A plea for an extension and alteration of the curriculum of arts in the University of Glasgow : with a view to meet more perfectly the wants of the general community : submitted to the University Council on Wednesday, November 1, 1865 / by W.T. Gairdner.

  • Gairdner, Sir William Tennant, (1824-1907)
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plea for an extension and alteration of the curriculum of arts in the University of Glasgow : with a view to meet more perfectly the wants of the general community : submitted to the University Council on Wednesday, November 1, 1865 / by W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    meeting on the proposal for Summer Sessions. The Council seemed to feel that my remarks opened up important questions which could not be discussed in connection with that proposal, and therefore I was called upon, almost on the spur of the moment, to give an opportunity for raising these questions by a new motion; and hence the one now before us. Having thus been committed to a motion by the will of the Council itself, I have endeavoured, during the last six months especially, to do as much justice to the consideration of the matter as I could, and yet I feel most anxious that what I have now to say should be regarded, not as a finished plan, but rather as a suggestion arising in the mind of a person who happens to be a good deal in contact with the University on the one hand, and with the general community on the other hand, and is anxious impartially to represent, if it may be, the mind of both. Let us see what is the state of matters in the University and in the community, with which we have to deal. We have an Arts’ curriculum culminating in the degree of M.A., which implies a course of study for four years. But there has been a great deal of discussion as to whether Summer Sessions might not take the place of one of these four years, and thereby bring the degree of M.A. within the reach of a larger body of the public. That it would be a desirable thing to increase the popularity of the degree of M.A., I think nobody will deny. But this particular mode of accomplishing a desirable object may be considered in the meantime, I suppose, at an end, if we are to accept as final the opinion of the University Court, just read to us, on the subject of Summer Sessions. The degree of M.A., it appears, cannot be compressed into the limits of time, nor made subservient to the purpose of widening the basis of the studies proper to the Faculty of Arts. But this brings us again directly to the question—what do we wish to do ? The statistics of the composition of the University Council,* which I “ The following details, illustrative of the composition of the Glas- gow University Council at three different dates, have been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Moir, the Eegistrar of the University :—