Extracts from Addresses 363
true of them all. Now what we have done is to institute a new
degree of doctor of philosophy, and to reorganize the advance teaching
of the university in connection with that degree. Hitherto one of the
great difficulties that has confronted a student of America, when he
wished to enter one of our universities, was the difficulty of obtaining
information. He did not in the first place know to whom he was to
address himself, how he was to get into the university. Secondly, he
did not know what degrees were being given, whether any degrees were
being given in the particular subject he was interested in, and, if they
were given, who was giving them. If he wished to study under some
particular professor of repute, he did not know how he could study
under him. He did not know how he could get into communication
with him, and he did not know whether that professor was willing to
take him under his charge. Now all that is going to be altered, and
now that the war is over I think by next April, at the latest, Oxford
will be in a position to issue a handbook, a brief, concise statement of
the whole organization of advanced studies in the university, and any
student from America who wishes to do work for a longer or a shorter
period at the university, work of an advanced kind—I mean graduate
work—by glancing at this will find all his questions answered. He will
find out to whom he has to write, in the first instance. Then he will
find out what the conditions of admission are. Then he will find out
what courses are being given and the various subjects. He will find out
what professors are willing to receive students under, their charge and
direction. All that will be given, and it will be given in a form that
in half an hour a man of average intelligence will find out everything he
wants to know. That will be circulated broadcast. We cannot do more
than circulate information. We cannot compel you to read it. We can
only appeal to you to do so. I think if there is to be any change in the
number of advanced students, any change of any considerable number, it
must be limited to those who either come from our own country to
America or come from America to our own country to get a degree.
Our whole course has been constructed so that it shall be available for
those who do not want to come for two or three years, who do not want
the degree, but who do want to come and stay for a year and study
in Great Britain, and study under some good teacher. Any one who
comes and stays for a year and studies satisfactorily will receive a
certificate from the university, which we hope will be available in an
American university, that it will be treated in America as the equivalent
of a year’s study in an American graduate school, because the number
of those who will be willing to come for two or three years to study
in England for a degree will be limited. We cannot expect a very