The universities are beginning a new academic year a little
less abnormally than in the past six, but with small hope of getting back to the normal for some time yet. Contrary to some expectations numbers are still down ; the two largest colleges at Cambridge have about two-thirds of their peace-time complement, but it is all they are anxious for in view of the shortage of college servants. Even to get the food cooked for Hall is no easy matter, and some freshmen have been told they can only come up if they are prepared to do a good deal of the work that bed-makers usually do for them. But the menace of overcrowding in the near future is causing very serious anxiety. As men with unfinished courses come back from the Forces, from the beginning of next term onwards, the space-problem will become acute, for though rooms in college have for the most part been evacuated by the various Government departments that have been making inroads on them, the pressure on lodgings in the town is immensely heavy and there is real danger that many men may be unable to come up for the simple reason that there is nowhere for them to live. One imaginative proposal is that an aerodrome near Cambridge should be acquired and turned into a large temporary hostel for the limited period in which returns from the Army will be creating the congestion. And over and above all this, of course, is the uncertainty which overhangs all the universities till it is decided whether conscript service is to be done between school and university or after taking a degree. On that opinions differ widely.
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