Notes by the Glasgow University Court, on memorials of the Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, and of merchants, &c., of the city of Glasgow, 20th October, 1863.

Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes by the Glasgow University Court, on memorials of the Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, and of merchants, &c., of the city of Glasgow, 20th October, 1863. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    one of the distinguishing, and most valuable features of our Scot- tish University system. The Court incline to think, that the additional time proposed to he provided, might, in many cases, be advantageously devoted to an extension of this practice, and to its application, not to the bare subject of the Professors’ Lectures, but to the contents of the standard works referred to in the course of these lectures. By such means, or by others which would suggest themselves to the Professors, the monotony of a long session might he relieved, and the languor, which, often prevails towards the end of it, be prevented. Encouragement should also he given to the Student, not to confine his attention to the Lectures of his Professor, which, however valuable, can convey only a general view of the subject, hut to search for himself those rich mines of information and thought, which are contained in the standard literature of our own, and of other countries and times. Such an addition to our present means of tuition, it appears to the Court, would harmonise with, and he likely to promote the efficiency of our existing Scottish University system. The Court have thus endeavoured to point out the advantages of extending the length of the Winter Session, and to lay down the conditions, without which, it appears to them, it would not he prac- ticable or advisable to do so. But they have now to call the attention of the Senatus, and the Council, to another mode of meeting the wishes of the present Memorialists, which not only possesses the recommendation of being more easily attainable, hut aims at working out, for the benefit of those who may be able to avail themselves of it, a more varied system of University tuition. II. Tutorial Classes. The Court are desirous, at the outset, to guard against its being supposed, that they mean to recommend the adoption of the tutorial system, as it now exists in the English Universities. Without saying a word either as to the merits, or the abuses of that system, as practised in the Sister Kingdom, the Court will shortly explain what they contemplate, as not uusuited to advance the knowledge, and improve the mental training of the Scottish Student. In the first place, it is not proposed to interfere with the benefits conferred by the present system of lecturing to large classes, or with the frequent oral examinations of the Students, during the