An Imperial University T VVENTY-TWO years have passed since the Haldane
Commission on London University stated that "the University should have for its headquarters permanent buildings .appropriate in design to its dignity and importance."7 Since then the ideal has never been lost sight of. Friends of the University, in the face of difficulties that at times seemed insurmountable, have laboured to achieve it, with the result that now, when the financial obstacles might have been expected to be greater than at any earlier period, the foundation-stone of. a building, planned on the grandest scale, has been laid by the King. Thanks to the informed advocacy of Sir William Beveridge, the munificence of the Rockefeller Foundation (in providing, with Government assistance, the site) and contributions from the London County Council, the City Corporation, and the City Companies, and from Mr. Samuel Courtauld and other indiVidnals, a tangible beginning has been made on the basis of some ready money and much faith. The need was urgent. The temporary headquarters at the Imperial Institute are out-of-the-way and utterly inadequate. An adjacent Hall for use on ceremonial occasions, a Senate House with offices and committee rooms, and a students' Library—these - are the first essentials, and will be included in the block of buildings on which work has been begun.
We are told that the University as it exists today is the outcome of a century of gradual growth. But throughout the greater part of that period its function was little -more than that of an examining body, and the Colleges which are now constituent elements in its corporate life stood apart. Some splendid institutional work was .going. on in the ten or twelve. years before the War, but there are many who felt that the real University, in the fuller sense of the term, only came into being just after _ the War. And then it came suddenly. It developed, #ll. at once, as it seemed, new strength and ardour from the presence of thousands of young men and women eager to equip themselves for civilian life, and to take up again the studies which war had inter- rupted. There was a coming and going between such centres as University College, King's College, the School of Economics, Bedford College and East London College. Societies-were formed, debates and sports were organized, and an Officers' Training Corps brought into a flourishing condition. To students living in their homes in London were increasingly added students from all parts of Britain and the Empire, and young men and women from foreign countries.
In recent years, also, many facilities for study have been initiated, extended or brought within the University. There-is an Institute of Historical Research, an Institute of Education, and Schools of- Slavonic Studies, Of Education, and of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ; and for medical students there are the schools attached to the great London Hospitals. Other facilities have just been or are about to be added. London is a University with unique opportunities for experiment and innovation in all fields of study—for trying out the new as well as pursuing the old. And thus it has become more cosmopolitan perhaps than any other academic institution in the world. Whilst it provides for all the ordinary. educational 'needs of Londoners or of young Britons.-who :come to reside in London in term time, it has become a -centre also for men and women of many races and religions—Europeans, South -Americans, Indians,: Chinese, Turks; Africans—who wish- to give an AngIO-Saxon -basis to their culture. And so its two-fold character is to be, first, the University of London, and, secondly, the University of the Capital of the Empire.
It is evident that a corporate institution of this kind does not depend primarily upon buildings. Yet buildings, and especially a built-up centre, is of immense importance.
If the University is to achieve individuality of character, and be something more than an agglomeration of study units, and if it is to play the part which it ought to play as a humanizing, intellectual force in the life of London, it must have an outward and visible form. It must have a centre for its activities. It must have a borne with which it is associated in the minds of teachers and pupils. It is impossible to believe that Oxford and Cambridge would ever have become what they are if it were not for the buildings and quadrangles rich in memories and memorable for their alumni. Not that London will ever attempt to be what Oxford and Cambridge have been and are. She will draw inspiration from them. She may well imitate something of their intimate tutorial system with which at present she has nothing 'comparable. Her destiny may be not less great, and may be greater. But it will and ought to be different. It is essentially the function of the older Universities to cling, not obstinately to the letter, but faithfully to the spirit, of certain elements in culture the loss of which would mean the impoverishment of the English character. Such culture ill certainly, not be disregarded even in London. But it may be that her special function will be to lead the van, to experiment, explore, test new paths ; and it is already her nature to be infinitely various, with a variety that might be weakening and perilous to Oxford or Cambridge.
. And there is another part that London has , to play. She is the chief of the younger Universities of this country. We have seen that she has an Imperial and international • character. But she is fulfilling an increasingly important function within the life of the nation. As an examining body to a very considerable extent she prescribes the courses which have to be followed in schools and Univer- sity Colleges. That is a tremendous responsibility, and it imposes on her the obligation to keep in touch with other Universities—the older and the newer. The character which she seeks to impose on her own teaching must tend to communicate itself to other seats of learning, and especially to University Colleges, which some time in the future may attain University status .themselves.
One of the advantages of a great central building will be that it will bring the Professors of the constituent colleges into closer touch, and thus help to, build up a body of opinion about the aims and direction of Univer- sity teaching. We can think of nothing that is more needed at the present time than the formation of a sound, informed opinion about the aims of higher education. There never has been a time in the history of this country when the yearly increase in the number of young people embarking on University courses has been so great, or when persons highly educated were so warmly welcomed or positively required in professions and in industry. Democracy, conferring power on the many, has imposed on this country the supreme necessity, as a first charge on its resources and its activities, of giving the best possible mental equipment to the largest possible number of 'citizens. In those circumstances, we can imagine nothing that the nation needs more than a sound -current of ideas about education, and indeed a defined policy. In -promoting such a current of ideas and such ri London University, close as it is to the centre of govern- ment, ought: to -be able to take the leading part.
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