Abstract
WE have been able to keep our readers informed of the various steps which have been taken to bring to fruition the movement which was commenced about three years ago to establish in Bristol an institution for University education. This movement, we are glad to say, has been so far successful that a beginning is to be made on Tuesday week, October 10; on that day commences the first term of the first session of what will be henceforth known as University College, Bristol. From the first it was sought to make the proposed institution something more than a mere “technical”college. All along it has been kept in view that the only really liberal training is one in which all the faculties of man are drawn out harmoniously and equally, in which a broad basis for future special work is laid, by education in all the great departments of human knowledge. The Bristol institution is not to be a mere special college, it is to be a University. Prof, Jowett, at the meeting held in June, 1874, struck the right note when he said: “The distinction he would draw between liberal education and merely technical education was this—the one comprehended the other; it was the other, with something added to it, carried on in a higher spirit; it was the one pursued not merely for the sake of getting on in the profession, or making a man an engineer, or a miner, or a doctor, but for the sake of the improvement of the mind. No man will be a first-rate physician or engineer who is not something more than either.” The first programme of the classes of this new college is certainly a modest one so far as extent is concerned, but it comprehends all the elements of a liberal education—literature, science, and art In science there will be instruction in chemistry, physics, zoology, botany, geology, mathematics and applied mechanics, and political economy; in literature, classes for modern history and literature; and in art (for evening classes at least) geometrical and mechanical drawing. In all these branches professors or lecturers have already been appointed, but the programme contains other subjects—classical languages and literature, modern languages, and textile industries—to which no appointments have yet been made, but which will no doubt be filled up as soon as circumstances permit. Affiliated to the Bristol College, moreover, is the old-established Bristol Medical School, for which new buildings will be erected, and on which, we believe, the new institution will have a stimulating and liberalising effect. The principal work of the college will of course be carried on during the day by means of lectures and laboratory work, but we are also glad to see that the directors have resolved to follow from the first the excellent example of Owens College, Manchester, by establishing evening classes for those who are unable to take advantage of the day classes.
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University College, Bristol . Nature 14, 470–471 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014470a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014470a0