The Mathematical Tripos ¹

Abstract

III. WHEN the interval between the earlier portion of the examination and Part III. had been extended to a year, it became evident that some substantial relief must be afforded to the examiners. By the existing regulations a person who accepted the office of Moderator would have to take part in the examination in three consecutive years, and in his second year of office he would have to examine the candidates of one year in Part III. simultaneously with those of the year below in Parts I. and II. This led to the consideration of the whole question of the appointment of examiners. The two Moderators in each year are nominated by two colleges, according to a prescribed cycle of fifty years. This nomination by colleges, though theoretically not very defensible, had worked very fairly so long as the examination only included subjects with which any high wrangler might be expected to be acquainted; but it was clearly unsuitable for Part III. In any case the nomination of the four examiners by four independent bodies might easily bring about the result that among the various subjects included there would be some which had not been made the object of special study by any of the examiners: indeed there was nothing to prevent the four examiners being all pure mathematicians or all physicists. Accordingly, with a unanimity almost unique in matters relating to the Tripos, the Board recommended in a Report dated June 15, 1885, that the examiners for Part III. should be quite distinct from those for Parts I. and II., and that all four should be nominated by the Board. It was also proposed that they should hold office for only one year. This Report was sanctioned by the Senate on October 29, 1886. In future, therefore, the Moderators will not take part in the highest portion of the examination. The appointment of Moderators dates from 1680. Previously the Proctors had themselves presided in the schools, but in that year the duty of conducting the disputations was transferred to the Moderators, who were specially appointed to perform this office. The Moderators have always been, and still remain, high University officers, ranking next to the Proctors.¹ Not only were they the earliest examiners in the University, but it is to them that we owe the origin of the examination system. Their severance from a portion—and that the highest portion—of the examination is therefore a notable event in the history of the Tripos. Neither the Board nor the University would have agreed lightly to such a break in the traditions of the Senate House examination, had it been possible to retain the Moderators as examiners for the final part without altering the system of nomination by colleges. The complete separation of Part III. from the earlier parts of the examination was, however, inevitable. Many members of the University who would discharge most admirably the duty of examining for Parts I. and II. would shrink from Part III.; and the professors and specialists who were best fitted to examine in Part III. would generally be reluctant to undertake the heavy burden of examining all the candidates for Parts I. and II., especially in two consecutive years.