UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

CHAPTER XII.

PRESENT CONDITION OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION-THE ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE TERM UNIVERSITY-THE MODERN IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE-ITALY-BRITISH UNIVERSITIES-SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE-GERMAN UNIVERSITIES-UNIVERSITY OF WURTEMBERG, HEIDELBERG, GIESSEN, JENA, LEIPSIC-SWISS UNIVERSITIES-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN HOLLAND-BELGIUM-SCANDINAVIAN UNIVERSITIES-RUSSIAN-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN AMERICA-HARVARD COLLEGE-YALE COLLEGECOLUMBIA COLLEGE-OTHER UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATESTHE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

INTRODUCTION.

The original application of the term university was to associations of tradesmen in the time of the Emperor Justinian, the idea involved being that of a union of all or nearly all the individual members of a given craft or profession who were found in a particular locality; and such continued to be its sole application for several hundred years, until even the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when, in like manner, it began to be used as a designation for certain great schools of learning, since which date the university as an educational institution has assumed so many different types that even at the present time there is no little confusion and doubt in the public mind as to the precise class of institutions to which it properly applies. Thus, at the outset, the University of Bologna was a great professional school, embracing numerous associations of doctors and students devoted to the study of law; and Paris presented a parallel in the great school of theology and the scholastic philosophy, while the two English universities at Cambridge and Oxford were first distinguished as schools of philosophy and the arts.

The university of this period had no essential reference to the nature and number of the departments of study embraced, and it was not until long after the foundation of the so-called universities above named that the several schools or faculties now embraced were successively established. They were simply groupings of learned doctors and aspiring scholars animated by a common desire to acquire and diffuse the most popular knowledge of the times-a universitas doctorum et scholarium. But slowly the idea of forming therein a complete circle of higher culture and knowledge of every sort, represented to the eye of the public

not alone by its scholarly professors, but also by various material aids to instruction, such as libraries and collections, found place here and there, and the university took the form of the universitas literarum et scientiarum, embracing schools of letters; of language, literature, and philosophy; schools of science; and schools of the everywhere-recognized professions of law, medicine, and theology.

This is the signification the term still carries in the most learned communities of the present day, notwithstanding certain exceptional uses, as in the case of the University of New York and the University of London, and the gross misapplications of it so common in our own and in some other countries.

Omitting all consideration of the various steps by which this idea of the university was at last reached, as well as of the many striking peculiarities that characterized the leading universities of the past, it is my purpose, in this place, to present, as gathered from recent personal obser vations and inquiries in nearly all countries where the university of any type whatever exists and from official documents of latest date, first, the present actual condition of university education; and, secondly, some of its more manifest tendencies.

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

As already stated in the foregoing chapters, France no longer has a nominal university, either at Paris, seat of the first university so-called, or elsewhere within her boundaries. But practically the institution exists just as veritably as at any period since the revolution; for, strictly speaking, the University of France, created by Napoleon I in 1808, and finally abolished, or rather superseded, by the organic law of March 15, 1850, was only a supervisory corporation, with authority to regulate the "academies," which were the only universities during the First Empire, the Restoration, and the period of the Orleans dynasty, as well as subsequently, and which, through all the changes of the past sixty years, have substantially maintained the same educational character.

Many of these academies fall short of the university standard of Germany, which denies to any institution the rank of "full university" that does not embrace the four faculties, namely, of the arts, (philosophische Facultät,) of theology, of medicine, and of law, for several of them include but two or three of the faculties; but in this respect they are scarcely inferior to a number of the acknowledged universities of other European countries; while almost any of them are quite superior to a majority of the institutions that claim the university title in the United States. I deem it proper, therefore, to ignore the exceptional title of the French academies, and to treat them as being what they really are, incomplete universities-a designation no less truly, though in different degrees, applicable to even the highest in rank in those countries where the university has been regarded as being very complete indeed.

Exclusive of the one in Savoy and the one in Algiers, or, in other

words, in France proper, there are, as elsewhere remarked, sixteen academies, each constituting the educational center of an academy district and embracing several departments of the empire.

The affairs of each academy, including all superior and secondary institutions of the district properly subordinate to the minister of public instruction, are managed by an academic council consisting of the rector, as president; the academy inspectors, of which there is one for each department embraced in the district, except at Paris, where the number is eight; the heads of faculties, known as deans; and seven additional members appointed triennially by the minister, and including an archbishop or bishop of the district, two ministers of the Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish church, two magisterial officers, and two public functionaries or other notable persons of the district.

The rectors are chosen by the Emperor. The faculty professors are also selected by him on the proposal of the minister and can only be dismissed by imperial order. The deans of faculties are chosen by the minister from among the professors over whom they are to preside. But neither the Emperor nor the minister can make nominations or appointments of rectors, deans, or professors independent of the organic law governing public instruction, which establishes various important conditions and tests to be fully met by all aspirants alike.

In the first place, no one can be appointed a rector or dean who is not possessed of the qualifications of a full professor; and no one can attain to the professoriate unless thirty years of age and professor of the doctorate in the faculty to a place in which he aspires, nor even then unless he has been first examined in a most thorough manner in the branches he proposes to teach and has actually served for some time as assistant professor.

