SVEA ENGLISH TREATISES.
SWEDISH DOCTORAL TREATISES
Arranged for British Publication
by
C. S. FEARENSIDE, M.A. Oxon.,
Lector in English at Lund University.
The academical degree of doctor brings with it so many practical advantages in Sweden that it is widely sought by the more gifted and ambitious students of Swedish Universities and University Colleges. The coveted prize is no less difficult than desirable. The essential condition for its attainment is the publication of an adequate work of original research, which shall form the coping-stone of the writer’s academical career. This original treatise cannot be undertaken until the aspirant has gone through a far more prolonged and systematic course of academical study than is required at most British Universities; while in the making, it undergoes much criticism, both formal and informal, both from the writer’s fellow-students and from the Professor with whose sanction it is essayed; and, lastly, it is subjected to a severe final examination on the day when the author publicly defends his work against the opponents chosen or approved by the appropriate Faculty of the University. Owing to the severe training and rigid scrutiny exacted, a large proportion of Swedish doctoral treatises attain a high standard of thoroughness; they are not mere scholastic exercises, testing and training the investigator for serious work in the future, but rather accumulations of valuable material, handled in a manner which is at once original, careful, systematic, illuminating and interesting.