations or arrange-
ments. So long ago as» 1 845 a number of noblemen
46 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
and gentlemen, both of the clergy and laity, pre-
sented to the Hebdomadal Board of the University
of Oxford an address which prayed the Board to
adopt measures for the admission of a poorer class
to the University1. Among the signatures ap-
pended to that address were those of Lord Sandon,
Lord Ashley, Mr. Gladstone, and others of high
distinction. The petitioners did not content them-
selves with merely asking the University to adopt
their suggestions, but offered to give pecuniary
assistance to the scheme. They sought, in the
words subsequently used by Dr. Pusey 2, ' to enable
the University to extend its benefits to talented
and well-conditioned young men, however born,
provided they shall be prepared to benefit by its
education/ c I was much struck,' added Dr. Pusey,
who supported the general purpose of this proposal,
' in looking over the Biographia Britannica for the
history of our Divines, to observe how many of
them were the sons of tradesmen.' He also sought
to confirm the new scheme by an appeal to ancient
precedent : ' In older times,' he pointed out, ' the
monks of Durham used systematically to send
talented boys to be educated at the University.'
' The University,' said Professor Hussey 3, ' seems
bound to do something to meet the wants of the
1 Report of Oxford University Commission, 1852, p. 35.
2 Report and Evidence upon the recommendations of Her
Majesty's Commissioners, presented to the Board of Heads of
Houses and Proctors, Dec. i, 1853. Oxford, 1853, p. 79.
3 Ibid. pp. 233, 234. *
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 47
increasing numbers of the population; and especially
to make more opening for those for whom a great
part of its advantages were always intended, the
youth of promise who have not at present the means
of obtaining University education for themselves ;
not because they are poor merely, as objects of pity,
nor yet as a different order, to be distinguished by
badges, but because they show talent and industry
and willingness, and desire to improve themselves,
and because they ought not to be shut out from
advantages open to other persons, with whom they
might perhaps compete successfully.' The object
of this important movement was well summed up
by Mr. Osborne Gordon x, of Christ Church, who said,
' I look for the extension of the University to the
poor.'
There was indeed much in the condition of the
University of Oxford which called for change. The
expenses of collegiate life, especially when compared
with the standard of that time, were great, while
the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles required
at matriculation, and the subscription to the three
Articles of the 36th Canon on presentation for a
degree, excluded one class of the community from
University education. As to the propriety of making
any alteration in the religious tests, there was of
course grave difference of opinion both in the Uni-
versity and outside it ; but men of all parties seem
1 Report and Evidence upon the recommendations of Her
Majesty's Commissioners, p. 198.
48 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
to have felt the importance of facilitating the
admission of a poorer class of students to the
privileges of University life. The strength and
prevalence of this feeling is proved by the evidence
given before the Oxford University Commission of
1850. ' I believe/ said Mr. Arthur Clough \ in the
considerations which he submitted to that Com-
mission, ' I believe in the possibility of a gradual,
sure, and ultimately large extension of the old
Universities.' ' The ideal of a national University/
Mr. Mark Pattison 2 argued before the same body,
1 is that it should be co-extensive with the nation ;
it should be the common source of the whole of the
higher (or secondary) instruction for the country.'
' The University/ he continued, quoting from Gordon,
' should strike its roots freely into the subsoil of
society, and draw from it new elements of life and
sustenance of mental and moral power/
THE SEVEN SCHEMES FOE UNIVERSITY
EXTENSION IN 1850.
It appears that this widely-felt desire to extend
the usefulness of the University had led to the
proposal of several schemes which, as was believed
by their advocates, would separately or conjointly
accomplish the design which so many influential
1-Dxford University Commission, 1853. Evidence, p. 213.
2 Ibid., Evidence, p. 44.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 49
graduates had at heart. These c plans for University
Extension ' were accordingly summarised by the
Commissioners, who thus gave their official stamp
to an expression, which had been found to conve-
niently designate the movement for the spread of
University effort into new and wider fields of
national life. Seven schemes of University Exten-
sion were mentioned by the Commissioners *, and
four of these were discussed in detail. The plans
were as follows : —
i. The establishment in the University of new
Halls, as independent Societies or in connexion
with Colleges.
2,. Permission to Undergraduates to lodge in
private houses more generally than at present.
3. Permission to Students to become Members of
the University, and to be educated at Oxford under
due superintendence, without subjecting them to
the expenses incident to connexion with a College
or Hall.
4. Admission of persons to Professorial Lectures,
to whom the Professors should be authorised to
grant certificates of attendance, without any further
connexion with the University.
5. The abolition of religious tests on matricula-
tion and graduation.
6. The foundation of Theological Schools in
Cathedral-cities, and their affiliation to the Univer-
sity. The affiliation to the University of Lampeter
1 Oxford University Commission, 1853. Keport, pp. 35-56.
E
50 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
College and of the Theological College at Birken-
head.
7. The provision of funds by the University for
the establishment of professorial chairs in Bir-
mingham and Manchester ; sufficient attendance at
the lectures of these Professors to be accepted as
qualifying for a degree.
The Commissioners did not consider that the
examination of all these schemes fell within the
scope of their enquiry. Indeed, the fifth proposal,
involving the admission of Nonconformists to the
University, implied a question which they were in-
structed not to entertain. On this head, therefore,
they contented themselves with expressing their
' conviction that the imposition of subscription in
the manner in which it (was then) imposed in the
University of Oxford, habituates the mind to give
a careless assent to truths which it has never con-
sidered, and naturally leads to sophistry in the
interpretation of solemn obligations.'
The fourth proposal, namely, that for the admis-
sion to Professorial Lectures of persons who were
not matriculated members of the University, was
found to have been already anticipated by common
practice.
The Commissioners approved of the first three
plans for University Extension, and, as is well
known, residence in Oxford, but outside the walls
of his College, has since become the almost inva-
riable experience of every undergraduate, during
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 51
part of his academical career, while the body of
Non-collegiate students, residing in Oxford without
being attached to any College or Hall, has become
an important part of the University.
These schemes, however, were rather of a
domestic nature. They have affected the internal
life of the University, and have increased for large
numbers and many new classes of students, the
convenience of its arrangements. But it is rather
to the remaining proposals for the affiliation of
local Colleges and for the establishment of teaching
in large towns, that we turn for the origin of the
movement, which is now specifically called Univer-
sity Extension. The University has now for a long
time adopted the principle of affiliating to itself, on
certain conditions, educational institutions out of
Oxford, while the University of Cambridge has
taken the further step of offering the advantages of
affiliation to a number of towns which, while not
possessing any collegiate buildings, are yet support-
ing a comprehensive and systematic scheme of
education.
THE FIRST PROPOSAL TOR UNIVERSITY
EXTENSION TEACHING, 1850.
The germ, however, of University Extension, as
we now understand it, is to be found in the idea
that it would be right and politic for the University
to provide funds for the maintenance of Professors
52 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
in Birmingham and Manchester1. This proposal
was made by Mr. Sewell, Fellow and Senior Tutor
of Exeter College, in a letter addressed to the Vice-
Chancellor of Oxford, in the year 1 850, and entitled,
£ Suggestions on University Extension/ It is in-
teresting to conjecture what results might have
flowed from the early adoption of this idea. The
judgment, however, of the Commissioners was ad-
verse to it. ' If/ they wrote, ' the means of the
University were unbounded, its superfluities might
possibly be employed on the general purposes of
education throughout the country; but such a
scheme should not be entertained till it has shown
that there is no demand for men and for money in
the University itself.' It is to be regretted that
the Commissioners did not realise the importance
and suggestiveness of Mr. Se well's proposal, and
failed to perceive that hardly any more useful task
was then imposed on the University than to co-
operate with the munificent and earnest friends of
higher education resident in the large towns, in the
gradual provision of opportunities for higher educa-
tion in those great industrial centres. It is fortunate
that, at a later time, both the old Universities have
found it compatible with the proper care and
encouragement of the studies within their own
walls, to expend a portion of their revenues in
stimulating the love of learning among those whom
home ties or business duties absolutely prevent
1 See p. 50.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 53
from undertaking any prolonged period of residence
within the Universities themselves.
Such, then, was the first publication to the
country of the idea of University Extension. It is
singular that among all the various schemes not
one, even remotely, entertains the project of pro-
viding in the University the means of higher
education for women. But, with this one excep-
tion, the proposals for University Extension put
forward in Oxford at the time of the first Univer-
sity Commission anticipated the various sides of
the movement, which ever since has gone on
steadily gaining ground. It is probable that, in
Cambridge also, the subject received considerable
attention, but the great prominence given to its
discussion in the report of the University Com-
mission, shows that it was particularly in Oxford,
that public opinion was first deeply moved by the
necessity of adjusting the regulations and require-
ments of the University to the needs of large and
deserving classes who had been excluded from it.
One circumstance alone would, however, have
caused any elaborate scheme for the extension of
University teaching in large towns to have been
then justly regarded as premature. The University
Extension system, as we now understand it, de-
pends on our railway system. It would be im-
possible for it to work without our modern service
of quick and frequent trains. Any one who com-
pares the Bradshaw of to-day with the Bradshaw
54 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
of 1850 will see at once one sufficient reason
why the idea of University Extension teaching
did not strike root when Mr. Se well's proposal
appeared. In his pamphlet on University Exten-
sion l, Dr. Eoberts points out that the University
Extension movement of to-day is fulfilling one of
the pious hopes of the founder of Glare College, who
desired to see an increase in the number of stu-
dents, c to the end that the precious pearl of know-
ledge, having been found by them, and made their
own by study and instruction in the University,
might not be hidden under a bushel, but be spread
abroad beyond the University, and give light to
them that walk in the dark paths of ignorance.'
Under changed conditions, University Extension
is thus realising some of the ideals of the past.
But the present scheme is not so much to bring
to the Universities the modern representatives of
those great multitudes who in old days flocked
to it. Its aim is rather to take some of the oppor-
tunities of University education to them, in the
belief that, by adjusting their arrangements to the
various needs of the different classes of the com-
munity, the Universities, without losing any part
of their present dignity and usefulness, will more
and more conform to the ideal of truly national
institutions.
1 ' The University Extension Scheme as the basis of a system for
National Higher Education,' by R. D. Roberts, M.A., D. Sc. (Lond.)
Aberystwyth, 1887.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE , 55
SIR THOMAS ACLAND AND THE BEGINNING or
THE LOCAL EXAMINATIONS.
Hardly had the University Commission of 1850
concluded its labours, than a step was taken by an
association in London which had indirectly an im-
portant effect on the development of University
Extension. The Society of Arts established in
1854 a series of examinations for Mechanics' In-
stitutes. In 1852 the Society had taken the lead
in forming a union of Mechanics' Institutes, to
which more than 300 of them became affiliated.
Two years later the Society arranged to hold ex-
aminations for the members of these Institutes,
and to offer certificates of competency to those
who acquitted themselves in the examination with
credit. These examinations, in which the present
Bishop of London acted as one of the examiners,
proved completely successful; and were designed
specially with a view to stimulating the studies
and testing the knowledge of adults.
But, important as was the work among adults,
it was soon felt that there was an even greater need
for similar examinations designed for boys at school.
' The education of the middle classes,' Dr. Temple
wrote to the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford,
in April 1857, ' suffers from the want of any definite
aim to guide the work of the schoolmasters and
from the want of any trustworthy test to distinguish
56 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
between good and bad schools.' Lord Ebrington
accordingly, had called attention in 1855 to the
examination designed by the Society of Arts for
the adult members of Mechanics' Institutes, and
in conjunction with Mr. (now Sir Thomas) Acland
and the Rev. J. L. Brereton, promulgated a scheme
for the examination of middle- class schools in the
West of England. The further development of the
idea is described in a book subsequently published
by Mr. Acland l. It appears from his account that
the operations of the Bath and West of England
Society for the encouragement of Agriculture, Arts,
Manufactures, and Commerce, brought together a
number of persons engaged in different occupations,
but with a common object in view. Among these
persons ' a thirst for knowledge was excited and a
consequent sense of the evils of neglected education
awakened. Accordingly, a few persons of various
shades of opinion, political and religious, having
learned to act together and to trust each other,
provided a small prize fund with a view to put to
a practical test the value which the middle ranks
might be disposed to attach to certificates of the
progress of their children, if awarded by competent
examiners 2.' This Committee, to which Mr. Acland
acted as Secretary, was formed at Exeter in the
J Some Account of the Origin and Objects of the New Oxford
Examinations for the title of Associate in Arts and Certificates, for
the Year 1858. By T. D. Acland. London, 1858.
2 Ibid. pp. 96, 97.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 57
early part of 1857, and met with substantial en-
couragement from the Bath and West of England
Society later in the same year. The machinery
devised by Mr. Acland consisted of a Local Examina-
tion Committee, consisting of thoroughly representa-
tive persons resident in the locality, and of a Board
of Examiners, in which it is interesting to note the
names of Sir Stafford Northcote, Professor Max Miiller,
Mr. George Richmond, Mr. John Hullah, and Dr.
