I.U. DEGREES
Sm,—In view of your sustained and vigorous attack upon the Inter- collegiate University and the University of Sulgrave which has recently been inaugurated, I am wondering if you will permit a few comments from a graduate of the former institution, who has never attempted to conceal his light under a bushel.
I received my degree of "B.D., Hons." from the Intercollegiate University in 1937 for a published thesis entitled The Religious Ideas of the Psalms, published by the Epworth Press and described in the London Guardian as scholarly. I had already been awarded the London University Diploma in Theology, and it was on the strength of this, together with the Thesis, that I received the B.D. The granting source has always appeared in the Church Directory, and I should not wish it otherwise. May I add here that, in my humble opinion, my degree has rather more academic relevance than the Lambeth D.D.'s handed out to English Diocesan Bishops upon their episcopal appointment, if such clergy are not already possessors of a University doctorate.
Whatever may be the short-comings of the Intercollegiate University (and I am perfectly prepared to believe that some of their degrees have in time past been awarded too freely), at least this University has shown itself willing to recognise a very urgent need. Many men, who for one reason or another have not been fortunate enough to secure a degree during their college days, but whose professional standing is assured, have been enabled to graduate in the Intercollegiate University without the need of submitting to preliminary examinations, which for them would be not only excessively irksome, but in large measure a waste of time. Surely a man who has some years of professional life to his credit should be allowed to take his degree without recourse to the minutiae of Latin or Greek Granitnar, as an absolute and inexorable requirement.
It is my hope that persons of standing will sponsor the new venture of the Sulgrave University and so bring to it adequate standards and safeguards.—Yours very truly, F. BARIUE FLINT. The Rectory, Davidson's Mains, Edinburgh.
[The fact that the so-called Inteicollegiate University conferred one of its degrees on an applicant who had already received much more
reputable recognition has no bearing on their conferment in very different cases. Every genuine university in this country has recognised status, standards, safeguards and guarantees, and it is extremely undesirable that bodies possessing none of these, whether limited companies or beneficiaries of State of Delaware charters, should present themselves to the world as universities.—ED., The Spectator.]
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