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REPORT
ON THE FACULTY OF ARTS
FOR THE YEAR 1928.
The courses in the Faculty of Arts are divided into six Groups of Studies. The numbers of the undergraduates in the various Groups in the Second Term of 1928 were as follows:
(Letters and Philosophy)
External
Students
Group 1.
7+8
Group 2.
(Experimental Science)
7+3
Group 3.
(Social Science)
18
Group 4a.
Group 4b. Group 5.
(For Teachers of Science & Maths.) 19+1 (For Teachers of General Subjects) 16 (Commercial Training)
15+ I
Total...... 82+13=95
Of the ninety-five undergraduates, twenty-two were women. The work of the Faculty is divided among ten Departments, viz., English, Education, Social Science, Commerce, History, Chinese, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH.
Staff:-R. K. M. Simpson, M.C., M.A. (Professor of English).
B. G. Birch, B.A., (Lecturer and Tutor).
F. H. J. Trayes, B.A., (Lecturer and Tutor). A. C. Braine-Hartnell, B.A., (Lecturer and Tutor). The numbers of students taking English in the Faculty of Arts during 1928 were:
First Year
Second Year
Third Year
Fourth Year
36
16
18
13
In the middle of the Session we lost the services of Mr. A. L. B. Hay, B.A. (Cantab.), who, having completed the period of his appointment as a Tutor and Lecturer in English, left here to take up a post of greate; responsibility as an Educational Officer
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in Nigeria. His place has been filled by Mr. A. C. Braine- Hartnell, B.A. (Oxon), who, after taking the English Honours Schools at Oxford, had valuable experience as
a tutor before joining us.
During 1928 the instruction in English continued on the same lines as in the previous year; emphasizing the importance of the spoken language by the study of phonetics, by tutorial classes, and by the acting of plays; aiming at the active acquisition of the written language, not only by instruction in the principles of grammar and composition, but also by demanding from all students, in the Faculty of Arts, regular and frequent written exercises; finally, trying to ensure that appreciation and mastery of the English language grow equally with an extended under- standing of Western culture, linguistic literary and humanist, through the study of representative masterpieces of English Literature. This is a big but necessary programme of English studies. Universities at home are able to assume that the spoken language has been mastered and a great facility has been acquired in the written language before matriculation, while wide general knowledge and considerable humanist culture is absorbed apart from class instruction. We are not justified in building on such
assumptions here.
That the standard of attainment in our first year classes is very unequal, still constitutes our chief difficulty. This diffi- culty could be overcome by demanding a higher standard of English in our Matriculation Examination. And with a higher standard of English would come more extensive general know- ledge. But that would mean excluding from the University many Chinese of considerable mental calibre who, although backward in English at the beginning of the course, sometimes succeed in drawing level with the others, or even surpassing them, before the course is finished.
The French classes which are usually conducted by a member of the English department were taken over during the year by the Vice-Chancellor. This was done to relieve the department when one of the staff was in hospital. The Vice- Chancellor has kindly continued to conduct these classes.
ROBERT K. M. SIMPSON,
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Professor of English.
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