(now Sir Henry) Acland. But the Local Committee,
in order to give to their work as much of an official
stamp as was possible under the circumstances,
asked the Committee of Council on Education to
allow two of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools
to co-operate with the examiners locally appointed.
The request was granted, and the Lord President
instructed the Rev. F. Temple (now Bishop of
London) and Mr. J. Bowstead ' to afford assistance
in giving effect to the scheme of examination and
prizes.'
The examination, which took place in June 1857,
was regarded by Mr. Temple as 'the first step
towards the improvement of middle- class educa-
tion V and similar examinations were organized in
the counties of Staffordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire,
Warwickshire, and in South Wales. It was clear
that there was beginning a general and spontaneous
movement for the improvement of middle-class
education, and that 'the intellectual life of the
1 Ibid. p. 192, Mr. Temple's Report.
58 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
people was pushing forth vigorous shoots in various
directions V
The details of this local effort are historically in-
teresting because they gave the stimulus to the
next step in University Extension. Mr. Acland's
original scheme was avowedly experimental. If it
succeeded, it was his hope that it would be followed
up by some recognised authority, his own desire
being that the Universities should themselves
organize and superintend similar local examinations
in different parts of the country. He pointed out
c that the religious exclusiveness of the Universities
had been removed by Act of Parliament ; . . . that,
as regards secular knowledge, they were in a favour-
able position for combining much freedom with
much exactness . . . that, in the department of the
Arts, they had great advantages in their libraries
and collections . . . and that many of their members
possessed experience of the official work of public
education going on in the country2.' It was also
pointed out that the many graduates of the Univer-
sities who occupied important posts in the large
towns, and were connected with the administration
of justice and the management of public institutions
in country districts, formed a natural body of sup-
porters for the new scheme, the success of which
would depend on the cordial co-operation between
1 Some Account of the Origin and Objects of the New Oxford
Examinations for the Title of Associate in Arts, p. 98.
2 Ibid. p. 10.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 59
the local committee and the central authorities in
the Universities. The great position of the Univer-
sities would ' be a strong security that no private
crotchets or personal interests would be allowed to
disturb the action of a great body of men for the
mental cultivation of a free people V
' A career of almost unbounded usefulness/ wrote
Mr. Acland in 1858, 'seems open to the Universities
if they will respond to the call of the nation for
aid in supplying a better general education to the
great body of their countrymen. Their fortunate
position within reach of, but not within, the
metropolis, their traditional associations, their com-
parative independence of pecuniary interest, their
connection with so many parishes and grammar-
schools, all seem to point them out as eminently
qualified to give a healthy and liberal tone to
school education as a preparation for the busy oc-
cupations of agricultural and commercial life, no
less than for literary and scientific pursuits V
Such was the new proposal which was put before
the Universities. They were asked to extend their
usefulness by taking for the first time a definite
part in the education of persons who had not been
matriculated. Memorials supporting the request
poured in from different parts of the country.
Interest was aroused first in Oxford, immediately
1 Some Account of the Origin and Objects of the New Oxford
Examinations for the Title of Associate in Arts, p. II.
2 Ibid. pp. 98, 99.
60 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
afterwards in Cambridge ; and with little delay the
system of local examinations ' of those who were
not members of the University ' was adopted by
both the old Universities. ' To borrow a happy
illustration from the originator of the " Oxford
Extension Scheme/'3 wrote Mr. Acland in 1858,
' Oxford has opened a locomotive department, and
the first line of rails was laid down by the West
of England.'
The new idea was now firmly established. The
Universities had recognised their lucational duty
towards the country in a wider sense than ever
before. And the promoters of the new scheme
had devised and tested a system which com-
bined local self-government with the advantages
of central supervision and management. Local
business was entrusted to the voluntary local com-
mittees ; the educational policy of the movement
was rightly reserved for the Universities them-
selves.
Such a sensible and practical arrangement was
sure to develope. And, detail by detail, new
branches were added to the work. Girls were
examined as well as boys : more advanced students
as well as children.
It soon however became apparent that the
system was capable of a still wider extension.
Teaching was required as well as examination.
The noble generosity of wealthy citizens was in
many great towns stimulating the work of higher
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 61
education. The great movement for the foundation
of local colleges, a movement which has given
England a new University, had commenced. All
over the country there were signs of a freshly
quickened desire for knowledge and an eagerness
to obtain it at the hands of the best teachers. The
higher education of women was making rapid
advances. And the c sharp struggle ' which pre-
ceded the Education Act of 1870 had already
begun.
09
PROFESSOR STUART AND THE BEGINNING OF
LOCAL LECTURES.
The next step, therefore, was to make the
machinery of the local examinations available for
the purpose of local lectures. This great step in
University Extension was due to the energy of
Professor Stuart.
In 1 867, he received an invitation from an asso-
ciation of ladies in the north of England to give
some lectures to them1. The President of the
Association was Mrs. Josephine Butler, the Secre-
tary Miss A. J. Clough. He was asked to lecture
on the art of teaching. He replied that he had not
1 Inaugural Address of Professor Stuart at the Second Summer
Meeting of University Extension Students in Oxford, July 30, 1889.
Report, p. 20. The following account is largely based on that
address.
62 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
experience enough to lecture on that subject, but,
cas a thing is often best described by showing a
piece of it,3 he offered to give a course of eight lec-
tures, in which he would endeavour to teach some-
thing. There was special point in this offer of a
course of lectures : Professor Stuart had been 'vexed
with the insufficiency of the single-lecture system
which prevailed in connection with Mechanics'
Institutes and Literary Societies.' He was con-
vinced that if teaching was to be systematic, it
must be embodied in a course. Twenty years later
Mr. Barnett remarked that University Extension
must now aim at substituting for the casual course
of lectures (history fortuitously following science,
and literature, political economy) the series of
courses arranged in some more definite sequence.
The first battle, however, of University Extension,
when Professor Stuart took up the cudgels, was to
substitute the course of lectures by the same teacher
for a disconnected series of isolated addresses by
separate lecturers. Nor was Professor Stuart alone
in his contention. Professor Henry Morley and
others along with him, succeeded at last in
getting the public to understand that it is much
more interesting to follow one man well through a
subject than to listen to a succession of men com-
plaining that they have not time really to tackle it.
Professor Stuart's courses were given in 1867 at
Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield. They
were well attended, but confined to women only.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 63
Thus, in its first beginnings, University Extension
was set on foot by women. And ever since that
time women have formed a large part of University
Extension audiences. These first courses of Pro-
fessor Stuart were, however, interesting, not only
because they were practically the origin of Uni-
versity Extension teaching, but because they sug-
gested two arrangements which are still important
features in the system. These were the syllabus
and the weekly exercises. The syllabus was de-
vised as a lesson in note-taking : Professor Stuart
says that he got the idea from Professor Ferrier of
St. Andrews, ' who used, in connexion with some
of his more difficult lectures, to dictate a series of
heads which were found to be an immense assist-
ance.' The other feature, the weekly exercises,
were hit upon as a compromise which would avoid
the necessity of orally questioning the audience, a
chastening, but at the same time embarrassing, ex-
perience, which the lecturer agreed with the majority
of his students in wishing to avoid. The first course
of lectures was followed by many others. Several
other graduates were invited to lecture. But the
arrangement was made in each case ad hoc, and
a difficulty arose from the fact that the lecturers
could be offered nothing approaching to permanent
employment.
How then was the affair to be systematised ?
Professor Stuart's first proposal was 'to form a
central committee permanently engaging lecturers
64 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
at a salary, and sub-letting them, so to speak, to
local associations.' There was much to recommend
this plan : even now there is much to be said in its
favour. Had it been adopted, we should to-day
have been working University Extension as an
affair of business. It would have been * University
Extension, Limited.' But there were two obstacles,
one which was temporary, another which would
always have been fatal. The fatal objection is, that
no company, working merely on business methods,
could command the same prestige in the educational
world as a committee appointed by and representing
the Universities. Such a company might conceiv-
ably have been freer to make experiments : it
would almost certainly have been able to command
larger resources of capital for the retention of ex-
perienced or promising lecturers. But it would
not have enjoyed the same status. It would not
have had at its back the same wealth of associa-
tions. Its work would not have appealed in the
same way to the affectionate interest of the old
University rnen who, scattered as they are in
positions of influence all over the country, form, as
Sir Thomas Acland had seen years before, the
natural supporters and local agents of such part of
the work of the University as cannot be con-
ducted in the University town itself. In the case
however of Professor Stuart's proposal, when it
was first broached, this objection, though it was
doubtless realised, did not prove the immediately
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 65
fatal one. The fatal difficulty was the merely
temporary one of want of funds. This drawback
would soon have been overcome, but at the time it
was insuperable. ' The whole proposal,' said Pro-
fessor Stuart, ' was, I suppose, premature/
A new step, however, was taken. Lectures for
women were started in Cambridge itself. A house
was soon opened for their reception. And thus
arose Newnham College, which, together with Gir-
ton College, established for the first time a per-
manent institution for the education of women in
the University. Then quickly followed, from the
North of England Council for the Education of
Women, a new request for a committee of Univer-
sity men to test by examination the attainments
of governesses. This led to the establishment at
Cambridge of the Higher Local Examinations.
Thus the movement steadily consolidated itself.
It had, however, already taken a new departure.
One of the junior managers at the Crewe Eailway
Works, Mr. Moorsom, wrote to Professor Stuart in
1867, urging him to come and give a lecture to the
workmen there. The invitation was accepted. The
subject of the lecture was 'Meteors,' and it received
a gratuitous advertisement from a remarkable
shower of meteors which fell on the day before.
The lecture met with such acceptance that it led to
the delivery of a course of lectures similar to those
which had been given to women. The course at
Crewe was followed by one to the members of the
F
66 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
Equitable Pioneers1 Society at Kochdale, an asso-
ciation of working men which bears an honoured
name in the economic history of England. It was
at Kochdale that Professor Stuart invented 'the
class/ the period of conversational teaching, often
enlivened by brisk episodes of e heckling/ which has
ever since been an important feature in the Univer-
sity Extension System. The origin of the class was
simple. The lectures were illustrated by diagrams.
Professor Stuart wanted the diagrams which had
illustrated one lecture to remain on the walls till
his next appearance, as he proposed again to refer
to them. The hall-keeper demurred as, in the
interval between the lectures, the society was going
to meet in the same hall for the discussion of business.
However, leave was at last obtained, and it tran-
spired that the members who attended the meeting
were so attracted by the diagrams that they stayed
behind to discuss them for a whole hour. They had
indeed asked the door-keeper to invite Professor
Stuart to come to the lecture-room before the next
lecture, in order that they might ask him some
questions. He did so, and thus began the first
University Extension ' class.'
OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF EXTENSION TEACHING
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
The rapid growth, however, of the new scheme
brought heavier responsibility. It became clear
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 67
that there must be some central organization for
the supply of competent lecturers from the Univer-
sity. Now, in its system of Local Examinations,
the University already supplied examiners. Why
not lecturers too? It had the men, it had the
machinery, it had the prestige. Accordingly, in
November, 1871, Professor Stuart addressed a letter
on the subject to the University of Cambridge1.
He submitted to the University what was in effect
the same proposal as that made to the University
of Oxford by Mr. Sewell twenty years before. But
in the mean time things had moved forward. The
system of Local Examinations had been devised and
found to work well. The times were ripe for the
new idea. There was evidently a public demand
for University teaching. Professor Stuart's own
experience had proved the reality of that demand
and the possibility of satisfying it. He did not
merely fire off a casual suggestion into the air. He
came forward with a practical scheme.
' The demand for education exists/ he told the
University. Would they supply it or not? 'I
believe,' he wrote 2, ' that it is incumbent on us to
supply it, and I believe that some such system
which will carry the benefits of the University
through the country is necessary, in order to retain
the University in that position with respect to the
1 A Letter on University Extension, addressed to the Besident
Members of the University of Cambridge, by James Stuart. Cam-
bridge, 1871.
2 Letter on University Extension, quoted above.
F 4
68 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
education of the country which it has hitherto held,
and to continue in its hands that permeating in-
fluence which it is desirable that it should possess.5
It was now admitted on all hands that the Univer-
sities were not clusters of private establishments,
but national institutions. Pressing this home, he
argued that some such scheme as he advocated
would be c a great step towards making the Univer-
sities truly national institutions, and be no less
beneficial to them than to the country.'
For, if the University is a national institution, it
should so accommodate its arrangements as to make
some of them available for everybody. That was
the drift of the new demand. ' By permitting the
residence of non- collegiate students,' Professor
Stuart wrote, ' we have taken a great step towards
rendering our Universities accessible to all classes.'
