EMERGENCY UNIVERSITY SIR,—I read with great interest John Margeson's article
in your issue of May 24—the more so as I proposed a similar scheme for Scotland through the Scottish Daily Mail a year ago.
There is no doubt that what he proposes is en- tirely feasible, and Hamburg University was actually founded in this way after the First World War: it is now larger than either Oxford or Cambridge.
A university consists essentially of professors, lecturers and students, not of buildings, and it does not require any Act of, Parliament to be set up, though it would now require one to grant degrees recognised as valid in Britain. What it must have is a staff composed of persons with the jus docendi, conferred by any second degree involving post- graduate study and the publication and defence of a thesis.
If these people can be found, offering a reason- able range of courses in Arts and Sciences, you have at least the beginning of a university, and this in- stitution can prepare its students for the London External Degree meantime. Within a few years it is certain to be recognised if it prospers, and I do not think staffing need be an insuperable difficulty. There are plenty of junior lecturers wishing to be- come lecturers, and lecturers who fancy themselves as professors.
For Scotland I suggested a three-college set-up at Stirling, Inverness and Dumfries: for England, Derby might be very suitable. To serve both countries the obvious place would be Carlisle, but this is too far north for the English and Scots will not go to English universities other than Oxford, Cambridge and possibly Durham and London. In any case there is adequate scope for emergency uni- versities both here and in England.
I have my doubts about the shift system, as it will inevitably mean a much longer course—cer- tainly four years, probably five—and this will lead to a higher drop-out rate: perhaps not Belgium's calamitous 70 per cent, but still something well in excess of what is considered as tolerable in Britain. The tradition of going straight through, and fairly quickly, is well established and I for one feel it is healthy and should be maintained.
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