Besides the full professors (styled professeurs titulaires) the faculties often include assistant or acting professors (professeurs suppléants,) honorary professors, and certificated teachers known as professeurs agrégés. The professeur suppléant is chosen by the minister from agrégés de faculte, or from persons of proved ability possessed of the doctorate in the department of learning, whose faculty is to be supplied. This post of suppléant or adjunct is often filled by doctors of marked ability and superior attainments, in all respects competent to the duties of the professeur titulaire, and only holding the subordinate position, as army officers do, for want of vacancies in the places of higher grade.

The agrégés de faculté are persons duly authorized to teach either independently, (in which case they are called agrégés libres,) or in the fac ulty proper, should the exigencies of the service require it, in which case they are known as agrégés in practice.

It will, of course, be understood that the title of agrégé does not carry with it authority to teach in any one of the faculties at pleasure, but only in a particular faculty; nor yet in any department of a particular faculty, but only in a specific department, fitness for which has been

demonstrated in a competitive examination upon the branches included in such department. Nevertheless, there are certain general conditions or prerequisites to admission to the examinations which are common to every class of candidates for aggregation. Thus every candidate must be not less than twenty-five years of age, a native of France or a naturalized citizen, and possessed of the diploma of doctor in the particular faculty for aggregation in which he is an applicant. It is likewise demanded of all that they inscribe their names as candidates with the secretaries of the academies in their respective districts at least two months in advance of the time fixed by the minister for the examinations. There is also a certain agreement in the general character of the examinations to which all classes of candidates for aggregation are subjected, namely, in that the tests are invariably of two kinds-first, the preparatory, and, secondly, the definitive tests; though the details of said tests vary according to the nature of the service to which they are designed to admit the applicaut.

FACULTY OF LETTERS.

Agrégés of the faculty of letters are certificated for ten years, and renewed by halves every five years; but they may be maintained in their rank as such or in their functions after the expiration of the time of legal exercise, or even be recalled into active exercise, should the needs of the service require it. They are divided into three sections, to wit: first, the section of ancient and modern literature; secondly, the section of philosophy; and, thirdly, the section of history and geography. The preparatory tests consist, first, in the settlement of the candidate's general qualifications and title to admission to the further tests; and, secondly, in two written compositions-one in Latin, upon a subject belonging to ancient literature, the other in French, and upon a subject of modern literature, history, or philosophy, according to the section in which aggregation is desired. Having satisfactorily passed the preparatory tests the candidate is admitted to such as are considered definitive, and which for this particular faculty consist of an argumentation and two oral lessons. The argumentation bears, for the first section, (literature, ancient and modern,) upon the grammatical and literary construction of Greek, Latin, and French texts, and, if the candidates desire it, upon texts taken from foreign literatures; for the second section, (philosophy,) upon the literary and philosophic interpretation of some of the principal works of Greek, Latin, and French philosophy; for the third section, (history and geography,) upon the literary and historic interpretation of some of the principal works of Grecian, Latin, and French history. The two lessons are given by the candidate as to a class, and pertain in like manner to the subjects embraced in the section in which the prospective agrégé intends to teach.

FACULTY OF SCIENCES.

Agrégés of the faculty of the sciences are certificated for a like period and the authority granted them is renewable in like manner. They are

likewise divided into three sections: first, the section of the mathemati cal sciences, pure and applied; secondly, the section of physical sciences; and, thirdly, the section of the natural sciences. The preparatory tests in this case consist, first, in a verification of the candidate's general qualifications, as established by the diploma of doctor and other documentary evidences; and, secondly, a composition upon a subject belonging to the order of instruction for which the candidate is inscribed. The final or definitive tests consist of an oral lesson and a written argumentation. The argument consists of a thesis upon some one of the subjects announced in the official programme of the examinations six months in advance. The oral lessons, to be given by the candidates as to a class, are, for the mathematical section, upon mathematical analysis, mechanics, or astronomy, at the option of the candidate; for the physical section, upon physics or chemistry; for the natural science section, upon some branch of natural history.

FACULTY OF LAW.

Agrégés of the faculty of law also regularly enjoy the title, and exercise the functions appertaining, for the period of ten years, and the conditions of a renewal or extension there are the same as in the faculties of letters and science. They are also divided into three sections, namely: first, of Roman law; secondly, of civil and criminal law; and, thirdly, of adminis trative and commercial law. The preparatory tests are three: first, the verification of the qualifications for admission to the examinations prerequisite to the title; secondly, a written and printed dissertation on Roman law; thirdly, a lecture belonging to the order of instruction for which the candidate is inscribed. The definitive proofs consist of two oral lessons and two argumentations. Of the two lectures, one bears upon the Code Napoléon, the other relates to the particular order of instruction for which the candidate is inscribed. Of the two argumentations, one must be upon a title of the digest, and the other upon a subject drawn from the particular order of legal instruction for which the candidate is inscribed.

FACULTY OF MEDICINE.

Agrégés of the medical faculty do not enter actively upon the performance of their functions until after the expiration of three years from the date of admission. The duration of their functions when admitted to take part in the examination of students and to replace professors is six years for the faculty, at Paris, and nine years for the faculties at Montpelier and Strasbourg. Every three years the agrégés in practice are renewed; by halves in the faculty of Paris, by thirds in the other two faculties. They are divided into four sections: first, for the anatomical and physiological sciences, including anatomy, physiology, and natural history; secondly, for the physical sciences, including physics, chemistry, pharmacy and toxicology; thirdly, for medicine properly so called and for medical jurisprudence; and, fourthly, for surgery and obstetrics. The