But one reform inevitably leads to the suggestion
of another. c This expression " all classes ",' he
pointed out, f only includes those who can procure
some years of continuous leisure, which is far
harder to get than the requisite money. Among
those classes whose circumstances debar them from
residing at a University there exists a widespread
desire for higher education of a systematic kind/
Professor Stuart's proposals had at their back
the force of the new educational movement. Long
and bitter controversy had ended in the Elemen-
tary Education Act. A fresh interest had been
awakened in the question. The public mind had
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. G9
been prepared for educational advance. The desire
for higher education had been quickened. Far-
seeing people perceived that, when the seeds of
elementary education had been sown, a new genera-
tion would arise with new ideals of life and new
gifts of knowledge. Something must be done be-
times for that generation, or the very education
with which the State had decided to equip it would
prove a national danger. Education must not end
with the school.
But what was to be done ? Would it be enough
to offer them mere popular lectures? This, Pro-
fessor Stuart said, would be like giving them a
stone when they cried for bread. The Universities
could supply instead the right kind of teaching and
the right kind of teachers. Their high position
would cause ' the scheme to be favourably viewed,
and enable it successfully to overcome those
crotchets and oppositions which every new scheme
has to encounter.'
There were three kinds of objector. There was
the man who said the Universities could not afford
the money: the man who said that, if they esta-
blished Extension teaching, the number of under-
graduates would decline: and the man who said
that the University ought not to court rebuff by
making over-sanguine proposals.
Professor Stuart answered them all. To the
first he replied that he knew that University
funds were not inexhaustible, but ' I do not fear on
70 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
that point, because the nation has always shown
itself ready to give and to transfer money into
those hands which, it believes, will use it well and
for truly national work.' To the second he replied
that, so far from diminishing the existing numbers
of the University, Extension teaching would act as
a feeder to it. To the third he replied that ' in any
scheme we must be prepared to meet with dis-
appointments and in some quarters with want of
response .... I believe,' he continued, c that it is
not only our duty to foster and encourage a demand
for education wherever it exists, but, by the attitude
we assume, to endeavour to call it up where it does
not exist or has not the energy to express itself.'
He was right in saying that University Extension
would not be without its disappointments. He
was also right in his prophecy that it would in no
way lessen, but would rather tend to increase, the
number of resident students. But his anticipation
of national aid for the educational work of Uni-
versity Extension has not yet been fulfilled. The
State has wisely helped the local colleges : it has
not yet helped the local committees which are
trying to secure as many as possible of the advan-
tages of a local college for small towns.
Professor Stuart's letter led to a shower of me-
morials. To consider them, the University ap-
pointed a Syndicate in I8721. The Syndicate at
1 The Calendar of Cambridge Local Lectures for 1 880-81.
Historical Sketch of the Progress of Local Lectures, p. 5.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 71
once undertook a systematic enquiry into the
alleged demand for courses of University lectures.
In the following year they reported in favour of
adopting, for an experimental period, the new
scheme. They made it however a condition that
the requisite funds should be provided by the local
authorities. Thus University Extension became
an official fact.
THE FIRST PEOGBAMME or UNIVEESITY EXTEN-
SION TEACHING.
Its promoters were, of course, to a certain extent
in the dark. They could do no more than guess
the real extent of the demand for lectures. While
the scheme was only talked about, a great many
people no doubt took a sanguine view of the
desire of their neighbourhood for University teach-
ing. Face to face with a formal offer, the accept-
ance of which involved a money payment, a
certain proportion of the memorialists decided
to content themselves with a less comprehen-
sive programme than they had originally con-
templated. As Professor Stuart has said1, cwe
started on too ambitious a scale, and we had to
suffer for it.' The promoters had in their mind
three different classes of persons : women, young
1 Inaugural Address to the Second Summer Meeting of University
Extension Students in Oxford, 1889, p. 33.
T
72 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
men in the position of clerks or shop-assistants,
and working-people. The first idea was to have
in each town a course specially adapted for each of
these classes, and delivered on different days. But
this proved, in almost every case, too costly. The
larger towns were naturally the first to avail them-
selves of the new proposals. They contained a
greater number of leisured or educationally-minded
people : they furnished a larger area from which to
draw subscriptions. For some of these larger
towns the full programme was not too ambitious,
but for the smaller and poorer towns, after the
first burst of enthusiasm had flagged, it was practi-
cally out of the question.
THE DIFFICULTIES WHICH IT ENCOUNTERED.
The fact was that in most places no really general
demand for higher education existed. It had to be
created almost everywhere, and in many towns the
work has still to be done. In every place a few of
the leading inhabitants, the majority, perhaps, of the
professional classes, a fair number of tradesmen,
and not a few working-men, were keenly alive to
the value of the lectures which the University of
Cambridge had decided to offer. There was abun-
dant reason that their desire for higher education
should be met. But the difficulty was that there
were so few people who really felt the desire.
Without the assistance of others, they could hardly
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 73
be expected to support the considerable expense
of the full programme of lectures. However, the
establishment of University Extension Teaching
stimulated such people everywhere. It made them
eager to secure its advantages for their own town.
Perhaps in some cases they overestimated the public
interest in the work. But it was even a gain that
they should realise the facts. Many persons, when
they discovered how languid an interest was taken
by their fellow-citizens in higher education, set to
work to put things right. And thus in a sense
University Extension was instrumental in forming
in many towns a kind of educational garrison.
But in a few of the larger towns the complete
programme was at once adopted. And, as its
direct outcome, the foundation-stone of University
College was laid at Nottingham in 1877. The
generosity of Mr. Mark Firth led to the establish-
ment of a similar college in Sheffield. The College
of Science in Leeds (now the Yorkshire College)
soon appointed Professors of Literature. In Liver-
pool the movement began which has resulted in
the foundation of University College.
It is, of course, far from being the case that the
establishment of these colleges was due only to
University Extension. They were the outcome of
the same general movement of which University
Extension is only one of the expressions. But at
the same time there can be no doubt that the local
supporters of these great institutions found in the
74 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
new efforts of the Universities, if not direct
assistance, at all events stimulus and encourage-
ment.
In the foundation of one of these local colleges,
Oxford took a prominent part. This was in the
case of University College, Bristol. The movement
for the establishment of that college began among
the inhabitants of Bristol themselves ; and to aid
this movement, two Oxford Colleges (New College
and Balliol) offered to give ^300 a year for five
years l. The Bristol College was opened in October,
1876.
THE FOUNDATION OP THE LONDON EXTENSION
SOCIETY.
In the meantime something had been done in
London. In 1876 a society was formed there, under
the presidency of Mr. Goschen, for the Extension of
University Teaching, the three Universities, Oxford,
Cambridge and London, consenting to send re-
presentatives to a joint board, the functions of
which were to advise the council of the society
on educational matters.
1 University of Oxford Commission, Oct. 1877. Minutes of
Evidence of Rev. B. Jowett, p. 155.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 75
THE UNIVEESITY OF OXFORD ENTERS ON THE
WORK.
The question of University Extension Teach-
ing was brought before the Oxford Commission
of 1877 by Mr. Jowett (now Master of Balliol).
He pointed out 'the considerable movement for
secondary adult education then going on in the
large towns/ and urged that the Universities should
'take a little pains' about it. In conclusion he
made two practical proposals to the commissioners :
c one that there should be an office for University
Extension and a secretary paid by the University ;
and the other that the tenure of non-resident fellow-
ships should be capable of extension in the case
of persons lecturing or holding professorships in
the large towns V
The year after Mr. Jowett gave his evidence, the
University of Oxford offered for the first time to
make arrangements for University Extension .lec-
tures on its own account. As had been the case
five years before in Cambridge, the University
supplemented its machinery for Local Examinations
by a system of Local Lectures, while, by a happy
coincidence, the Delegates appointed as their secre-
tary for this new purpose Mr. Arthur Acland,
whose father had been chiefly instrumental in
framing the parent-system of Local Examinations.
1 University of Oxford Commission, Oct. 1877. Minutes of
Evidence of Rev. B. Jowett, p. 155.
76 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
The new scheme was now fairly launched. There
followed a period of somewhat slow growth. In
some places the new ground was ready for the
new work. Here there was small difficulty. But
in most towns it was an uphill fight to keep
the courses going. In many the work flickered,
and then for a time went out. For the great
majority of towns in England, University Extension
was before its time. And this was especially true
of the less populous manufacturing centres and the
smaller country towns. It became clear that all
towns were not ready for the same dose of Uni-
versity Extension Teaching, and that some could
only take it in homoeopathic quantities.
There was need therefore for two things : for
patience to wait until the public mind had caught
the desire for University Extension courses, and for
some re-adjustment of the system in order to make
it more available for the smaller towns and the
poorer districts of large ones. The experience
gained in the first ten years of University Exten-
sion threw light on the best ways of overcoming
the difficulties which impeded its further develop-
ment.
It was obvious that University Extension must
be made cheaper. Many towns, which would gladly
have tried the scheme, shrank from the pecuniary
liability which its adoption would involve. Some
few places looked back ruefully on a previous
deficit, and, generally speaking, such of the working-
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 77
men's societies as possessed funds available for
educational purposes, thought the lectures too dear.
But the smaller towns and the poor districts of the
larger cities were exactly the quarters in which
many of the promoters of University Extension
were most anxious that the movement should
spread. In other words, financial difficulties ham-
pered its growth on the two sides where growth
was most needed. How could these difficulties be
overcome? The fees paid to the lecturers could
not be reduced, if the services of the right kind of
men were to be retained: local expenses had
already been brought down to the lowest level.
The one possible remedy was to offer shorter
courses ; to give localities, as it were, a sample of
University Extension teaching. Such an arrange-
ment would go far towards halving the cost, and
would enable the poorer centres to make a be-
ginning. It would also, what was of real practical
importance, make it easier for a small group of
earnest students, themselves unable to meet the
expense of a larger course, to raise in their locality
subscriptions to the necessary amount. A few
poor students, who would despair of begging
guarantees for an outlay of ^60, would attack in
good heart the smaller task of raising ^30. And it
was felt that the local committees might be safely
trusted to work their way up to the longer course,
with its proportionately heavier expenses, when
they had once contrived to make both ends meet
78 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
in the smaller venture. For, if University Ex-
tension Teaching was a good thing and suited to
local needs, it seemed obvious that the local com-
mittees would soon desire a larger measure of it.
THE NEW DEPARTURE IN 1885.
This system of shorter courses had been, it is
true, occasionally employed before, but its bold
adoption practically dates from the autumn of
1885. In that year the whole movement started
forward. Oxford began work on a larger scale,
its new vigour being largely owing to the initia-
tive of the present Headmaster of Eugby, then
President of Trinity College. A conspicuous fea-
ture of the Oxford work was its employment of
the short course system. There were naturally
serious objections to the policy. Half a loaf may
be better than no bread, but towns which can
afford a complete system of teaching need not be
encouraged to content themselves with one that
is incomplete. The offer of a shorter course might
relax energies which were really capable of se-
curing a full one. It is undeniable that there was
great weight in this view of the question. How-
ever, the policy of offering short courses has been
amply justified by its results. It has practically
brought University Extension within the reach of
every town in England.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 79
THE OXJTOBD 'TRAVELLING LIBRARIES ' AND
SUMMER MEETING.
Oxford has added two other features to the work.
It began the system of Travelling Libraries in 1885,
and it started the Summer Meeting in 1888. A
great difficulty with many University Extension
students is that they cannot lay their hands on
books of reference for the course. They are not all
within reach of good public or private libraries.
It was a good thing to send down to each lec-
ture-centre a fair selection of the books recom-
mended by the lecturer for study during his course.
Of the Summer Meeting we have already spoken.
In 1885, f°ur Extension students from Northumber-
land had been enabled by the offer of prizes, to re-
side for a month's study in Cambridge. But the idea
of a general Summer Meeting of University Exten-
sion students was due to a suggestion made by Mr.
Charles Rowley of Manchester to a small committee
which, at the instance of Dr. Paton of Nottingham,
had met to consider the possibility of introducing
into England a system of Reading Circles, similar
in point of arrangement to those which centre in
America in the assembly at Chautauqua.
It was at once felt that by means of a Summer
Meeting in one of the University towns the Ex-
tension movement would be able to avail itself of
the services of those resident teachers who, though
80 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
friendly to the work, are prevented by their
University duties from taking any active part in
it as lecturers. The students too would enjoy the
great advantage offered by the University museums,
collections and libraries, and would gain stimulus
from their intercourse with one another. In short?
it would introduce into University Extension the
one element in which, from the University point of
view, it had been chief] y lacking — the element of
c residence.'
The idea of the Summer Meeting was at once
taken up in Oxford, where already, on a small
scale, arrangements had been made during the
Long Vacations of some previous years for the
accommodation, within College walls, of elemen-
tary schoolmasters and others. The details of the
programme for a large meeting of students were
worked out in the Oxford Extension office, and
finally, under the joint supervision of the Delegates
and a special committee of residents, the first
University Extension Summer Meeting was held
in August, 1888. Another and still more successful
meeting followed in 1889, while in the present
month (August, 1890) meetings are being held
both at Oxford and Cambridge.
