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Mr. WARREN: I suppose it is hardly necessary to call the attention of the Conference to the point, that the average of five students who come annually only represent the students who come in this particular way and that there is a large and rapidly increasing number of students who come quite in the ordinary way to the colleges. My college has never been without students from the Colonies, and I expect that every college of any size would say the same.
Mr. PETERSON: You have 25 to 30 annually under that head?
Mr. WARREN: I think that is rather understating it. And now they are so greatly mixed up that you can hardly say whether they are English students or Colonial students. Some of them are the sons of people who have gone out to the Colonies from England, and I think you must expect a considerable number to come in the ordinary way.
Of course, those who come from a distance are under considerable expense, and I imagine it is very largely the expense that prevents more from coming, and if they have an opportunity of assistance from the Rhodes bequest, I have no doubt a good many more would come.
I The EARL OF ONSLOW: Has anyone anything further to say on Clause A? think we may take it as being understood that the representatives of Oxford will draw up something in the nature of what has been suggested by Sir Edmund Barton, and if they will be good enough to forward them to this office we will take care to have them circulated to all the Colonies. I should like to say, of course, if the other Universities Cambridge or Edinburgh-will adopt the same course, we shall be only too willing to grant the same facilities, and it might be found possible to do something in the nature of a general University Gazette, which would cover not only the English Universities, but also the Universities in the several Colonies. (Hear, hear.) That then would be an easy compendium, which might be published at regular intervals several times a year, and which would contain all information which could be prepared, could be collected from all parts of the Empire, and could be circulated to all parts of the Empire. If that should be found possible, the Colonial Office would, I am sure, be very glad to give its assistance to the Universities in compiling and circulating such a publication.
Sir CECIL SMITH: May I mention to Your Lordship that there was a Committee of Inquiry here under Mr. Chamberlain's auspices with reference to the expense of the maintenance of students from the Crown Colonics while studying in this country at the different Universities, and I may mention that the sum of £250 a year was con- sidered about the least which would be sufficient to enable a student to go through his career and maintain himself from the time he entered until he finished his University
course.'
Sir WALTER SENDALL: That would include vacation?
Sir CECIL SMITH: That would include everything.
Sir WALTER SENDALL: Would Your Lordship think it advisable, or would you be disposed to communicate with Cambridge before anything was published as resulting from this Conference? Do you think that would be possible?
The EARL OF ONSLOW: Well, this Conference, you see, was initiated at the desire of the University of Oxford.
Sir Walter SENDALL: Quite so.
The EARL OF ONSLOW: And I think, as far as this particular Conference is con- cerned, we must confine it to Oxford, but if the outcome of it is something like that which has been suggested by Sir Edmund Barton, I do not see why other Universities should not produce similar information, so that it should be available in all parts of the Empire.
my
mind.
Sir WALTER SENDALL: That was what was in The EARL OF ONSLOW: Then, Mr. Pelham, I do not know whether you have said all that you wish to say as to the students from the Colonies.
Mr. PELHAM: I am afraid I have.
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The EARL OF ONSLOW: I do not know whether any other gentleman would like to make any further remarks on that particular branch of the subject under discus-
sion.
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: That is the branch which would interest us most, and that is the branch on which we want detailed information. I speak, of course, for a Colony which has a University of its own. There is, no doubt, a distinct difference in the Colonies which have their own Universities and the Colonies in which there are no Universities, and it has to be borne in mind that they have to be approached from different stand-points. I think it would not be, perhaps, quite easy to think out any line of policy which would apply equally to both, because, of course, the Colonies which have no University are quite willing to encourage a system under which the students from school could go through the ordinary B.A. course, but of the Colonies which have Universities of their own, it is necessary to say quite frankly that their public opinion is not favourable to having their lads drafted away straight from the schools, to come here to Oxford or to any other University and go through their course here. Our whole policy is to encourage them to begin their course in their own University.
Mr. PELHAM: And there they remain.
Mr. MATHESON: I think the representatives of Oxford would like to know whether it is possible for the Colonial representatives at all to tell them what, in their opinion, are the exact schools or the exact objects of study which Colonial students coming after two years spent in their University would be most likely to go in for?
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: In our case I should say history, physical science and economics.
Mr. MATHESON: Yes.
The EARL OF ONSLOW: And are there any of them which do not exist now which you would include in that category?
Mr. PETERSON: While I quite appreciate the advantages which Oxford has to offer in regard to the preliminary part of medical examination—
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: They would not come now. The average clinical medical student will not come to Oxford. They will go to one of the large cities.
Sir EDMUND BARTON: They go to London and Edinburgh.
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: Yes, London and Edinburgh.
Mr. PELHAM: They get their Degrees much easier there than at Oxford or Cambridge. Our Degrees are much harder.
Mr. PETERSON: They all need science, but there are many schools in which while studying anatomy you are walking the hospitals at the same time.
Mr. PELHAM: The practice in some London hospitals is to advise the men to stay at Oxford. The pressure of the work at the London hospitals is so very great that they advise them to stay at Oxford as long as they can usefully do so.
Mr. PETERSON: I agree that the schools at Oxford in economics and law in the wide sense of the word, are not only a fit preparation for professional work, but ought to appeal also to the general student.
Mr. WARREN: Of course, there are several of the ordinary and more important subjects which are not included in this list, and which are taken for granted: Classics, mathematics, and English, to which I wish to call the attention of the Conference. It seems to me that English would probably be studied with more advantage where you are surrounded with the whole history of the language.
Mr. PELHAM: May I ask one question as regards the likelihood of students from the Colonies contemplating taking up the teaching profession? Would they be likely to avail themselves of the Oxford diploma, which is, of course, recognised by the educational authorities? And the Cambridge diploma is on the same footing.
Mr. PEMBER REEVES: That would be, of course, a matter for discussion by the Education Departments in the Colonies, to what extent the Education Departments there would attach weight to it. I think they ought to.
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