the Board of Studies and Research to transfer some of its business and powers to the several Faculties or Boards of Faculties, subject to its continuing to exercise a general supervision over them. 73. In order to secure on the one hand the position of the Council in relation to the two Boards, and on the other hand the right of the Boards to insist in the last resort upon having their views laid fully before the University, we propose that the following procedure should be adopted : (i) The Boards shall always report to the Council on matters which they are not empowered to settle for themselves. (ii) The Council will, we contemplate, in most instances be able to accept the reports of the two Boards, on each of which it will be represented by members of its own body. But it should have power, when it disagrees with a report, to send it back, with its own observations, to the Board for reconsideration. (iii) In the event of ultimate disagreement between either of the two Boards and the Council, or in the event of the Council's holding up a report beyond the end of the term following that in which it was presented, the Board should be empowered to request the Council formally to publish its report, and the Council should then be bound to comply with the request. (7) AGE LIMIT FOR APPOINTMENT TO BOARDS, SYNDICATES, ETC. 74. We recommend that no one over the age of 70 be appointed or re-appointed a member of a University Board or Syndicateincluding Boards of Electors to Professorships-except by a special vote carried by a two-thirds majority. It is specially important that electors to Professorships should be in touch with the rising generation. Our proposals for a maximum retiring age (absolute) of 65 for Professors, Readers and Lecturers, and 70 for Heads of Houses will be found in paragraph 223 below. II.-ORGANISATION OF TEACHING, RESEARCH WORK, etc. (1) CO-ORDINATION OF TEACHING. 75. Of all the problems which have engaged our attention, none has given rise to more discussion, because none has been of more fundamental importance, than that of the proper relation between the Universities and the Colleges in regard to teaching. In any institution, and above all in Universities presenting the complexity of Oxford and Cambridge, efficiency and economy can only be secured by co-ordinating carefully the activities of the individuals and Bodies concerned, and this can only be effected by some unifying and controlling power. At the same time, we realise that we are here dealing not with mechanical but with human organisations, and that no scheme, however perfect ideally, can in practice produce satisfactory results unless it secures the hearty and harmonious co-operation of those who are to work it. The evidence submitted to us is set out briefly in the Summary of Memoranda," section I. 23, in Appendix 2. 66 76. In view of the differences of tradition and practice marking the two Universities, it has seemed to us essential to avoid the imposition upon both of any rigidly uniform organisation, and, while safeguarding in the interests both of learning and of teaching certain fundamental principles, to secure for each a full measure of liberty in following out its own development. While, therefore, certain of our recommendations relate to the two Universities in common, we make other recommendations for each University separately. In the interests of clearness, we state first the existing systems at Oxford and at Cambridge. The existing system at Oxford. 77. By a Statute (Tit. V) made by the University in 1912, and approved by the King in Council in the following year, Oxford created for itself its existing system of Faculties. These are at present eight in number, viz.: Theology, Law, Medicine, Literae Humaniores, Modern History, Mediæval and Modern Languages and Literature (including English), Oriental Languages and Literature, and Natural Science (including Mathematics); but the University may at any time institute new Faculties or divide. any existing Faculty into two or more Faculties. Each Faculty* is composed of the Teachers in the subjects of that Faculty who are recognised by the University, and the Faculties of Literae Humaniores and of Natural Science are divided into Sub-Faculties, corresponding to the main branches, or aggregates of branches, of study with which these Faculties are concerned. Each Faculty or Sub-Faculty has the power to elect a Chairman and to draw to draw up by-laws regulating "its convenings and proceedings" and must statutorily hold a meeting once in every term. At the head of each Faculty stands a Board consisting of a number of ex-officio members (Professors and Readers) and an equal number of elected members it may also include a small number of members co-opted by the Board. The principal functions of the Board of each Faculty are the following: (a) To exercise general supervision over examinations and *The Faculty of Medicine and its Board present certain peculiarities of their These, however, call for no detailed notice here. own. other lectures to be given within the University in the subjects of the Faculty as it shall think fit." A Board has powers of revision and recommendation, and if its recommendation is not acceded to, it may (subject to appeal to the General Board of the Faculties) exclude from the list the lectures affected. (c) To appoint University Lecturers and University Demonstrators, subject to the approval of the General Board of the Faculties and of Convocation, the stipend of each being determined by the General Board of the Faculties and paid from the moneys under its control. 78. This Faculty organisation, introduced into Oxford as a measure of self-reform, represents a serious and well-considered attempt to deal with the problem involved, and has proved a potent factor not only in the machinery but also in the thought of the University. We desire to see it still further strengthened for the purpose of advancing knowledge in the subjects of the Faculties, of co-ordinating effort in instruction and research, of fostering and utilising the enthusiasm of teachers and students, and of representing the subjects to the world outside. But side by side with it there exists in some Schools the system of interCollegiate lectures, under which each College, by agreement, renders the Honours lectures in those subjects delivered by the members of its staff accessible, without payment of a fee, to members of all other Colleges, in return for a like concession. Thus in effect the resources of all the Colleges in the matter of formal instruction are pooled and made available for all members of the University. The inter-Collegiate system, which gains in simplicity what it lacks in precision and in the exact balancing of services rendered with financial returns, has become deeprooted, and is generally regarded in Oxford as valuable and effective, and as facilitating the development of "border-line" subjects and furthering the interests of those students (e.g., in the new School of Philosophy, Politics and Economics) whose work lies within the spheres of two or more Faculties. 