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 81
AN ANTICIPATION OF THE IDEA OF THE
SUMMER MEETING.
It subsequently transpired that, just as Mr.
Sewell in 1850 had virtually anticipated the idea
of University Extension Teaching, so another
writer had made a happy forecast of the Summer
Meeting. In a letter to the Times of Oct. 15, 1874,
the Rev. E. S. Ffoulkes, the Vicar of St. Mary's,
Oxford, wrote as follows : —
'The practical account of the matter is that
Oxford is wanted by the University for six months
in the year, and no more. Why, then, should
Oxford be debarred from accommodating another
University for the remaining six ? It would be a
vast saving to the nation if the same buildings
which serve for one University could serve for
two. ... Or ladies might be invited to form them-
selves into a University for six months. Or, again,
to suggest the form which would involve least
change, why should not candidates for the Local
Examinations be given the option of a residence in
College rooms, under proper surveillance, for the
four summer months which constitute the Long
Vacation, to prepare for their examinations ? It is
quite possible that numbers of middle-class men
would only be too glad to avail themselves of a
University curriculum, could it be achieved by
four months' residence continuously during the
a
82 HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE.
summer. Oxford could easily be provided with a
staff of Tutors and Professors from its existing
University to officer a second. And how cheap
and how productive of work would that term be,
which lasted a period of four months without a
break, and whose days were such as to need neither
coal nor candle ; nor other light than that of the
sun to give twelve hours of study. . . . Positively
the only change which this would necessitate,
Would be that colleges should let their rooms
furnished, so as to have them at their disposal for
the whole year/
THE NATURAL CHARACTER OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
We have now traced the history of University
Extension from its first beginnings to its present
form. So short a sketch of so varied a movement
must necessarily be incomplete. A great debt is
owing to many workers whose labours and whose
names cannot even be mentioned here. But
enough has been said to show how naturally the
whole systeni has grown up. One change has
led to another, each development seems to have
suggested a further one. The extension of the
advantages of University teaching to one class
brought about its further extension to a second;
the machinery of local examinations seemed
HOW EXTENSION HAS COME TO BE. 83
naturally to lend itself to the purposes of local
lectures.
It could hardly have been otherwise. For it
was inevitable that, the more the country came to
care for education, the heavier would be the claims
made on the activity and resources of the Uni-
versities as representative of the highest education
in the land. The movement has gone forward
without serious check. The area of its operations
has been very greatly extended : the methods of its
organization have been in all departments im-
proved. There remain, however, serious difficulties
in the system, and the question which we now
must face is how those difficulties can be met.
G 2
CHAPTER III.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION: HAS IT A
FUTURE 1
IN the foregoing pages we have sketched the
system of University Extension as it now exists,
and have traced its growth from small beginnings
to its present magnitude. It has been successful
beyond the expectation of its most ardent sup-
porters. Is it, however, destined to take its place
among the permanent institutions of the country ?
Or is it merely a mushroom growth which will die
down and disappear ? Has its rapid development
been due to the fact that it both meets and stimu-
lates a real and growing demand in the country
for higher adult education, or merely to novelty
which will fade away and to the ardour of a few
men who will forsake it ? Such are the questions
which are being asked by many competent ob-
servers, some of whom, while friendly to the move-
ment, are a little distrustful of the future of what
one of them has called 'the Salvation Army of
Education.'
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? go
The question of the future is a question of men.
It is necessary, therefore, to enquire what different
kinds of workers University Extension needs. Now
the personnel of the system may be shortly de-
scribed as the lecturer and his audience, the local
organizers who provide the audience, and the
central organizers who provide the lecturer. The
system exists for the sake of the students ; three
distinct kinds of workers combine to meet the
students' wants. Let us consider the different
characteristics which it is desirable that these
different workers should possess.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION NEEDS MEN.
i. LECTURERS.
It is clear that University Extension is a special
kind of work, and it follows that the man who is
fully to succeed in it will need a combination of
qualities. It is in reality a new profession, and
cannot be casually recruited from among those
who feel themselves unlikely to succeed in any
of the more recognised callings. University Ex-
tension is, in fact, in competition with the other
professions for the services of the best men whom
the Universities turn out. It is an occupation
which must always tax the strength and the re-
sourcefulness of the men who engage in it. And,
while this will be the case even when the work
86 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
has settled down into a more humdrum stage, it
is yet more true of the present time when it has
still to be pushed forward as an experimental
scheme, and while large sections of the public have
to be convinced of its usefulness. Moreover, the
lecturers are called upon to represent their Uni-
versity in a very conspicuous manner. As the
Vice-Chancellor of the University said at the Ex-
tension Conference held in Oxford in 1887, 'The
lecturers whom we send through the country are
a kind of missionary ; wherever they go, they
carry on their foreheads the name of the University
they represent. To a great many of those persons
with whom they come in contact, it is the only
opportunity afforded of what Oxford means and
what is meant by the powers of an Oxford edu-
cation1/ It is of the highest importance, therefore,
that the profession of University Extension teach-
ing should command and attach to itself the ser-
vices of men who are not unworthy to represent
the University.
A man who is choosing his work in life
naturally considers two things : his own special
qualifications, and the career which is offered by
the calling for which those qualifications seem to
fit him. Our attention is now claimed by the
qualifications which are desirable for the career of
a University Extension lecturer.
1 Report of a Conference in Oxford on the Extension of University
Teaching. Oxford, 1887, p. 30.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 87
In the first place, any lecturer who is to take an
active part in the work must be strong enough to
bear considerable fatigue. His occupation entails long
and frequent journeys. In the future, the amount
of travelling may, in the case of some of the lec-
turers, be reduced to a minimum : groups of neigh-
bouring towns, separated from one another by short
distances only, may combine together to retain
for brief periods the whole time of a small staff
of lecturers. Those whom the Master of Balliol
once compared to 'local preachers/ may thus re-
ceive appointments to special ' circuits ' for a short
term of years. But it will always be incumbent
on some of the lecturers, and it is now incumbent
on all of them, to make long journeys from one
centre to another. It is this need of considerable
physical strength which makes it doubtful whether
many women, admirably adapted as some of them
have proved to be for the work, will ever be able
to undertake much of it or to make it their chief
occupation. Moreover, the task of repeatedly lec-
turing to large audiences involves strain and ex-
citement. The very intensity of the interest which
the good lecturer takes in his work carries with
it the danger of overstimulation and consequent
reaction.
Next, on the side of knowledge, the lecturer must
possess some University distinction as evidence
that he is competent to teach the subject, or group
of subjects, on which he proposes to lecture. It is,
88 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 1
however, the man of sound knowledge and many
interests, rather than the learned specialist, who is
needed for the work of University Extension. Mere
knowledge of his subject is not enough. He will
often have to lecture to people who need convincing
that it is a subject of interest and importance to
them. In order, then, to realise the best way of
teaching it, he must be able to put himself in their
place : he must be capable of taking an outside
view of his subject. He must also be able to
make his hearers feel the place which it occupies
in the wide field of knowledge ; he must know how
to appeal to the varied information possessed by an
audience consisting largely of adults, in such a way
that each may find in his previous knowledge a
foundation for his new study. The lecturer does
not deal with children, but with grown men and
women. He must therefore make their practical
experience of life tell on the subject which he com-
mends to their attention. Further, he must seek
to communicate to his students a correct impres-
sion of the different importance of the different
parts of his subject; he must have instinctive tact
in selecting salient points.
But he has to address large audiences, and not to
teach in small class-rooms where a conversational
method of instruction is suitable. He must have some
of the powers which go to make a good platform-
speaker. He cannot afford to bore his hearers, for
they are not compelled to come to listen to him
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE \ 89
again. It is his difficult task to combine the
lucidity and force of good platform-speaking with
the accuracy and precision of language which
characterise the scholar.
His success as a teacher will depend on
his convincing his audience that he is in intel-
lectual sympathy with them. It will not do for
him intellectually to despise them. He is facing
an audience which comprises persons whose ex-
perience has lain in channels of which he himself
knows little or nothing. In a sense, he is a
specialist in one subject, addressing persons who
are themselves specialists in fifty others. The re-
lation then between the lecturer and his audience
is rightly one of mutual respect. Many indeed
there will be among his hearers who have been
compelled by other claims, of household duty or of
business life, to forego the opportunities for study
which he himself has enjoyed. But this does not
mean that they have experienced in their lives
none of the mental discipline, the concentrated
application, the need of judgment and criticism,
which have been the forces education has brought
to bear on his own life. Above all things, the
lecturer must have moral earnestness, and must
care deeply for the subjects which he teaches. He
must therefore have a high ideal of the responsi-
bilities and possibilities of his occupation.
He will have to come in contact with many
different classes of people : he will often have
90 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
to lecture to ladies in the afternoon, and to work-
ing men at night. This will call for a good deal of
skill in handling his subject, so as to present it in
a form suitable for both kinds of audience. It will
not do for his lectures to be stereotyped.
Again, in many places his advice will be sought on
matters of organization. The most successful lecturers
have been those who, like Mr.Moulton, of Cambridge,
have given great attention to the practical means
of arranging associations of students, federations of
centres, and other matters which, though primarily
concerned with the business side of the work, are
still of importance to the teacher, because they
consolidate the system in which he is employed, or
improve the material with which he has to deal.
A lecturer with a turn for organization will thus
find constant opportunities for usefully employing
it. University Extension, in a word, needs men who
belong exclusively neither to the academic nor to
the business worlds, but who can sympathise with
the aims and interests of both.
Such is the kind of lecturer that is wanted
for the purposes of University Extension. It
will be at once said that it is out of the question
to hope for such paragons ; that they do not exist ;
and that, if they did, the life of University Exten-
sion has nothing in it to tempt them. Our answer
to this criticism must be that we are only describ-
ing an unattained ideal, but that you are more
likely to get such men if you say plainly that you
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 1 91
want them. We have stated the qualities, as many
as possible of which it is desirable that the ideal
lecturer should possess. We are far from saying
that University Extension is a forlorn hope unless
every lecturer possesses all of them.
And a good deal can be done by having some-
thing to aim at. When a man takes up University
Extension lecturing, he is bound to be rather in the
dark as to what is expected of him, and rather at
a loss to know how best to prepare himself for a
work of which he can only guess the difficulties.
It is therefore important to consider how such a
man can be helped. Can he serve an apprentice-
ship which will teach him his business ? Can he
be given anything worthy of the name of training ?
Can a supply of good lecturers be artificially created ?
Or is it wholly a question of temperament and
natural gifts, which no training can give ?
THE TRAINING OF LECTURERS.
The truth probably is that without certain na-
tural qualifications a man can never become a good
lecturer. And some few men may perhaps be
gifted enough to dispense with any formal training.
Their earlier experience may have been of a kind to
prepare them for this special work. But in the
case of the majority, it seems reasonable to suppose
that a method of training could be devised, which
92 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
would develope natural gifts and make good material
into better.
Such training however is beset with many diffi-
culties. No University Extension centre likes to
be practised on. When a committee pay for a
lecturer, they naturally want a man who knows how
to do his work. Therefore, when a lecturer accepts
an engagement, he must go out ready to succeed.
But this is like telling him that, when he is thrown
into the water, he must be able to swim. Some-
thing may be done, of course, by charging different
fees for different lecturers according to their ex-
perience. A centre would then, if it liked to take
raw material, get it cheap. But it so happens that
the towns which find it most difficult to raise funds
for Extension Lectures are generally those for
which an experienced lecturer is most needed.
The local, promoters are often new to the work ;
they want therefore a man who knows how to
help them by the practical suggestions which a
young lecturer is less able to make. And the
probability is that when a centre has only been
established with difficulty, the lecturer will have
to deal with an audience which needs a kind of
lecture that is extremely hard to give. It is an
old saying that a man must know a great deal of
his subject before he can teach the elements of it.
A young lecturer fresh from his studies is almost
always more difficult to follow, and more elaborate
in his treatment, than one who has more know-
I
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 93
ledge and experience. He has not yet learnt what
to leave out. Now the danger of charging lower
fees for young lecturers is that the very centres
which need an experienced man may content them-
selves with comparative inexperience because it is
cheaper. On the other hand, it is obviously reason-
able that the fee paid for a lecturer should bear
some sort of relation to his experience and merit.
The local committee which engages and pays for
him, hopes to recoup itself by the sale of tickets
of admission to the lectures. It is clear, therefore,
that an attractive lecturer at a high fee may be in
the end as cheap as a less attractive lecturer at a
lower one. The practical upshot of these considera-
tions is that different fees are rightly charged for
lecturers of different experience, but that it would
be a mistake to offer, even at the lowest fee of all,
a class of lecturers who had still to learn the rudi-
ments of their business. Every one who goes out
to lecture must somehow or other have learnt his
trade.
