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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Personal Volume

Teachers as Co-examiners

Teachers as Co-examiners.

Let me refer to the University of Wales. It has three University Colleges—one at Aberystwith, one at Bangor, and one at Cardiff—and the law in Wales is that each of the colleges can appoint an examiner in each subject. The University appoints an examiner who is not a teacher at any of the colleges, who is termed an "external" examiner, and no degree can be granted unless the external examiner certifies that a degree should be granted. An article in the charter states that no examiner's report shall be received by the Court unless the external examiners have concurred in the said report I also find that it is quite inaccurate to say that in either Oxford or Cambridge the teachers are the examiners. I have gone carefully through the calendars of Oxford and Cambridge, and I find that there are scores of teachers who are not examiners in both of these universities, and that in all the page 4 colleges very few of the teachers are examiners. I take two colleges as an illustration of what exists. They are in what might be called the middle place in Cambridge, and are Emmanuel College and Jesus College, and I find that the tripose, mathematical, classical, moral natural patural! science, theological, law, historical, Hebrew, Oriental languages, modern languages, etc.—that is, out of eleven subjects examined on in Cambridge—Jesus College had only teachers in two of these subjects who were examiners, and Emmanuel College the same—only two subjects in winch they had examiners. I find the same thing at Oxford. Take, for example, the examination in physics there. I find that of the public examiners in physics and mechanics two colleges only were represent ed in the preliminary, and only one college in the final honor examination. It is true that in the Scotch universities the professors and teachers are examiners, but there are external examiners associated with the teachers. The practice is the same in Manchester, Manchester, for example, has fifty-nine external examiners. To say therefore, that in the universities of the world the teachers are always the examiners is absurd.