The need for a new Scottish Universities Act, or at
least an Act amending that of 1889, is insisted on by a Scottish corre- spondent of the Times in Tuesday's issue. The Scottish Universities, in the view of the writer, have relapsed into the torpor which marked them before 1889. This stagnation he attributes to the fact that, by the terms of its constitution, no University can take any important step without consulting all the others, a condition which delays necessary reforms and leads to administrative paralysis. Furthermore, the position in which the Carnegie Trustees have found them- selves has brought about something like a crisis. Owing to the greater numbers of the applicants for remission of fees, to the increase in the number of classes, and in some Universities to the raising of fees per student, the resources at the disposal of the Trustees are practically exhausted. They have accordingly been obliged to appeal to the
University authorities to make arrangements to prevent the indefinite extension of fee remission, and for the moment to restrict the number of their beneficiaries. A real settlement of the difficulties involved in this situation cannot, we are convinced, be reached without legislation modifying the con- stitution of the Universities.
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