But how can he learn it without accepting an
ordinary paid engagement ? It may be pointed
out that many a man accepts a post as a school-
master who has never done any teaching. Why
should not then a lecturer accept an engagement
before he has done any lecturing? The answer to
this lies in the difference between the positions of
a lecturer and of a schoolmaster. The latter is
usually engaged for a considerable period — a term
91 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE" 1
or a year. His employer thinks it worth his while to
put up with a possible period of inefficiency, trusting
that afterwards the services of the new-comer will
compensate for previous waste. But the untrained
lecturer is only invited to give, say, six lectures, or
at most twelve. However quickly he learns his
work, he will be almost at the end of his course
before he has understood the best way to deliver
it. Then, the young schoolmaster is only one of
a staff of teachers ; he finds himself one of a com-
bination; his own work is only part of a great
organized effort of teaching ; the experience of his
senior colleagues makes up for his own want of
experience ; he can get advice from them ; the
efficiency of the school is not simply dependent on
him. The young .er, on the other hand, has
to stand alone: whatever he does is bound to be
noticed, and the fortunes of the course rest, so far
as teaching goes, on his unaided exertions. Yet
again, the young schoolmaster is dealing with
pupils whose attendance is compulsory ; they have
not themselves paid to be taught by him ; they
sometimes even derive satisfaction from his inex-
perience. The young lecturer, on the contrary,
addresses voluntary hearers ; if they are bored by
him, the remedy is in their own hands : they need
not come again1.
1 It is worth noting that, even in the case of schoolmasters, the
need of training is being felt. The Headmasters of Clifton and
Winchester are making experiments in this matter.
HAS. EXTENSION A EUTCTRE 1 95
In training himself for the special work of
University Extension a man has another great
difficulty to overcome. He has to teach himself
to speak well in public. This may be scouted as
impossible. But it should be observed that we are
not requiring from him any remarkable gift of elo-
quence. If he happen to have such a gift, so much
the better. All that is absolutely wanted from a
lecturer is that he should be able to put his
thoughts into clear and forcible words, to arrange
his points in logical order, and to speak them from
a platform in a way to which it is pleasant to
listen. Higher gifts of speech than this may be
born in a man, but not made by him. The art,
however, of straightforward and effective platform-
speaking is one that pro* «. almost any man,
who has the necessary physical qualifications and
the necessary perseverance, can attain for him-
self. It is obvious, however, that it will be a
help to him if he has been trained to face an
audience and to address it. In this matter, it
would appear that the ordinary Englishmen enjoys
fewer advantages than the ordinary American.
The American schoolboy is trained for public
speaking. In his interesting Notes on American
Schools and Training Colleges1 Dr. Fitch quotes
the following passage from the programme of one
of the Normal Schools in Massachusetts : — c No
1 Report of the Committee of Council on Education. London,
1889. Appendix to Mr. Fitch's Report, p. 500. Dr. Fitch's Notes
are now published separately by Messrs. Macmillan.
96 HAS EXTENSION A FUTtJEE ?
efforts are spared to train the pupils in self-
reliance. It is to this end that special importance
is attached to platform exercises. These occupy
a half hour or so every day, and during this period
pupils volunteer, each for five minutes or more, to
read or recite or talk to the school upon any sub-
ject which they may have chosen. At such a time
they have constantly to meet the criticism and
questions of teachers and fellow-pupils ; and thus
the exercise has been found to be valuable, not
only in training the pupils to use the English
language with facility and force, and to speak with
distinctness and accuracy, but in bringing them
face to face with the sort of difficulties that they
may be expected to meet in their profession.5
And in the University itself it seems to be
becoming rarer than it used to be for a man to
train himself by speaking to large audiences.
There are indeed no audiences in England to
which it is better practice to speak, than those
which assemble for the weekly debates in the Uni-
versity Union Societies. The value of the ex-
perience gained in addressing them lies in the
fact that they do not hesitate to express their
feelings. But of late years, in Oxford at all
events, it has become less the rule for a man with
a turn for public speaking to go to the Union. A
great number of small debating societies have
sprung up in the different colleges. Men feel it
perhaps more patriotic to support these college
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE? 97
societies. They find themselves among friends.
It is also less of an effort to address a small society
than the Union audience. Less trouble need be
given to preparation. The speaker does not court
public failure. But, for these very reasons, a man
loses a great deal Who confines himself to the
smaller societies and does not venture to address
the larger one. He often falls into a desultory,
conversational style of speaking. He contents
himself with a slipshod manner of speech, because
he has never accustomed himself to conditions
which, for success, require him to take a great deal
of trouble, not only with what he says, but with
how he says it.
Such are the chief difficulties in the way of
training lecturers for University Extension. At
Oxford there is yet another difficulty, which is
not unimportant. This is the absence from the
University curriculum for men (not for women),
of any systematic training in English Literature.
Into this question, which has its controversial
aspects, we do not propose to enter. We are not
here concerned with the question of a School of
Literature. We will only remark that the present
arrangements of the University make it far more
difficult to find a young man who is competent
to lecture on literary subjects than on history,
philosophy, political economy or any branch of
natural science.
98 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
THE OXFORD METHOD OF SELECTING
LECTURERS.
IN spite of all these obstacles, something has been
done in Oxford to train lecturers for University
Extension. When a young man thinks of seeking
appointment as a lecturer, he sends an application
to the Delegates. He must have passed the exam-
inations required for a degree. In order that the
Delegates may satisfy themselves as to his com-
petence to teach the subject which he offers, he
gives a reference to his College Tutor. The ap-
plicant also has to show that he has already
lectured in public with success. If his application
is entertained, he comes to the office and is told all
about the system. He reads the official papers.
Generally he has an interview with a senior
lecturer. He tries to put himself in touch with
the work and to realise its conditions. Next, he
has to write a syllabus of a course of lectures.
This is submitted to the criticism of an experienced
lecturer. The applicant is then required to deliver
in Oxford to a private audience the course of
lectures of which he has already compiled the
syllabus. He is not paid for giving the lectures.
They are sometimes delivered to a school, but
usually to the Oxford Diocesan Training College
for Elementary Teachers. He has there as his
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 99
audience a number of students who are themselves
being trained to teach. At most of the lectures,
the Secretary and perhaps one of the Delegates are
present. After the lecture, they frankly criticise
him. The criticisms of the staff of the Training
College generally confirm their verdict. When
the course is over, the candidate's application is
again considered. If the trial course has gone
badly, the candidate commonly himself withdraws
his application, or asks that decision may be post-
poned until he has had further practice. If the
course has been successful and the candidate is
approved, he revises his syllabus in the light of the
experience which he has already gained. A last
step remains, which is perhaps the most important
of all, but which want of funds has prevented from
being often taken in practice. The Delegates vote
a small sum to enable the accepted probationer to
visit certain typical centres and see the senior
lecturers at their work. When this is done, the
applicant is added to the list of lecturers, and his
revised syllabus is printed for him for circulation
in the centres.
Of course, this little experiment in the way of
training is very incomplete. But it serves as a
rough-and-ready means of eliminating the unfit.
It is true that the process greatly improves those
who undergo it. But its chief advantage is that it
picks out the men who would be justified in seek-
ing employment in University Extension.
H 2,
100 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION NEEDS MEN.
2. ORGANIZERS.
But we have seen that University Extension
needs organizers as well as lecturers. The Bishop
of London, speaking from his long experience in
this side of University work, told the Oxford Con-
ference in 1887 that 'what is now particularly
wanted is really good organization V Now organi-
zers are needed at both ends of the line — in the
local centres and in the central offices. The nature
of their duties will have been indicated by the
foregoing account of the University Extension
system. Nothing need be said here beyond the
obvious thing that the work of the organizers is
not without difficulty, that the success of the system
largely depends on its manifold details being-
attended to with punctuality, accuracy and method :
that it is desirable for the organizers to be acquainted
with the needs and circumstances of different parts
of the country and with the kind of men who
will suit these different conditions; that there is
need for a good deal of thought in adjusting the
machinery of the system to meet new wants ; and
that it is impossible for an undertaking, which
1 Report of Oxford Conference on University Extension, 1887,
p. 27.
HAS EXTENSION A EUTURE ? 101
depends on the smooth working of most of the
railway lines in England and on the health, for the
worst part of the year, of sixty different lecturers,
not to be prolific in emergencies.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION NEEDS MONEY.
i. LOCALLY.
These then are the different kinds of men on
securing whose services the future of University
Extension depends. It is to be believed that there
will always be forthcoming a number of suitable
persons who care enough for national education to
embark on the work. But the nature of the occu-
pation is too arduous, its claims on time are too
exacting, for it to be possible to depend on purely
voluntary assistance. If the first requirement of
University Extension is men, its second and con-
sequent need is money to support their work.
Now money is required for each of the two
chief departments of University Extension. It is
needed for the central offices and for the local
organizers.
The local organizers want money because their
financial position is at present in many places, if
not precarious, at any rate unsatisfactory. We
have said that each lecture costs the students a
shilling a head. This is true, but only on an
102 HAS EXTENSION A F0TUKE ?
average. There are many places where the stu-
dents are so few that the cost which falls on each
of them is twice, or more than that amount. And
not only many small towns, but great districts
where the population consists chiefly of the work-
ing classes, are debarred from University Extension
because of its expense. Even a shilling a lecture
is prohibitive to many working men and fco those
dependent on them. Again, in almost every centre
the promoters depend partly on subscriptions. In
other words, the work, to a certain extent, depends
on the contributions of those who do not themselves
regularly attend the lectures — that is, on the educa-
tionally-minded benevolent public. It is not
satisfactory that in so many places a necessary
ingredient of the local arrangements should be a
temporary subscription list.
Speaking broadly, then, the University Exten-
sion centres are not well off. There are enviable
exceptions ; but, taking the movement as a whole,
there are not many Local Committees with a balance
of £50 at their bankers.
Now this want of comfortable means is very
bad for an educational work. It pinches it. It
compels the local promoters to have an eye not
only to what is ideally best for their students but
also to what will be tempting to the public. It
forces them sometimes to refuse the best thing and
to content themselves with some more attractive
second-best.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTUEE ? 103
And this financial difficulty is really at the
bottom of the failure of many centres to arrange
the courses in a systematic sequence. They cannot
afford to do so. They know that if they embarked
on a three years' course of history or literature —
such as the Extension is perfectly ready at any
moment to provide, and thousands of the more
zealous students are eager to undertake — they
would frighten their public. Many people, on
whom they rely for the sale of a certain and neces-
sary proportion of tickets, would start back from
the scheme as too arduous and too prolonged. Such
persons are a minority of the audience, but their
subscriptions are necessary, and therefore their
taste for variety has to be considered. And so,
instead of definitely undertaking a three years'
course of study, many local committees eschew
sequence or disguise it. They either hop about
from history to literature or from science to politi-
cal economy, or they take first the history of a
period, then its literature, then its economics, and
so on. There is much to be said, of course, for
both these plans. Variety stimulates, and it is well
to learn all about a period from every side. But,
at best, either plan is a pis aller. And the pity of
it is that it is adopted, not because the Local Com-
mittees always like such an? arrangement best, but
because their purses are not deep enough for any-
thing else. It is want of money which causes
want of educational sequence.
104 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
Of course there are numerous exceptions. The
Cambridge affiliated centres undertake excellent
courses of systematic study extending over three
or four years, and comprising six full courses of
lectures on either Arts or Sciences, with two other
full courses drawn from the complementary group 1.
And many of the Oxford and London centres have
made a brave fight for sequence. The London
Society has arranged a very good series of courses
at Gresham College, which thus serves as a central
meeting point for the London students 2. Every
year more and more Oxford centres succeed in
attaining sequence 3. But the struggle is a hard one.
And it must be admitted that, when a new
centre begins, the most important thing of all is to
get a good lecturer. For such centres a sequence
of subjects is desirable, but a sequence of good
lecturers is essential. However, when all is said,
we are bound to admit that a broad defect of the
University Extension system, as it stands to day,
is that the majority of centres cannot afford to
devote their whole energies to arranging courses in
educational sequence.
If they had more money, they would do iiv at
once. They want money too for other purposes.
The labour of local organization grows heavier
year by year ; it involves much clerical work ; a
1 Cambridge Keports, 1887-90.
2 London Reports, 1888, 1889.
3 Oxford Reports, 1887-90.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 105
good deal of it is necessary but dull ; it often has
to be done under great pressure of time ; it in-
volves collecting money. Now it would be difficult
to praise too highly the devotion with which the
Local Committee and their energetic secretaries
have applied themselves to these tasks. They have
cheerfully borne an ever increasing burden of secre-
tarial work. Nothing has proved their interest in
the movement more clearly than the willingness
with which they have sacrificed leisure to the need
of organization. But, as the work grows, they will
begin to want help. Already in large centres they
require clerical assistance. Many of the local
secretaries, who are best fitted for the work by
reason of their business experience or faculty for
organization, are very naturally otherwise fully
occupied. Again and again it has happened that,
after two or three years of excellent service, such a
secretary has been obliged to resign. With paid
clerical assistance, he might have continued to
direct the local organization for many years. Be-
sides, a movement gains by having an office. An
office keeps up the tradition of the work. One
secretary resigns and another succeeds ; the clerk
maintains the routine. The office becomes a per-
manent centre, a nucleus for further extension.
