Another very important feature of British university life, the so-called tutorial system, is, however, more likely to gain headway in American education Already Harvard is trying to use a modified tutorial system, in which the tutors are supplementing rather than replacing the regular professors.

The tutorial system in our universities is the main method of instruction there are no classes under instructors and lectures are for the most part optional. A student is assigned to a tutor and given reading to do. This gives much more responsibility to the student than does the American system, and encourages his initiative and originality.

I' carries with it one serious danger, however, if applied without discrimination. It may attempt to combine the independence of the English ideal with the thoroughness of the German ideal; that is, American universities which adopt the tutorial system must not try to use the English tutors with the idea of securing the effectiveness of the German seminar The result of this would be to raise the general level of the educational standard but to put the exceptional man at a disadvantage.

Tutors Must Not Cramp Brilliance

If I may give a word of warning to the men who are trying to introduce the tutorial system, it would be to advise them against any form of this system that does not help the exceptional student.

A problem that American universities face is the tremendous numbers of applicants that must be sifted out each year. In Great Britain, in the past, education beyond the secondary schools has never been popular, in the sense that it was considered one of the rights of all classes. The wealthy and the men with a stong intellectual bent, in general, have been the only ones anxious to attend our universities, and, as a result we have had no difficulty keeping men out.

Our tests of admission have, until recently, consisted of a fortnight of gruelling examinations: however, in Scotland we are going to try a new plan much like your certificate system, by which a man will be admitted on the basis of his record time, but it may also give a fresh opportunity to men who may be read scholars, although not necessarily good writers of examinations.

Discounts Intelligence Tests

The American methods of admission are, of course, of different types. The college examination board given much the same sort of test as do the Scottish universities. The certificate system as I have said, is already being used For the psychological and intelligence we have no parallel. In Great Britain the intelligence tests were scrapped along with the other products of the war, and we have no great faith in their reliability.

Our post graduate work in Great Britain, too, demands much higher qualifications than does the same quality of work here. We do not admit men merely on the basis of some degree received in an ordinary academic coarse, but we demand students who by theses or other similar evidence have shown that they possess originality as well as mere parrotlike memory.

Public Interest Keen Here

The whole aspect of our institutions is much more academic than is the aspect of American universities. We have strict rules which restrain the conduct of students, and so our students are rarely the subjects of the same sort of caricature that is found in humorous publications here.

And, furthermore, although we have a considerable number of men interested in athletics, our sports are much less the center of public interest than are yours. In America, I fear that the increasingly professional attitude of sports will work harm to both the men and the universities, and I can understand the alarm felt by your college presidents.

The athletic danger is perhaps a result of the enormous influence that alumni have in this country. We do not have in Great Britain the same catering to the graduates of our schools, partly because the schools are entirely or almost entirely independent of the financial support of the alumni. We do not have endowment drives and our university presidents are not campaign managers.

British Do Not Cater to Alumni