Abstract
THE annual meeting of the council of the National Union of Scientific Workers was held at King's College on November 13 In his address Dr. J. W. Evans, the retiring president, dealt with the subject of “Research at the Universities.” Dr. Evans paid a tribute to the achievements of scientific workers during the war, and pointed out that the task ahead of them was of even greater consequence and allowed of no relaxation of effort. After summarising the activities of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, he expressed dissatisfaction with the present attitude of this Department towards the scientific and technical faculties of our universities. Since the publication of its first report the Department appeared to have abandoned the more fruitful policy of encouraging to the utmost the research workers at the universities. The restrictive character of the present grants to individual workers at such institutions tended to divorce research from teaching. In his opinion this was a fundamental error, since the best results in research could be achieved only by those who devoted some time to teaching. Apparently the Department looked to the universities and technical colleges to maintain a supply of competent research workers for the State-aided research associations rather than to undertake industrial research for themselves. He considered that a teaching staff engaged in research work, both in pure science and in its applications to industry, was in a more favourable position to discover and develop new principles than research workers isolated and restricted in the laboratories of research associations or even Government research institutions. In conclusion, Dr. Evans urged the importance of universities including in any course in science some training in research methods. This he embodied in a resolution which was supported by Prof. Soddy, who stated that Prof. Perkin had already applied this principle to the chemistry courses at Oxford University. Chemistry students there had shown by their enthusiasm how much the change was appreciated.
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National Union of Scientific Workers. Nature 106, 391 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106391a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106391a0