And eventually University Extension Committees
will want suitable buildings. The best thing would
be that the lecture room should be under the same
roof as, or in close connection with, the Public
106 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
Library. There has been recently given to the
town of Barnsley such a building for use as a
Public Library on the understanding that some
of the rooms should be employed for educational
purposes. Every town should have, so far as
building and library are concerned, its own local
college. So far as its professors are concerned, it
would look to the Universities and co-operate
with other towns. Acting thus, it would have at
a small cost, teaching on a wide range of subjects
and the stimulus of a constant succession of new
teachers.
There are many other purposes for which the
Local Committees need money. It is right that they
should always rely partly on local subscriptions,
but they should not remain in bondage to them.
They should be able, if necessary, to make arrange-
ments long in advance without incurring rash liabili-
ties. They should be free, so far as money goes, to
seize chances of getting good lecturers. They should
be enabled to supplement their popular courses with
others more exclusively adapted for small classes of
students. Each considerable town should have a
variety of courses going on at the same time.
Many brilliant teachers excel in inspiring small
classes, but are ineffective when they deal with a
large audience. The services of such men should
be more largely made use of in University Exten-
sion work. Then, again, University Extension has
hitherto hardly penetrated into the villages. It is
HAS EXTENSION A FUTUEE \ 107
almost exclusively an affair of towns and suburbs.
Local Committees would gladly, if they could
afford it, extend the courses to the villages in their
neighbourhood, and into adjacent towns which had
not yet made trial of the system.
It is clear, therefore, that the development of the
work is hampered by want of means. The need
for money is almost entirely a local need. It is the
work of the local organization, not that of the
central office, which chiefly needs larger means.
UNIVEESITY EXTENSION NEEDS MONEY.
2. AT HEAD-QUARTERS.
There is, however, in our opinion, a no less ur-
gent need of larger funds at head-quarters. Far
less is wanted there than in the centres, but
there is need for something. It should be pos-
sible to engage lecturers at a permanent stipend.
At present a lecturer can hardly count on his
income for a year in advance. It depends wholly
on his receiving invitations to lecture. He may
be morally sure that the invitations will come,
but it is clear that the offer of a fixed salary
in some other calling must often tempt him
away from an occupation, the remuneration of
which is wholly without guarantee.
108 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 1
THE THREE SOURCES WHENCE MONEY
MAY BE DRAWN,
Modest as may seem the separate needs which
we have sketched, when we bear in mind that we
are speaking not of a dozen large towns only, but
of the many hundreds of smaller towns in England,
it will be seen that rn the aggregate the amount
needed is large. We must now consider the sources
from which the money might come. It might come
from private munificence, from the funds of Univer-
sities and Colleges, or from the State. In our judg-
ment, all these sources should contribute a part.
If it is urged that University Extension should be
self-supporting, we must reply that, throughout
the whole of higher education in England, part-
endowment is the rule. No reason has yet been
shown why University Extension should be treated
as an exception.
i. PRIVATE MUNIFICENCE.
Much has already been done for University Ex-
tension by the generosity of individuals. They
have helped both the local committees and the cen-
tral organizations. Private individuals have con-
tributed to the Cambridge permanent fund J.
1 Report of Cambridge University Extension Conference, 1887,
p. 85.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 1 109
Many others have given considerable sums to the
fund for the additional payment of lecturers esta-
blished by the Oxford Delegates 1. Scholarships
have been presented, and books have been given
for the travelling libraries. The London Society
has a considerable subscription list, to which, in
1889, four of the City Companies contributed. The
Gilchrist Trustees gave j£°2oo to the same Society
in iSSg2. The Gilchrist Trustees have recently
taken steps aimed at making the lectures, which,
as is well known, they annually arrange in a
large number of towns, preliminary to University
Extension courses. In the future, donors may be
forthcoming to endow lectureships for their own
counties or neighbourhood, just as professorial
chairs have been established in the Universities
and Colleges by private munificence. While, how-
ever, it is to be hoped that the liberality of indi-
viduals will continue to help the movement, it
must be admitted that up to the present the source
of private generosity has not been sufficient ade-
quately to supply its needs.
1 Oxford Report, 1889-90.
2 London Eeport, 1889.
110 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE
2. THE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES.
It has been pointed out on an earlier page l that
the Universities already contribute towards the
expenses of the work. They provide the general
Secretaries, their clerks, and their offices. We
have not before us the Cambridge accounts, but
from the balance-sheets presented by the Delegates
of the University of Oxford since 1886, it appears
that the University does not contribute to the pay-
ment of the lecturers or to the local expenses of
the work.
Some critics in the newspapers have held that
the Universities should do more. It has, however,
been pointed out that, as institutions, the Univer-
sities are poor when the heavy claims on them are
considered. In 1887 the Secretary of the Cam-
bridge Syndicate pointed out that ' the University
of Cambridge is poor in money2.' In the same
year, the Vice-Chancellor of the University made
a similar statement with regard to Oxford. ' The
University/ he remarked, 'is not a rich body in
comparison to the demands made upon it V The
published accounts of the Universities entirely
confirm these statements. The Universities have
large incomes, but there are large established calls
on those incomes.
1 P. 22.
2 Report of Cambridge Extension Conference', 1887, PP- 7T> 77-
3 Report of Oxford Extension Conference, 1887, p. 28.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? Ill
As, however, was pointed out on the same occa-
sions, in matters of finance as well as in govern-
ment, the Colleges are largely separate from the
University. It is not impossible that some of the
Colleges might be able to render financial aid to
University Extension work.
In discussing this matter, we would again remind
the reader that we speak only in our individual
capacity as members of the University. We feel,
however, that it is better for us frankly to state
our own opinion. In our judgment, University
Extension work has claims on a larger measure
of financial aid from either University funds or
collegiate revenues. The University and the Col-
leges both gain by the movement. The Colleges
have already found in it a means of employment
for many of their younger graduates. The Uni-
versity, as a whole, derives from it a less obvious
but a far more important advantage. The Uni-
versity and the Colleges are national institu-
tions. On more than one occasion they have been
subjected to the investigation of a Parliamentary
Commission. In view of any possible legislation
in the future, it can be of no small service to them
to have drawn to themselves the attachment of
classes of great political importance in the country.
We can testify from our personal experience to the
fact that in several districts a spirit of distrust and
even of hostility is giving way to a new sentiment
of affectionate regard.
112 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
3» THE STATE.
The third source of possible means is to be found
in the State. The time is now past when it was
necessary to go to the root of matters, and as a
preliminary to any application for State aid, to
discuss the whole question of the wisdom of State
interference.
So far at any rate as education is concerned, the
principle has been granted many times over. As
Professor Jowett has pointed out, ' very nearly
every civilised country in the world, France,
Germany, Switzerland and the United States of
America, already provides education both primary
and secondary, either free of cost, or at a very
trifling cost, for all its citizens V It is no leap in
the dark which is proposed even as regards our
own country. Parliament not only votes three
millions a year to the elementary schools, but it
assigns annually large sums to higher education.
The Science and Art Department receives nearly
half-a-million, the Training Colleges for Elementary
Teachers more than £100,000, the London Univer-
sity nearly £15,000, the Local Colleges of England
£15,000 more, and there are grants besides to the
Colleges and Universities of Wales, Scotland and
Ireland. Any further employment of Government
resources for purposes of education may be dis-
1 Report of Oxford University Extension Conference, 1887, p. 97,
HAS EXTENSION A FUTUBE ? 113
cussed, therefore, on grounds of justice and ex-
pediency rather than principle.
THE JUSTICE OF STATE AID TO UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION.
Let us enquire, first, whether the people whom
University Extension serves and whom, were the
necessary means forthcoming, it would serve to a
vastly greater extent than at present, have any
claim on the ground of justice to the help of the
State. If we examine the institutions which at
present participate in the grants for higher educa-
tional purposes, we shall find that the London
University is a purely examining body, the Training
Colleges are open only to candidates for one par-
ticular calling, the Science and Art Department
teaches only certain subjects, and, to a large ex-
tent, it teaches those, either directly or indirectly, for
industrial purposes. The local colleges, on the other
hand, receive help that they may better ' discharge
the duties which the title " University College "
implies1 ;' that is, that they may give above all things
a higher general education. They discharge these
duties to a great extent by holding evening classes.
Both as regards the social position of the students,
and the nature of instruction given, these evening
classes — not to mention many of those held in the
daytime — are almost precisely similar in character
1 See Appendix II.
I
114 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
to those of the University Extension System. As
we have seen, the local colleges come from the same
general movement which has given birth to the
Extension1. The Nottingham College, indeed, grew
directly out of the Extension Lectures which pre-
ceded it. We have already referred to the fact that
not a little of the local college teaching is still done
by Extension Lecturers. A number also of the
Professors have been trained on the Extension. But
the local college is a development of Extension
teaching only possible in very large towns. With-
out the Treasury grant, it is more than doubtful
whether places as large as Sheffield, Nottingham
and Bristol could have continued the costly luxury
of an independent professoriate. Including the
Victoria University and the two great Metropolitan
Colleges, there are in all England and Wales only
thirteen such institutions, and by the census of
1 88 1 there were 303 towns of more than 10,000
inhabitants. It is impossible for the great majority
of even earnest and self-denying students to attend
at any college. The great area covered by our
chief cities often renders it difficult for those who
live no further away than the suburbs, to make use
of the city college. The teaching must be taken
to the people where the people cannot come to the
teaching. The local college is the form taken by
the Extension System under peculiarly favourable
circumstances. The whole body of taxpayers con-
1 P. 73-
HAS EXTENSION A FUTUKE ? 115
tribute to its maintenance, but only a very small
percentage can make any use of it. The remainder
of the Extension System works in the face of very
great difficulties, but it reaches a greater body of
the taxpayers than the fixed colleges. Is not the
small town entitled in justice to something in
return for its taxation ? There is, too, another view
of the subject. The advantages which great towns
can secure, the means of instruction and amuse-
ment which are the incidental good of their
crowded character, are one of the causes which
tend to the depopulation of the country districts,
and to too great centralisation. Is it not the duty
of the Government in the highest interests of the
State, in the face of the unwieldy growth of our
chief towns, and of all the dangers which that im-
plies both to the State and to the race, to do what
it can to help the smaller places to compete in
attraction with the greater ? University Extension
is a University College by co-operation of the
smaller towns and of the outlying districts of the
larger.
THE EXPEDIENCY or STATE AID.
Let us now turn from the justice of the claim to
the consideration of its expediency and of its prac-
ticability. There are admitted dangers in the
interference of the State in matters of education.
There is the danger of centralisation. After a
116 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
century of centralisation France is now com-
pelled to reverse her University policy. The one
State University, managed from Paris, is about to
give way to the revived independence of the Local
Faculties. That, at any rate, is generally believed
to be the meaning of the ministerial statements at
the recent celebration at Montpellier. Any scheme
for State assistance of University Extension must
guard against the danger of centralisation.
Another danger lies in the stereotyping of the
present machinery. The Educational problem is
always with us. It consists in the adapting of a
great system, with many vested interests and deep
ruts of routine, to the new wants of the present.
Elasticity is one of the prime necessities of any
educational system which is not ultimately to do
more harm than good. We must preserve to Uni-
versity Extension as much as possible of its present
admirable elasticity of organization.
We do not ask that the State should take over
and maintain wholly any of the schemes for higher
education. We must therefore be careful that
national assistance is so given that it will not
remove the stimulus to local exertion, and will not
stop the flow of private munificence.
THE PRACTICABILITY OF STATE AID.
From the point of view of practicability we have
two great objections to meet. The first is that the
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 117
Extension centres have no permanent organization.
They consist of committees and secretaries giving
voluntary service, and are at any time liable to
perish. They have no endowments, no salaried
officers, no buildings, nothing in fact that guarantees
continuance, and nobody to be made responsible
for the right spending of the national funds. We
admit the difficulty. We recognise that any de-
tailed scheme must deal with it if it is to have
a chance of success. But we point out that it is
futile to ask small and often poor places to make
a great effort, unless they have some security that
the effort, once made, will not be left to die away
during years of fruitless agitation. First state the
terms on which help will be given, and if they
are at all possible you may be sure that the
centres will soon comply with them. England
was not covered with Science and Art teaching
before the Department had stated the terms on
which it would recognise it. Extension, on the
other hand, does exist. It is maintained from year
to year on precarious subscriptions, which are given
with the idea that a permanent organization will
soon be won. Why wait till the enthusiasm of the
subscribers is exhausted? Why not meet them
half-way, and encourage them to make still greater
efforts ?
