Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarships

by R. F. Scholz; Stanley Kuhl Hornbeck

The Tutor.

Perhaps the most characteristic and salient feature of the Oxford system is the personal tuition, the private and informal teaching, which each College provides for its members. On admission to the College, the newcomer is assigned to a Tutor under whose guidance and supervision he is to pursue his studies, not only during Term-time at Oxford, but also during the Vacations. The conscientious Tutor gets to know his protégé intimately, his strong and his weak points; he can gauge accurately and justly his qualities, capacities, and possibilities; he is in a position to recognize and to provide for his particular needs. The personal equation is here all-important. The strongest point in the system may be at once the source of its greatest weakness. A few sober-minded, persistent, and strenuous individuals may achieve moderate success despite an incapable Tutor. On the other hand, a strong, sympathetic, and conscientious Tutor may often work wonders with unpromising material.

The method.

An Oxford man ‘reads’ for his degree. This is characteristic. Much as depends on the Tutor, in the last resort the student is dependent on himself—on the ‘reading’ he does privately. The Tutor is merely an adviser and a guide; there are disciplinary rules, to be sure; but there are no final grades at the end of each Term’s work, and there is no actual compulsion. A man may do much or he may do little—that will depend entirely upon himself. This is ‘his business’, and so long as he conducts himself properly, the Tutor has practically no means of constraint, except to remind the student of the Damocles’ sword in the shape of the University examinations. The whole system is based on individualism—on a free and easy relationship between Tutor and taught. It is conscientious individual effort under capable and sympathetic supervision that leads to success in the final examinations—‘the Schools’. The Tutor advises the student to attend certain lecture courses; he suggests certain books for private reading, the result of which is generally embodied in the form of an essay, or essays, to be read to the Tutor once or twice a week. The Tutor makes his comments and criticisms, and an informal discussion almost invariably follows, not always restricted to the subject in hand. Whatever may be said of ‘reading for the Schools’, it is a powerful factor and incentive in the cultivation of the reading habit, apart from the literary atmosphere of Oxford, which of itself fosters general reading for the sake of self-culture. Moreover, the academic year is very short—less than six months. The Oxford man is therefore obliged to do the bulk of his reading at home, during the Vacations which make up more than half the year—a striking contrast to the American or German programmes. The Tutor’s work and influence is not restricted to the eight weeks of Term-time, so largely given up to the amenities of life. A certain amount of well-planned reading is assigned or suggested for the Vacation. This again, however, is not ‘required reading’. There is no compulsion. Under such a system the responsibility resting on the individual undergraduate himself is only too evident, and is keenly felt. The lectures being purely formal, it is in his College rooms or at home that he does his reading, his writing, his thinking. It is to the Tutor that he looks for guidance, advice, and inspiration. It is in ‘the Schools’ that his scholarship, the results of his private reading, of the weekly essays, of ripe reflection and solid thinking, are tested. With only two University examinations in the course of his three or four years at Oxford, the training of the memory means more than mere memorizing. There is no opportunity of finishing each Term’s work in succession, and forgetting during the next what has been painfully acquired in the preceding Term. It means training the judgement and the powers of reflection, introducing unity and consistency into the mass of acquired facts and of contradictory points of view, assimilating it all, making it a part of one’s self. ‘Reading for the Schools’ has its limitations and its dark side, but the best products of the tutorial system may well challenge comparison.

The teaching staff.

Each College has its own teaching staff of Tutors and Lecturers. It is, of course, impossible for the ordinary College Tutor to supply instruction in all the various fields of knowledge. The difficulty has been met by appointing members of the instructional force of other Colleges, and very frequently also University Professors and Lecturers as College instructors, who in this way become responsible for some part of the ordinary College tuition. Thus it happens that an instructor may be lecturing as University Professor or Reader on one day, and on the next in his capacity as College Lecturer. By means of this closer organization of the teaching force, together with the system of inter-collegiate lectures, the tuition supplied by each College is very complete. Many of the College Tutors have their own special field of work, or are engaged in research; but most of their time is given in this free personal intercourse with the students entrusted to them, which, begun perhaps at a breakfast table, has come to mean much more than the mere professional interest of a far-away instructor to his wards. If Oxford has been reproached for a lack of the scientific spirit and the spirit of research, a very just and adequate reply may be made in the words of a present-day Oxford Tutor, that ‘the energy which elsewhere goes entirely to the advancement of knowledge is with them (the Tutors) largely devoted to the training of character’.

‘The Schools.’ University Examinations.

At American and at most Colonial Universities, the instructors and lecturers are at the same time the examiners. There is generally a final examination in each subject or course of lectures at the end of each Term or semester; no further tests in the particular subject being required for the University degree. At Oxford the examiners are an entirely separate body of University officials, chosen directly or indirectly for a period of two or three years, for the most part from among the instructional staff—University and College—in each field or subject. Since the introduction of the examination system in 1805, the constant addition of new subjects and the growing demands of scholarship have built up a very complex and intricate system of examination requirements. These are published each year as the Examination Statutes, which rigidly define the field to be covered in each case, and in which special books, as well as works for general reading and reference, are suggested. ‘Reading for the Schools’ has undoubtedly been one of the most serious obstacles to the growth of Professorial and other advanced lectures which have no direct bearing on, and which are not intended to meet, the demands of ‘the Schools’; it has also discouraged the spirit of research and the demands for training in scientific method. However, it has the advantage of promoting thoroughness and accuracy as a result of concentrated and steady, persistent effort along a definite line of work, non multa sed multum. The standard of scholarship is high. Great stress is laid on ease and facility of expression, on the ability to form independent judgements, on originality. No one can get a ‘First’ in the Class Lists on mere hard work and ‘grinding’, or by a display of erudition and an imposing array of facts. The examination papers are really a series of essays. The examination generally consists of written papers, followed some days or weeks later by a ‘viva voce’ examination. In Science, practical laboratory tests are required. The strain of the examinations—especially in the Final Honour Schools—is very severe. The examination in ‘Greats’—i. e. in the School of Literae Humaniores—consists of thirty-three hours of paper-work on six consecutive days. There is very little opportunity for ‘cramming’, as physical fitness is a most important factor. It is quite a general custom for candidates to ‘go down’ for a week’s rest before undergoing the ordeal of ‘Exam. week’. Informal examinations—‘collections’—are held in most Colleges at the beginning of each Term by College tutors and lecturers to test the progress their students have made during Term-time, as well as the reading they have done or ought to have done during the Vacation. These examinations, however, in no way directly affect the student’s final grade. Everything depends on the result of the University examinations.

Elective studies.

Rigid as the examination system appears to be, it is yet very elastic. Not only has the candidate to choose one of the many avenues leading to a degree—no one has yet succeeded in calculating the total number of permutations and combinations which can be made to lead to a degree at Oxford—but he has abundant opportunity for election from a wide range of subjects required for the particular ‘School’ chosen. Moreover, all work for the B.A. degree—lectures, tuition, and examinations—is sharply divided into ‘Pass’ and ‘Honour’ work, and the course of study pursued will naturally depend on the student’s own choice.