The Progress of Scotch Universities

Abstract

THE following three diagrams are meant to convey an idea of the progress of the Scotch Universities— Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews—in recent years. The first shows the total number of students each year from 1869 to 1885, and it appears that, with an increase of population of about 18 per cent. in that period, the total attendance has grown over 90 per cent. (The straight line indicates what the growth would have been at the population-rate.) The growth in Edinburgh is greatest, and the other Universities follow in the above order. Nos. 2 and 3 indicate how the students have been distributed among the different Faculties. The preponderance of arts students in Glasgow, and of medical in Edinburgh, will be noted.¹ As regards theology, it is to be remembered that the students are only those of the Established Church; the two other large Presbyterian bodies having their own theological schools. (The statistics are taken from Oliver and Boyd's “New Edinburgh Almanac,” and the numbers of students at each University include those of the summer as well as the winter session.)