Plea for a reform of the University teaching in Scotland : submitted to the Scottish Universities Commission / by James Finlayson.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plea for a reform of the University teaching in Scotland : submitted to the Scottish Universities Commission / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    this way we get the “ personal instruction of a living man,” but in a very different sense of the word “ personal ” from that in the quotation already made. It is the person of the lecturer which is emphasised in the systematic course; in the tutorial, it is the person of the student. Which is to be the more important in the future of our Universities ? Although allied to, and often combined or almost identified with, practical instruction, the tutorial method stands out in marked contrast to the systematic lectur- ing system ; in subjects such as languages, mathematics, logic, and some others, where practical tuition, as under- stood in scientific subjects, scarcely comes into play, we may fairly regard the tutorial as the analogue of the practical class. If in science the practical instruction is the depart- ment of paramount importance, in languages, mathematics, &c., it is the tutorial which requires the earnest attention of the Commission. Enormous classes in such subjects, taught by one man, are simply scandalous, and constitute a disgrace to our native country. When I was in the Junior Latin Class in Glasgow University, in 1856-57, the late Prof. Ramsay stated, while giving his prizes, that this class was remarkable as being the largest he had ever had, but that he did not know that it was remarkable in any other respect! The caustic wit of the professor was well known, and we unfortunate students regarded the remark as a piece of sarcastic humour; but perhaps the professor’s acute intellect and wider experi- ence noted a close connection between the largeness of the class and the mediocrity of its scholarship. At that time the class, however large in his eyes, was a mere fraction of the size it has since attained. Even in 1876-77 the returns to the Universities Commission showed 504 stu- dents of Humanity for one professor; the subsequent figures will no doubt be submitted to the pi’esent Commission. I do not object here, any more than in the scientific subjects, to lectures being permitted; or indeed to any
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