The other objection is based on the number
and varied character of the centres. The task of
equitably dividing a grant among them and of
118 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 1
exacting the needful securities would be a very
difficult one. The administrative and inspecting
apparatus would have to be so elaborate, that we
should be in danger of incurring the evils of cen-
tralisation and loss of elasticity to which reference
has already been made. There is much truth in
this, but still we feel that, if ingenuity can pos-
sibly find a way through them, mere difficulties of
administration ought not to be allowed to prevent
the application of an admitted principle to practice.
THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE'S WORK.
Such were the arguments advanced in 1889,
when the subject was discussed at a Conference
of local secretaries and others present at the Oxford
Summer Meeting. No one contested the justice of
the claim, nor, so far as we can learn, has it been
contested since in circles less favourably inclined.
There were the dangers of centralisation, of loss of
elasticity, of loss of self-help and of pauperisation.
There were the difficulties involved in the tentative
organization of the centres and in their number and
variety. Could the difficulties and dangers be got
over ? A small Committee was appointed to make a
preliminary investigation. It reported as follows : —
1 Parliament has recently granted a sum of fifteen
thousand per annum to the local colleges of
England. These colleges are situated in a few of
the great centres of population. The result is that
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE? 119
inhabitants of smaller places, while contributing to
this sum, receive little advantage from it. The
University Extension System is practically the
local college of the smaller places. Upwards of
thirty thousand students availed themselves of the
advantages which it offered during the past year.
This result has been attained at an average total
cost of about ten shillings per student. The system
is approved by the experience of seventeen years.
It is capable of great development, and the time
has come when it should be placed on a permanent
footing.
6 The State is spending upwards of three millions
a year on elementary education. Five thousand a
year granted to the Extension movement would
greatly increase the benefits derived by the nation
from that immense outlay. It is proposed that an
application should be made to Parliament for some
such grant.
' The method employed in the distribution of the
money among the centres might be that at present
in force in the case of the local colleges. The grant
would be entrusted to a central committee ap-
pointed by Government, and would be by them
distributed amongst the local centres. The amount
allotted to each would probably depend on such
considerations as the following : — The nature of the
population of the district, the amount of local
subscriptions, the number of students, and the
character and excellence of the work done.'
120 HAS. EXTENSION A FUTURE?
The idea of a system of capitation grants similar
to those of the Science and Art Department had
been discussed. It was rejected on the grounds
that it necessarily involved stringent and detailed
state regulations in the matter of subjects, exami-
nation and inspection. It implied in short the
dangers of centralisation and stereotyping. It
will be noticed that the committee finally inclined
to a system similar to that at present in force
in the case of the local colleges. This report
was adopted at a subsequent sitting of the confer-
ence. A larger committee was appointed, with
power to add to its number, and this is the existing
' National Committee for obtaining a Grant in aid
of University Extension.' It is composed of nine
representatives from Oxford centres, and seven from
Cambridge centres. The joint hon. sees, are Miss
Snowden, of Ilkley, Yorkshire, and Mr. H. Macan, of
Exeter. The chief work undertaken as yet has been
the formation of opinion among those interested in
Extension work, and among members of Parliament
and others of influential position in politics.
THE TREASURY GRANT SCHEME.
The committee is not yet pledged to any definite
scheme, though the plan indicated in the prelimi-
nary report has so far seemed the best l. The
founding of several new district federations of
1 For details of the plan see Report on pp. 1 18-1 20 and Appendix II.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 121
centres since the report was written, seems to fore-
shadow a general grouping of the centres, which
would no doubt do much to simplify the distribu-
tion of a grant.
THE COUNTY COUNCIL SCHEME.
As a result of Mr. Goschen's statement in the
House of Commons, an alternative scheme has
suggested itself to the writers, which seems to them
to obviate many of the difficulties involved in all
the plans as yet put forward. Mr. Goschen pro-
poses * to add the amount set free by the abandon-
ment of the licensing clauses to the residue which
under the Bill as it stands goes to the County
Councils, accompanying this inclusion by an in-
timation that possibly new charges may by and by
be put upon them in reference to intermediate,
technical, and agricultural education. It seems
desirable, if more is to be done in this respect, that
the localities, especially County Councils, should be
interested in the work1.' Let us analyse this state-
ment and see what it means. A sum of money has
been raised by taxation. It is proposed to assign
it to the County Councils. It is further proposed
to couple it with an intimation that it may have
to be applied to education. There is an indication,
too, that it is the County Councils who will be
asked to take in hand the application of the money
to education. We may presume that the Bill which
1 See Appendix I.
122 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE?
it is probably intended to introduce will follow the
precedents of the Welsh Intermediate Education
Act, 1889. This authorises the Welsh County
Councils to spend certain limited sums of money
on education which is neither elementary nor tech-
nical. What proposal can be simpler, than that in
the permissive Act which will probably be passed,
the County Councils of England shall be authorised,
under the head of Intermediate Education, to assist
among other institutions the University Extension
Centres of their respective counties'? The great
advantages of the proposal are that it minimises
both the dangers and the difficulties which attend
any scheme for state aid to University Extension.
The Universities would not be hampered by depart-
mental regulations. They would be free to continue
experiments and to strike out new lines in the
work. Their healthy rivalry would continue to
prompt originality of organization. The County
Councils, on the other hand, would be free to
discuss the rival schemes and methods, and to
adopt which they pleased. There would thus be
no danger of monotonous similarity in the work of
neighbouring counties. Variety in itself, it must
be remembered, is the key to lasting progress ; it
is essential also to the supplying of the wants of
differing localities.
The difficulties of distribution would be reduced
to very small proportions. The Educational Com-
mittees of the Councils would know personally the
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 123
various centres in their respective counties. They
would be in a position to estimate their work, their
wants, and their success or failure. Since the Act
would contain only permission to make grants, the
local leaders of Extension would receive the great
stimulus of having both to better their organization,
in order to bring effective pressure to bear on the
Councils to induce them to apply the Act, and also
to improve the teaching for the purpose of con-
vincing the Councils that they were worthy of
assistance. An incidental effect of County Council
management would not improbably be to pro-
mote private munificence. In the case of public
libraries it not unfrequently happens that a
wealthy individual presents the building and the
books, provided the town adopts the Act for their
maintenance. In the case of "University Extension,
such a benefactor might give a small building with
class-rooms and offices, on condition that the County
granted assistance towards the annual expenses.
THE POSSIBILITIES OP UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
We believe that the effect of the adoption of our
plan would be that in a few years most towns of
5000 inhabitants or more would have a centre of
University teaching ; that the larger towns would
have small buildings by the side of their public
libraries, in which several concurrent courses of
teaching on different subjects would be carried on ;
124 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE 5
that the centres of each county would form a feder-
ation, and that the representatives of this feder-
ation, so far as they were not actually County
Councillors themselves, would be consulted by the
Educational Committee of the Council. If a local
college existed in the county, it would be used by
the more advanced students, in subjects especially
which require the help of museums and laboratories.
The Universities would continue to supply most of
the lecturers, they would certify to their compe-
tence, and test their work by examination. Every
summer large gatherings would spend from one to
three months in the chosen seats of learning. They
would serve to keep the centres in touch with
University life and with the newest ideas on
organization. In part they would consist of stu-
dents of larger means, in part of the intellectual
pick of the working classes, brought together by a
system of small scholarships. This ideal may seem
ambitious, but on a small scale its elements exist,
and it requires but a little to bind them together.
The rest would be a matter of rapid and natural
growth.
One point by the way. In view of the fact that
the counties are likely soon to be units in educa-
tional matters, would it not be well henceforth to
form County Federations of centres rather than
federations, like the existing Northern, South-
Eastern, and South-Western Associations, of three
or four counties ? Even for the administrative
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 125
purpose of organizing circuits for the lecturers we
incline to think the present federations too large.
SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION.
Let us finally summarise the whole case. Tech-
nical education is required for trade, higher general
education for life. Elementary education has made
higher general education possible : it has also made
it necessary. It is necessary both for the avoiding
of dangers and for the securing of benefits. The
dangers are chiefly two. The power of reading
gives new opportunities for indulging directly in
evil ; it presents also a new temptation to dissipate
mental energy. These are the special dangers of a
little education. Higher education obviates them
by introducing new benefits. It gives intellectual
interest to life ; it conduces to sobriety of political
judgment; the study of national literature and
national history inspires patriotism. In short, by
giving contact with the greatest thoughts of the
world, such training imparts higher ideals of life,
of citizenship, and of religion.
Libraries alone will not do. In themselves
they afford no living guide ; alone they present no
standard of attainments. Personal teaching must
be added. Living mind must touch living mind.
And we need for such a work the most highly
trained teachers.
126 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
The teacher may be stationary or itinerant. The
leisured . can come to the teacher, but the teacher
must go to the busy. The latter are the vast
majority. The Universities can afford great staffs ;
a few local colleges can afford adequate equipment,
but the great majority of towns must depend on
the itinerant teacher. And among such places must
be included the outlying or neglected districts even
of the large towns which have local colleges.
This body of itinerant teachers already consti-
tutes a university by co-operation of towns. Rail-
ways and the modern massing of populations make
such a system possible.
Such a body of teachers is best selected, trained,
and supervised by the Universities. They alone
have the endowments necessary to draw to them
from all the country the young minds of great
ability. They alone have the traditions which
inspire to the attainment of the highest culture.
They have the historic prestige which marks them
out to lead.
This is the system of University Extension. It
is a system which already exists. It is a system
not of yesterday. Our historical inquiry has shown
how natural has been its development, and that it
has been tested and improved at every stage by
experience. But it is a system which lacks com-
pleteness. Its teaching is too intermittent, and is
wanting in sequence. It has hitherto failed to
retain the permanent services of experienced men.
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 127
It has not reached the villages, the smallest towns,
or, in adequate numbers, the poorer classes.
Its difficulty is want of money. If the question
be asked, ' Why is it not self-supporting?' the reply
is that the poor can nowhere support it wholly.
In small towns the students of all classes are too
few for the purpose. Further, the public impres-
sion of the cost of maintaining higher teachers has
been largely vitiated by the fact, that most persons
engaged in higher teaching are partly paid by en-
dowments.
What are the possible sources whence money may
be drawn? They are three — private munificence,
the Universities, the State. It would be best to
draw on all three. We hope for munificence, but
as yet it has not been forthcoming on an adequate
scale. The public need is urgent and we cannot wait
for it. The Universities do something already, but
there are heavy and established claims on their re-
sources. They may do more, but can never bear the
whole expense. We turn, therefore, to the State.
We claim that it is expedient for the whole com-
munity that the State should give the aid asked for.
It is to the ultimate interest of every member of
the community that all the citizens should be intel-
ligent. In the competition of nations, England can-
not afford to waste talent. Most civilised countries,
France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States,
largely assist higher education out of govern-
ment funds. Moreover, even England is no excep-
128 HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ?
tion to this rule. Our Government already helps
higher education. Why should University Exten-
sion be left out ?
There are obvious dangers in State-aid. There
is the danger of losing elasticity in organization, of
stereotyping the methods of teaching, of the in-
action which frequently follows on officialism, of
pauperisation. A scheme must be devised which
avoids these dangers.
There are two ways in which State-aid can be
given. It can be given centrally and it can be given
locally. If given centrally, University Extension
would be placed on the same footing as the local
colleges which receive Parliamentary grants. It is
entitled to the same treatment as those colleges ;
it has the same origin ; it is worked by the same
kind of men, and often by the same men ; to a great
extent the work of the local college is Extension
work ; above all, every taxpayer contributes to the
Parliamentary grant, but only the few who live
near to the college participate in it.
But State aid can also be given locally. It
might be given by the County Councils out of the
new funds which it is proposed to hand over to
them. On the precedent of the Public Libraries'
Act, recognition of University Extension might be
left to the discretion of the Councils.
We prefer the second plan. It obviates the
worst dangers of centralisation and officialism. It
surmounts the practical difficulties of distribution
HAS EXTENSION A FUTURE ? 129
and inspection. It has, moreover, several distinct
advantages of its own. The administrators of the
fund would have personal knowledge of the centres.
The local leaders of University Extension, them-
selves often county councillors, would be able in
person to urge its claims. But, since the Act would
only be permissive, they would have to bestir them-
selves to get it adopted. Extension centres would
be put on their mettle. Their energy would arouse
local interest, and the flow of private munificence
might be increased. The scheme, moreover, would
leave the Universities free to initiate and to experi-
ment, while the local bodies would be as free to adopt
whatever plan commended itself to them as the best.
Our proposal seems practicable. The elements
of the new machinery already exist. The centres
exist ; the Universities have organized the system ;
the County Councils are formed; the necessary
funds are already forthcoming from the new Spirit
Duty ; these funds it is already proposed to assign
to the County Councils ; they have even been desig-
nated for educational purposes. Nothing is wanting
but a clause in an Act of Parliament permitting their
partial application to University Extension work.
