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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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privileged Universities? There are nine Universities in this list before us, and they sent up only five students every year, an average of five, nearly every one of whom is a graduate. While not necessarily accepting their attendance at the Colonial University prior to entering Oxford University, as in all respects equivalent, some change in the In particular, existing statute may be expedient if better results are looked for.
as regards Clause D-I think the Vice-Chancellor would do well to enlarge the scope of the reference to the Rhodes trustees, because the Rhodes trustees
persons
who are to be urged to assign their scholarships not only to
after school age, and wish to go through the ordinary course, coming up not only to graduates, but to those also who have passed the half-way house at the Colonial Universities. I am strongly of opinion that that would be a solution, that is, if you were to admit on even more liberal terms to the University of Oxford-even though it might lead to a modification of the existing Statute those who have attended for two years out of a four years' course at a Colonial University, and who have passed satisfactorily the intermediate examination or the final examination at the end of those two years. That is not included in this scheme.
Mr. GERRANS: I am not quite sure whether this is not too much of a detail, but I am not quite certain that I understand Professor Peterson's difficulty, because, as far as I understand him, he asks the University to do what is already done by the existing Statute.
Mr. PETERSON: I only pointed to the fact that, whatever the terms are, they are not working satisfactorily, because you have only five students a year from nine exist- ing Universities.
Mr. MATHESON: The terms under which that has been done have been revised in a more favourable sense. Is that not so?
Mr. GERRANS: Yes.
Mr. PETERSON: I am quite sure it will have the attention of the authorities. I only call attention to the fact that the number at present is exceedingly small.
Mr. WARREN: Might I ask what is the average age?
Mr. PETERSON: They begin at 18; they come to us at 17 or 18.
Mr. WARREN: And they come up to us at 19 or 20.
Mr. PETERSON: That is the age at which they would take advantage of this Oxford training.
Mr. WARREN: How long do you contemplate they would remain there?
Mr. PETERSON: They take the two years with us. They would complete their course-two years—with you.
Mr. WARREN: Two years!
Mr. PETERSON: Yes.
Mr. WARREN: And then go back?
Mr. PETERSON: Yes; just as in the old days of "affiliated" colleges. They used to do that at Cambridge too. Instead of compelling them to take three years, they let them off with two, even for the ordinary degree, I think. Then, I think, you would be pretty sure to have a large accession in numbers.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR: I think the class of students Mr. Peterson speaks of was intended to be included in clause one.
Mr. PETERSON: That clause seems to refer to the full course, Mr. Vice-Chancellor. These are those who are to spend three years at Oxford.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR; Some spend three years at Oxford, and others come to Oxford after they have spent two years at their own Colonial University, and then spend, perhaps, two years there.
Mr. PETERSON: If you interpret it in that way, it would be satiafactory, but it says here," taking the full course.”
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Mr. PEMBER REEVES: In supporting what Mr. Peterson has said, I should suggest that it ought to be altered in Division Ď, where it says, "Colonial students intending to take the regular B.A. course in Oxford," I mean the word "regular" at any rate should come out, in order to define the class of pupils that we refer to.
Mr. PETERSON: And on a shortened period of residence?
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: Yes.
Mr. PELHAM: That would be Colonial students intending to take advantage of the existing Statute.
Mr. PETERSON: Or some modification of it. What I would suggest would be this: "Colonial students from privileged Universities."
Mr. MATHESON: I would suggest that we deal with that when we come to Clause D.
The EARL OF ONSLOW; Yes, when we come to Clause D. I appreciate the difficulty of discussing one of these when we are discussing one of the others.
I, for one,
Sir CECIL SMITH: It is a very extraordinary fact, as far as the students from the Eastern Colonies are concerned, they hardly ever go to Oxford at all. have been connected with education in the Straits Settlements for some years past, and had something to do with the establishment of scholarships under which youths in that Colony and those Dependencies come to this country for their education, and in no single instance has a student selected Oxford as the University at which he would carry on his career. I am wholly ignorant of why that is so, unless it has been found that life at Oxford is more expensive than life at Cambridge or Edinburgh, that being the University to which many of the students go for the purpose of studying medicine. But here we are to-day, solely connected, as far as can gather, at the Conference, as to arrangements between the Colonies and Oxford. No mention has been yet made with reference to Cambridge. I happen to be a Cambridge man myself. I do not speak simply from the standpoint of being a Cambridge man myself, but I think the Conference should understand, as far as the Crown Colonies in the East are concerned, they have no connection at the present time with the University of Oxford. Whether it is wise or prudent, whether Oxford does not show the same advantage to students which Cambridge and Edinburgh does, it is for the authorities to say. I think that it is an important point.
Sir WALTER SENDALL: I might say that my experience coincides with that of Sir Cecil Smith with regard to the University which is generally chosen by students who come from the Crown Colonies. I have a letter here in my hand, which I have It is not received this morning from the master of my old college at Cambridge.
a large college; one of the small colleges, Christ's, and he says:-"I think that in the year just finished we had three at Christ's from Australia, all reading for their B.A. degree, and with honours, and all sufficiently provided with instruction. We have had within the last three years about three advanced students a year on the average. think two of these would be Australian graduates. The assistance provided for them by the University, or by the inter-collegiate system was, so far as I know, quite sufficient." Dr. Peele speaks here of students whom he mentions here as students from Australia, but I know that Christ's has hardly ever been without a student from the East, chiefly from Ceylon, and in the Colony in which I was recently, there is a college sufficiently advanced to educate boys up to the point of being ready to go to the University, and the Government gives an annual scholarship. I do think, myself, that from Demerara or British Guiana students have gone to Oxford. I think they nearly always go to Cambridge. On the other hand, when I was residing in Oxford about twenty years ago, I knew personally three students who were natives of Ceylon, and who returned to Ceylon with B.A. degrees and local qualifications. So that they do occasionally find their way to Oxford, but I believe Sir Cecil Smith is perfectly correct in saying that, as a rule, they go to Cambridge.
Mr. PELHAM: I think that is so. I think we get rather more than Cambridge
-do from the self-governing Colonies, but we do not get so many from the Crown Colonies. The courses of study in the Universities are much the same.