Welsh Journals

the personal intei course and exchange of views between professor and student were not a sine qua non for the passing of an examination, arranged and con- ducted by an outside authority. It was inevitable, therefore, that the teaching should develop along the lines of the lecture system, that notes were found more profitable than discussion, and dictation of more lasting value than personal contact. It is this tradi- tion which is still responsible for the fixed and detailed syllabus and for the eager fight for examina- tion results. It is this tradition, too, which has made the Colleges so sensitive to the merely scholastic outlook of their students as to treat them as school boys rather than men. Examinations have remained the sole test of teaching and attendance at lectures the narrow path to success. The plea for freedom for University teachers comes with ill grace from those who have ever denied it to their colleagues. In this light the plaint of restraint is curiously weak as a plea for separation. For, to take the case of Cardiff University College, at least one-half of the staff are allowed by the College Senate no voice whatever in drawing up the syllabuses upon which they have to teach. The assistants have no part in setting the papers for students for whom they are often solely respon- sible, neither are they allowed to see the papers. Not only is there no choice of subject matter or text book permitted to these University teachers, but there is no opportunity allowed them for gauging the results of their teaching. Their work consists entirely in preparing students for a system of external examinations conducted by the professors. Thus, as far as Cardiff University College is concerned, separation would merely accentuate an evil already sufficiently serious. For years past precisely the same plea which is now put forward on behalf of the Bererin pererinion Uwyd eu gwedd Sy a'th wynebpryd ynghrog ar fur fy nghell, Cenaist ar ddyrys daith tu yma i'r bedd Ganiadau crythor clir y Jiwbil bell. Dy drachwant sanctaidd uwch tabyrddau'r gler Seiniodd yr Enw nad adnabu dyn. Fel lloer ddigartref rhwng lliosowgrwydd ser Clafychaist am d' Anwylyd hardd dy hun. self-fettered professors-the plea for freedom from restraint and for the unshackling of the individual teacher which is an essential condition of true University work-has been urged on behalf of the assistants of the College and has been persistently ignored by the Senate of Professors. There is no mercy among prisoners In truth, the solution of the matter seems to lie not in revolution or in violent administrative reforms, but in a change of spirit. Freedom is essential, but freedom must be exercised impartially. The methods of teaching in the past have been vitiated by undue insistence upon examinations and results. Certainly much of the work done in the Colleges is deadened and listless through too great a reliance upon safe notes and lectures and by the absence of personal contact between professor and student- all clearly subversive of the true aims of University teaching. Whether the federal system be retained or abandoned in favour of a unitary system, this change of spirit must condition every hope of pro- gress. But the whole tendency in Welsh education has for years been in the direction of unification, and we are convinced, as were the founders of the University, that for the Welsh people, the approach to a true standard of culture lies through a national system of University education. Let our Univer- sity teachers realise this as they should have done in 1894, let them conduct the work of the University in a spirit of sympathy and understanding, then we shall hear no more of the complaint from the one side that the University and the Colleges have become estranged from the people of Wales, and from the other that the University and Colleges are denied the necessary financial support by the State, by the Local Authorities, and by private individuals. Z. PANTYCELYN. Rhwng muriau'r deml neithiwr gwrando wnes Dy nwyd yng nghryndod mor yr organ reiol, Dy odidowgrwydd ar y pibau pres, A'th bruddglwyf ar y ddwsmel fwyn a'r feiol, Nes dyfod esmwyth su'r deheuwynt ir Oddiar ganghennau pomgranadau'r Tir. R. Williams Parry.