OXFORD AFTER THE COMMISSION.
MR. MOUNTAGUE BERNARD has published a letter to Mr. Gladstone which will convey to a great number of persons the first definite information they have had of the work done by the Oxford University Commissioners, whose powers expired at the end of last year. The chief purpose for which the Commission was appointed was the partial redistri- bution of the University and Collegiate revenues. The Univer- sity of Oxford, as distinct from the Colleges, is not a wealthy +body. In 1880-81, its " external " income, the income, that 48, derived from its estates, was about £7,600, four years earlier it had been nearly £10,600 ; its "internal" income, the income that is, derived from fees and dues, was £23,000 ; and the 'University Press brought in a profit of £4,000. This aggregate -revenue about enables the University to meet its ordinary ex- penses, including apparently the interest on the loan recently con- tracted for the new Examination Schools. There is no source from 'which this income can be increased, unless, indeed, the University should at any time think fit to increase its dues and fees. The -net income of the Nineteen Colleges was about £300,000, the .greater part of which is derived from land and houses, and has consequently been considerably reduced by the recent re- duction of rents. The Commissioners have made a statute requiring every College in the University to make a yearly contribution of two per cent. on its net revenue to University .purposes, and wherever the net revenue of a College exceeds -13,000, an additional payment will be demanded, graduated ,roughly, according to the wealth of the College. Thus, while a College with a net revenue of £5,000 would pay only £100 a year to the University, a College with a revenue of £15,000 would pay above £1,000, and a third, with a net revenue of £25,000 would pay somewhat over £4,000. The " internal " income of a College—namely, its receipts from its own mem- bers in respect of battels, room rent, and tuition fees, are not included in the estimate of net income. The contribution payable by each College to the University is calculated only on the income of its estates. Of the money thus gained by the University, about £25,000 will be devoted to the founda- tion of new and to the better endowment of existing Pro- fessorships. The way in which this will be done is by charging particular Colleges with the maintenance of par- tioular Professorships, and by making the professor a fellow of the College from which his salary is derived. The money paid by each College in this form will be set to its credit against the payment of any contribution over and above the two per cent. on net income. By means of this annual payment of £25,000, eight new professorships and two readerships will be founded. There will be Chairs of Classical arclueology, English, the Romance languages, comparative anatomy, applied mechanics, and pure mathematics ; and second Chairs of ancient history and physics. If this seems but a short list to get out of £25,000 a year, it must be remembered that £7,000 a year is already paid to Professors by the Colleges, and £6,000 by the University. The former sum will be taken as part payment of the £25,000, and the latter will be set free for other purposes. In addition to this, All Souls' and Merton Colleges will be saddled with specific payments of £1,000 and £300 to the Bodleian Library, so that the whole sum available for the increase of the Professoriate will be reduced by more than half.
The contributions from the Colleges other than the endow- ments of Professorships will go to a new fund, called the "Common University Fund." This fund will be appropriated to certain specific purposes, the most important of which are the payment of stipends to readers and extraordinary pro- fessors or lecturers, payment for work or investigation in branches of learning and inquiry connected with University studies, endowment of scholarships, and provision of pensions for Professors. The University is further directed by statute to provide tutors, scholarships, and buildings for unattached students. The disposition of this Common Fund will be entrusted, with certain limitations, to a Delegacy, in which the Hebdomadal Council, the resident Graduates of the Univer- sity, and the Boards of Faculties will all be represented. Under the new Statutes, the salaries of the majority of the Professors will be about £900 a year, while the remainder will receive from £400 to 1508. These incomes will not, to any material extent, depend upon fees. Mr. Bernard remarks with truth that the example of the German Universities does not apply to Oxford. " In Germany, the Universities are the avenues to professional employment, and to the service of the State ; there are many of them ; every student is free to attend what lectures he pleases At Oxford, all these conditions are absent." So long as undergraduates are required to pay to their College a sum supposed to cover the whole expense of their education, they cannot be expected to pay any large amount of additional fees to University teachers. The function of the Professors is to be teaching, rather than research. Those paid on the higher scale will have to lecture in every term, to give forty- two lectures in the year, and to help students attending the lectures by advice, informal instruction, or examination. Any neglect of duty will be noted by a Visitatorial Board. The Professors not appointed by the Crown will, in future, be appointed by not more than seven, or less than five, electors, comprising University officers, nominees of the College which furnishes the endowment, and persons of eminence outside the University. The order and subjects of the Professors' lec- tures will be in some degree determined by one of Four Boards of Faculty, consisting of all the professors and readers in the several subjects of theology, law, arts, and natural science, together with representatives of College teachers in the same field. These Boards will also, unless the opposition of the University is successful, have a share in the appointment of Examiners.
Besides these changes in the University, properly so called, the Commissioners have made a completely new code of Statutes for each of the Colleges. The Commissioners have wisely argued that since Oxford does not give professional instruction, and the preparation for earning a livelihood can- not, consequently, begin until after the degree has been taken, it is expedient that some part of the College endowments should go to maintaining industrious men while this prepara- tion is going on. But the number of what have been called " Idle Fellowships " will be limited ; they will only be held for seven years, and their income will not exceed £200 a year. These ordinary fellowships may also be awarded, with or with- out examination, to any person engaged in literary, scien- tific, or art work which he undertakes to prosecute in the College or University, or under their direction elsewhere. The remaining fellowships will either be annexed to Professorships, or held as tutorial fellowships. The tenure of these last will be for a longer term than that of ordinary Fellowships, and it will be renewable. The obligation to take
Orders as a qualification for a fellowship will only be re- tained in connection with the specific purpose of providing for the performance of the chapel services, and for religions teaching in the College. It does not appear, from Mr. Ber- nard's statement, to what proportion of Fellowships this con- dition will be applicable. The Headship of every College, except Christ Church and Pembroke, will be open to laymen and clergymen equally. Otherwise, no great change is made in the constitution of the office. Scholarships will, as now, be obtained by competition, but the Colleges will be authorised to establish, out of corporate revenue, an Exhibition fund, out of which aid will be bestowed on the score of poverty. This
aid will be " given in clear cases only, and of necessity, there- fore, somewhat sparingly." No scholarships will exceed £80 a
year in value, and the limit of age up to which they can be attained will be nineteen. A certain proportion both of fellowships and scholarships will be given for proficiency in mathematics, natural science, and history. A new provision will be made, in the shape of senior scholarships, at some three or four Colleges, for those men who have passed the ex- aminations for the B.A. degree, and can satisfy the electors that they intend to enter upon some course of study in pre- paration for a profession, or to engage in some definite literary or scientific employment, and that they may have difficulty in doing so without assistance. This is a very bare outline of what the Oxford Commission has done. The changes are not revolutionary, but they are considerable, and it is of necessity impossible to criticise them, except in the light of future ex- perience. Oxford, as the Commissioners have remodelled it, will in its main lines be the Oxford that it was before they took the work in hand. That is, necessarily, a result which will be regarded with different eyes, according to the value the spectator is disposed to set upon the order of things which has, on the whole, been maintained.
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