Abstract
THE correspondence which has appeared during the month of December in the columns of the Times concerning the question of a Metropolitan Technical University, has revived a question upon which we have more than once spoken in these columns, and of which we shall hear more hereafter. It is quite evident that the promoters of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education meet with many great and unforeseen difficulties in the way of pushing into execution their laudable project for applying some of the vast funds they have inherited from the Trade Guilds of the past to the purpose of promoting the elevation of trade by science. It is equally evident that they will not abandon their projects without a very considerable effort, especially now that the pressure of public opinion is beginning to bear upon the question and to aid them in their demand. No one probably denies or doubts the legal right of the City Companies to the funds which have thus come down to them. Probably also no one denies or doubts that the law-making power which gave them these legal rights can take them away and can force them to hand over, if need be, to the advancement of Technical Education at large, the wealth which they have ceased to apply to the advancement of Technical Education within their own borders. Two years ago a very definite scheme in this direction was launched by the provisional Committee appointed by some of the Guilds. Recognising the moral obligation upon them to use their funds for the advancement of their respective industries, some dozen out of the eighty City Companies agreed to devote a certain yearly sum for this purpose. They even went so far as to invite a number of distinguished men of science to write reports on the best way of attaining the ends in view, and eventually they embodied their suggestions in a report which was characterised by two main propositions: firstly, to establish local technical schools which should be accessible to artisans; secondly, to found a central institution, chiefly for training technical teachers and scholars of exceptional promise. This was two years ago; and in the mean time so little has been done, that some of those who have taken an active part in the earlier stages, begin to be impatient at the little substantial progress made.
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The Technical University Question . Nature 21, 221–222 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021221a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021221a0