Americans at Oxford seem to enjoy writing back that "Oxford isn't all it's cracked up to be." Usually their arguments run along three lines: (1) student-faculty relationships aren't close: (2) undergraduates are lazy: and (3) the academic work is unprofessional.

Recently a Princeton graduate put toward a new argument, the Robes Thesis: "At the tutorial the student wears the undignified commoner's gown, a jacket of black cloth reaching hardly to the waist. The tutor, however, is dressed in the magnificently flowing black robes of a Master of Arts. This gives a hint of the Oxford notion of the proper relationship between teacher and pupil: the leader is one who knows and the pupil learns from him."

He contrasts this situation with Princeton, where preceptorials put students and tutor on a more even footing: neither side wears robes, and "if the preceptor is poor there are bright student" he says "to carry the discussion."

Student-Faculty Relations

There are some valid objections to the Oxford system. First, it is true that the faculty at Oxford tends to keep to itself. High Table, where the dons sit together for dinner, is a symbol of the ivory tower to which dons retire outside of tutorials.

But they are always ready to respond to an undergraduate who seeks than out. College officials have sherry and dinner parties to which undergraduates are invited, and the tutors give extra tutorials to those who ask. Further, the tutor is on the side of his pupils against the Examiners; he doesn't turn in a grade, as at Harvard.

The chief problem is that dons have more academic commitments than the Harvard tutor. Tutors at Oxford have an average of 15 or 16 tutorials a week and these tutorials generally run over an hour; many tutors are also expected to deliver 16 public lectures a year.

At Harvard most tutors spend only eight to ten hours a week in tutorials, fewer if they are engaged in research. For an Oxford don to get his own work done, he has to lead a fairly Spartan life: there are so many college duties making demands on his spare time that he has little time to seek out undergraduates informally.

Yet, undergraduates are the "focal point round which the college revolves," as the late Neville Ward-Perkins said. "The average don spends a good deal of his time dealing with them in a future, present or past tense, choosing them, tutoring them, and finally never quite losing a sense of responsibility for their welfare."

If Americans want to get to know more of the Oxford faculty members, they can participate more in Oxford activities, which provide ample opportunity for meeting their speakers, and excuse for calling on local VIPs. There are the academic clubs (philosophy, history and so forth), the newspaper Cherwell or the magazine Isis, the political clubs, the religious groups. Just because dons don't join him for breakfast, must the American sulk and feel injured?

Tutorials

With regard to the accusation that Oxford undergraduates are lazy and tutorials inadequate, one must remember that the initiative to work is left at Oxford to the individual student, who can glean a very clear idea of what he is expected to study by reading old examination papers. Tutorials play a secondary role: to sharpen one's self-critical faculty. Lectures and classes are there as a dietary supplement and as comic relief.

Our Princeton friend complained that "a student of English literature will be given on week to write an essay on Jane Austen" and points out that this involves having read six novels and some critical and biographical works. But surely he doesn't come to Oxford without having read two, dare we say three, Austen novels already? Didn't his tutor ask him to read up on Austen over the vacation? Hasn't he looked at the examination papers, and noticed a regular question on Austen? If the answer to all these questions is no, then all the more reason for the tutor to ask for an essay on Austen--to drive home to his pupil what he is expected to read the following vacation.

Moreover, it is a good thing to give pupils much more reading than they can possibly cover for their tutorial. This encourages quick assimilation of materials and concise expression of opinion. And these two abilities are the most important intellectual benefits of a university education.

The purpose behind placing so much emphasis on vacation work, and freeing the undergraduate from the pressure of course examination, is to encourage academic leisure, although the theory may be becoming unworkable now that eight out of ten Oxonians are receiving financial assistance. Nowadays there is pressure from the undergraduate's family to help out by taking a vacation job, and his home environment is not the best for studying anyway.