79. But marked distinctions exist between the various studies at the University, whether due to inherent and permanent differences in their nature or to the accidental circumstances of their adoption and development. The conditions of research and of teaching in Natural Science must necessarily differ in certain important respects from those in other subjects, while even in the Humanities there are differences between the old-established subjects and those which have more recently claimed and won recognition. These distinctions have given rise to a diversity of administration. The English and Modern Languages Schools, for example, are not organised on exactly the same lines as those to which the natural development of the " Literae Humaniores " and Modern History Schools has led. Thus lecture fees are paid to the English Fund, or to the Taylorian Fund, by or on behalf of students in the former Schools, and in the Natural Science School payments are made to the Funds of the Scientific departments both for lectures and for practical instruction The existing system at Cambridge. 80. As directed by Statute B, Chap. V., twelve Special Boards of Studies were appointed in 1882, viz. : for Divinity, Law, Medicine, Classics, Oriental Studies, Medieval and Modern Languages, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Biology and Geology, History and Archæology, Moral Sciences, Music; and under other provisions of the same Statute a Special Board was appointed for Indian Civil Studies in 1897 and for Economics and Politics in 1903. Each Special Board is by Statute to consist of the Professors assigned to it" together with such Readers, University Lecturers, Examiners, and other persons as may be appointed from time to time by or under the authority of a Grace of the Senate," and to have the right of electing a representative to serve on the General Board of Studies. It is the duty of every Special Board "to consult together from time to time on all matters relating to the studies and examinations in its department, and to prepare, whenever it appears to them desirable, and present to the Vice-Chancellor a report to be published by him to the Senate." Statute B. also provides that the Board" shall after consultation with the Professors, Readers and University Lecturers connected with its department, frame a scheme of lectures in every year: taking care to provide that the subjects of the said lectures be determined with regard to the general objects of every particular Professorship, and so as to distribute the several branches of learning in the department among the said Professors, Readers, and University Lecturers, having regard to the regulations and instructions which the General Board of Studies may have issued." The Statute further directs that the General Board of Studies shall consider the schemes for lectures in every year submitted. to it by the several Special Boards, and shall approve the said schemes or remit them for further consideration with alterations and amendments, or, if necessary, frame schemes: provided that, in case the General Board of Studies and any of the Special Boards shall be unable to agree as to any scheme, the question shall be referred to a meeting of the General Board and of the Special Board deliberating together, whose decision shall be final." 81. Boards of Studies, as distinguished from Special Boards, have also been appointed for Agricultural, Archæological and Anthropological, Architectural, Engineering, Geographical, Military and Psychological Studies. These Boards have no right to representation on the General Board of Studies but otherwise differ but little from the Special Boards either in their own constitution or their powers. Indeed, the institution of these Boards has been chiefly due to the reluctance shown by the University to adding by the establishment of new Special Boards to the already unwieldy number of the members of the General Board of Studies. Readers and Lecturers are, by Statute, to be appointed by the General Board of Studies subject to the confirmation of the appointments by the respective Special Boards to which each Reader or Lecturer may be assigned, but University Demonstrators are appointed by Professors with the consent of the ViceChancellor. 82. At Cambridge, as at Oxford, different organisations have been adopted by the several departments of study, and in Cambridge also there has been for many years a system of interCollegiate lecturing open to all members of the University and working in conjunction with the University teachers. But the practice of the Colleges in the two Universities with regard to charging for lectures has been different. At Cambridge interCollegiate lectures in Classics and in Theology have been for many years, and still are, free to members of the Colleges in each group, fees being charged only to students not belonging to Colleges in the group; and similar organisations of long standing in Mathematics were further united during the war into a single inter-Collegiate group with lectures free to members of all the Colleges. But the Colleges recently decided to abandon the system of free lectures in Mathematics and to charge fees to all students attending lectures given by their mathematical staff. In other subjects a charge for lectures is general, and in the Natural Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Agriculture and Forestry all fees are paid into a common Fund from which the lecturers receive payments. In the remaining subjects, the fees paid for lectures given by the College staff are distributed on various systems. Sometimes they are paid to the lecturer, sometimes to the College, sometimes partly to the College and partly to the lecturer. 83. The evidence at our disposal shows that at Oxford the Faculty organisation outlined above has worked well during the years which have elapsed since its introduction, and while, as will appear below, we think it desirable that the authority and influence of the Faculties should be increased in certain directions, this system as a whole does not seem to us to call for any radical reconstruction. The University possesses under the existing Statute, and should in our judgment retain, the power to institute new Faculties, to subdivide those which exist either into independent Faculties or into Sub-Faculties, or to unite two or more Faculties or Sub-Faculties. 84. At Cambridge a movement towards broader representation of the teachers has recently been made by including among the members of a Board a representative or representatives elected by all the teachers in the subjects under the charge of the Board appointed either by the University or by the Colleges. In 1920 proposals were brought before the Senate by the Board of Economics and Politics, in a report dated 6th February, 1920 (see Appendix 7), for an organisation of the teaching in their studies very similar in general to the organisation of a Faculty at Oxford. After the discussion by the Senate of the report of the Board for Economics and Politics, the General Board of Studies consulted the other Boards of Studies as to the possibility and advisability of applying a similar organisation to their departments. The memorandum of the General Board dated 9th March, 1921 (see |