We ask that, when the educational institutions,
to which the County Councils may vote grants in
aid, come to be enumerated in an Act of Parlia-
ment, a prominent place may be given to University
Extension.
APPENDIX.
I. — THE APPLICATION OF THE EXTRA SPIRIT DUTY.
Statement ~by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of
Commons, July 21, 1890.
Mr. VINCENT asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if
Her Majesty's Government had yet determined upon their
recommendation as to the application of the extra taxation
upon spirits approved by the House in the belief that it
would be utilised for the benefit of the contributors.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: With regard to
the question of my hon. and gallant friend, some misappre-
hension might be conveyed by the wording of the question.
The word * contributor ' itself is one that might be open to
controversy, because it is uncertain whether the contributor
would be held to be the distiller, the brewer, the retailer, or
the consumer. But, passing that point, the extra taxation
on spirits and beer was not approved by the House of Com-
mons in the belief that the whole of the amount would be
utilised for the benefit of the contributors. The proposal
before it is that one-third should be so used, namely £440,000
out of £1,304,000. If my hon. and gallant friend's question
is intended to suggest that that purpose has failed and that
the tax should be repealed, the suggestion would only take
us to a repeal of one-third of the tax, namely 2d. on spirits
and id. on beer. Such a fractional repeal would, I am given
to understand, be unpalatable even to those interested in the
tax. It would disturb arrangements, contracts, price lists,
&c., without affording any appreciable relief. We therefore
discard that solution of the question. Further, we shall
abide by the principle of this extra tax, that it shall be
devoted to local purposes spread over the whole country.
This precludes the adoption of such a suggestion as that
contained in the question of the hon. member for Camborne
(Mr. Conybeare) to the First Lord of the Treasury, namely
that a large portion of the money should be devoted to pur-
chasing the Crystal Palace for the people.
APPENDIX. 131
I will now state what we propose as regards England,
Scotland, and Ireland respectively. When I speak of Ire-
land I am dealing with the first £40,000, and not with the
second £40,000 set free by the Exchequer contribution. As
regards England, we propose to add the amount set free by
the abandonment of the licensing clauses to the residue
which, under the bill as it stands, goes to the County Coun-
cils, accompanying this inclusion by an intimation that
possibly new charges may by-and-by be put upon them in
reference to intermediate, technical, and agricultural edu-
cation. It seems to be desirable, if more is to be done in
this respect, that the localities, especially County Councils,
should be interested in the work. In England at the pre-
sent moment there is little machinery suitable for carrying
on such an object, and it would be impossible to create such
a machinery at this period of the session. But in Wales
and Monmouthshire the machinery does exist. The County
Councils there may supply funds under the Intermediate
Education Act of last year out of the county rate, but to the
extent of one halfpenny of such rate only. We shall pro-
pose that County Councils in Wales should have authority
to increase that sum out of the additional funds placed at
their disposal. As regards the £50,000 which falls to the
share of Scotland, we propose that the amount set fre<e
should go to the County Councils. The House will bear in
mind that while in England and Ireland much has been
done for the ratepayers, so far as Scotland is concerned the
ratepayers have scarcely had any advantage whatever out of
the revision of local taxation, and it seems but just that their
case should also receive some consideration. As regards Ire-
land— I am speaking now of this particular £40,000 — we shall
propose that the £40,000 which falls to her share shall be
utilised for the further promotion of intermediate educa-
tion, and for this purpose shall be placed at the disposal of
the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland, a body which,
I believe, commands the confidence of the Irish public gene-
rally, irrespective of political or religious feelings.
Mr. VINCENT asked whether the right hon. gentleman
would consider the remission of this extra taxation in his
next year's Budget
Mr. BUCHANAN asked whether the same reservation ap-
plied to Scotland as to England.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER : No, sir, there is
no such reservation.
132 APPENDIX.
Mr. BUCHANAN : Will it simply become a part of the
residue under the bill ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER : Yes.
Mr. SEXTON asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to what
purposes the Government proposed to appropriate the sum
of £40,000 allotted to Ireland as the Exchequer contribution
in respect of local taxation licences, and the sum of £40,000,
the unallotted portion of the Irish share of the new beer and
spirits duties.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said : The £40,000
allotted to Ireland is a set-off against the gain derived by
England and Scotland from the excess of the sums received for
licences over the grant contributed. We propose a grant to
assist the Irish local authorities who have taken or may take
action under the Irish Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1882 and
1885.
Mr. A. ACLAND asked whether the English County Councils
were to be allowed to use the money for intermediate and
technical education, or whether the Government only ex-
pressed a pious opinion that some day they might have to do
so, and whether, with reference to Wales, the County Coun-
cils there were to be directed to help the intermediate
education now in existence, or whether they were only to do
so if they chose to pass a vote to that effect.
Mr. W. P. SINCLAIR asked, with reference to the Scottish
£50,000, would it be competent for County Councils to devote
that sum or any part of it for the purpose of education.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER : No, sir, I presume
it would not be possible for them to devote any portion of the
sum to purposes to which at present by law they could not
apply it. I am aware of the desire of a good many Scottish
members that this money should be devoted to setting
education entirely free. That would have to be done by
legislation, and we do not propose to legislate on that
matter. With regard to the question of the hon. member
for Rotherham (Mr. A. Acland), I have explained that we
have no machinery and that it would be impossible at this
period of the session to set up machinery for the purpose.
The money will be placed at the disposal of the English
County Councils, but intimation will be given to them which
might guide them so as not to spend it in a manner which
would seem to stereotype in any way that payment to them,
and it will also be pointed out to them that possibly charges
might bo put upon them in the future in regard to inter-
APPENDIX. 133
mediate education. It will be rather a warning to them not
to employ the money in a manner which would imply the
permanency of the payment.
Mr. A. ACLAND : About Wales ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: They would not
be directed ; they would have authority to do so. I would
ask hon. members not to ask further questions until they
see our proposals embodied in clauses, as in answering in
this way across the table I might be guilty of some slip
which might lead to future complications.
Mr. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN intimated that at the proper
time he should move that the £50,000 appropriated to Scot-
land out of the new customs tax be devoted not to relieving
local taxation but to the direct freeing of primary education
in Scotland.
II. — TEEMS or TREASURY GRANT TO LOCAL COLLEGES.
Treasury Minute, 1889, staling conditions on which the sum
of £15,000 would be distributed among the University
Colleges of Great Britain.
My Lords have had under their consideration the report
of the Committee appointed to advise the Government with
reference to the distribution of the sum of £15,000 which
Parliament is to be asked to grant for ' University Colleges
in Great Britain/
The Committee state in their report that the sum
assigned by them to each college is made up of two
items— (a) a fixed sum to each college, together with a
grant to the college for each professor or head of a depart-
ment, and (6) a percentage on the total amount of local
subscriptions and students' fees.
My Lords believe that this system of distribution takes
just account of the main factors which should, under
existing circumstances, determine the share to be received
by each University College out of any sum granted by Par-
liament, and is a reasonable application of the general
principles laid down in the memorandum of the Lord
President and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. They
134 APPENDIX.
accordingly accept the allocation of the grant of £15,000
for the present year as proposed by the Committee, viz. : —
£
Owens College, Manchester 1,800
University College, London ij?oo
King's College, London 1,700
Liverpool University College ,500
Mason College, Birmingham ,400
Yorkshire College, Leeds ,400
Nottingham University College ,400
Bristol University College ,200
Durham College of Science (Newcastle-on-Tyne) . ,200
Firth College, Sheffield ,200
Dundee University College ........ 500
My Lords recognise that the present allocation of the
money is more or less experimental, and that experience
may show that greater or less weight ought to be attached
to one or other of the various items, such as extent of
endowment, amount of fees, amount of local" subscriptions,
&c., upon a comparison of which in the different colleges
the Committee have based their recommendations. In any
case the relative claims of the several colleges upon the
total grant will vary from time to time, and the allocation
of that grant ought therefore to be subject to periodical
revision. My Lords1 indeed feel that it would not be de-
sirable to alter the amount of the subsidies received by the
different colleges with such frequency as to produce con-
stant uncertainty in their financial outlook. But neither
would it seem wise so to stereotype those subsidies as to
remove the incentive which they ought to afford to the
spirit of self-help on the part of the colleges and their sup-
porters. My Lords are of opinion that adequate regard
would be had to both these considerations if the distribution
of the grant of £15,000, should Parliament see fit to con-
tinue it, were liable to be reviewed every five years.
The above remarks as to periodical revision do not, of
course, apply to the University College of Dundee, inas-
much as, in accordance with the recommendations of the
Committee, my Lords regard the grant to that institution
as confined, in any case, to the present year.
My Lords approve of the suggestion of the Committee
that 'a person representing the Government should visit
each college from time to time, not with a view of examin-
APPENDIX. 135
ing the students, but to inspect the buildings and laboratories
and to become personally acquainted with the extent of the
different courses of study.' The exact method of carrying out
this recommendation is, however, a matter for future discus-
sion between the Education Department and the Treasury.
In addition to such periodical inspection, which my Lords
believe will be welcomed by the colleges, it would seem
reasonable to require that each college, so long as it con-
tinues to receive State assistance, should furnish annually
to the Education Department a statement showing the result
of the last academic year's work, and that such statement
should contain, in particular, the number of professors and
students and the average number of lectures attended by
each student, the state of the college finances, distinguishing
under the head of receipts between subscriptions, interest on
endowments, fees, and other sources of revenue, together with
such other information as might supply a general view of the
academic achievements and financial position of the college.
The continued participation of any particular institution
in the grant for ' University Colleges in Great Britain,' must,
of course, depend upon the evidence forthcoming, in either
of the above ways, or otherwise, of its continuing adequately
to discharge the duties which the title ' University College '
implies. While my Lords are of opinion that a general
review, and, if need be, redistribution of the grant should
not be undertaken oftener than once in five years, they are
anxious clearly to establish the principle that no college is
to be regarded as having a vested right to share, even for a
limited number of years, in the sums voted by Parliament.
On the contrary, each college should be considered as liable
to be excluded at any time from further participation in the
grant if it should appear to the Treasury and the Education
Department that, owing to inadequacy of educational equip-
ment, to a great falling off in the number of its students, or
to any other cause, it had ceased to be deserving of support
from the National Exchequer. But, of course, any proposed
change in the distribution of the grant will not take effect
until it has been brought to the notice of Parliament in
connection with the estimate.
In conclusion, my Lords desire to express their sense of
the services rendered by the Committee, to whom the thanks
of Her Majesty's Government are due for their careful in-
vestigation of the claims of the several colleges, and for the
valuable suggestions contained in their report.
136 ^APPENDIX
III. — ADDKESSES OF T^E CENTRAL AUTHORITIES FOE
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION IN ENGLAND.
OXFORD. — The Delegates for Lectures in large towns, Uni-
versity Extension Office, Examination Schools, Oxford.
CAMBRIDGE. — The Syndicate for Local Lectures, Syndicate
Buildings, Cambridge.
LONDON.— The London Society for the Extension of University
Teaching, Charterhouse, London, E.G.
VICTORIA. — The Committee for Local Lectures, Owens College,
Manchester.
IV. — THE FEDERATIONS OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
CENTRES IN ENGLAND.
(a) The South-Eastern Counties Association for the Ex-
tension of University Teaching.
Hon. Secretary. — The Rev. H. E. B. ARNOLD, St. Matthew's
Vicarage, Oakley Square, London, N.W.
Hon. Assistant Secretary. — A. RAWLINGS, Esq., High
Street, Guildford.
(&) The South-Western Counties Association for the Ex-
tension of University Teaching.
Hon. Secretaries. —
H. MAC AN, Esq., 29 St. Leonard Road, Exeter.
Miss B. VIVIAN, Reskadinnick, Camborne.
(c) The Yorkshire Association for the Extension of Uni-
versity Teaching.
General Hon. Secretary. — EDWARD J. WILSON, Esq.,
6 Whitefriar Gate, Hull.
Hon. Secretary for Oxford Centres. — Miss SNOW DON,
Riddings Road, Ilkley.
(d) The Northern Association for the Extension of Uni-
versity Teaching.
Hon. Secretary. — A, HOWSON, Esq., College of Science, New-
castle-on- Tyne.
A Federation of Centres in the Potteries is now in process
of formation.
SKETCH-MAPS
SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF UNIVERSITY
EXTENSION TEACHING IN ENGLAND AND WALES
IN THE SESSIONS 1885-86 AND 1889-90. EACH
OF THE TOWNS NAMED CONTAINS ONE OR MOEE
EXTENSION CENTRES.
1. OXFOKD CENTRES, SESSION 1889-90.
2. CAMBRIDGE CENTRES, SESSION 1889-90.
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