A League of Learning 293
And we have come here to ask you to do your part in the
Rice Institute so to guide the youth in your charge that, so
far as lies in them, they shall help to bring and keep together
these two peoples as partners in the enterprise of freedom
and fair play the world over.
Now I will sketch our plan briefly. There are five kinds
of interchange we think possible, and it is of first-rate im-
portance to regard them as complementary and not competi-
tive. They are not even alternatives, for they may be all
carried out together. The first interchange is of under-
graduates. We think, for instance, that students here in
Houston, having spent two years here and having two years
more to go in order to complete the B.A. or first degree,
might spend the second two years in one of the universities
of Great Britain, and come back to you with certificates from
those universities indicating the kind of work done by them.
You would accept those certificates on their return, if the
work was satisfactory, as equivalent to your own; and hav-
ing examined the students and found the examination to be
satisfactory, you would give them your degree. Two years
here and two years in Britain would count as equivalent to
four years spent in either of the two countries. That is
quite clear, is it not? We think it may be good for our
young men and for our young women, as many of them as
could avail themselves of the opportunity, to spend a por-
tion of their undergraduate course amongst your students
and in your care.
Secondly, there is the academic period between what you
call your B.A. and what you call your M.A. Now, the
equivalent to that (for there is a difference in terms) would
be the period between a B.A. in a British university (or an
M.A. on the “ordinary” level) and an M.A. with honours,
which with us is a far higher degree. Your more brilliant