Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1902-09-03
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
WHAT THIS OLD SEAT OF LEARN
ING Is LIKE.

Cecil Rhodes's Bold Plan Of Furnishing
Scholarships TO Students from the uni
ted States, tho British Colonies and
Germany Makes This Article Timely
Cecil Rhodes bold plan-proyided
for in his will, as recently chronicled
Ito send each year to Oxford UnlVer-
sity number of select students from
the United States, the British colon
les ana Germany, with scholarship
provision of $500 each for expenses
this far-reaching benevolence has nat
ufally called forth much discussion'
and the occasion is ripe for asking
what one of these scholarships at illus
trious Oxford is to mean,
First then, the details as to how
tie candidates are to be chosen, what
is to be required of them, ctc.-all
this Is still undetermined. The mat
ter will be worked out with delibera-
ton by boards of administrators yet
to be chosen. Rhodes never concerned
himself with ways; all he did was to
supply the means of doing things.
His scholarship endowment plan in
wolves many difficulties in practice and
it will take time to as3imilate a
schcme Of procedure.
The University of Oxford differs
from any educational institution IN
this country. 1t is not single, COM
pact university, like Harvard or Yale,
but collection of Independent col
leges under a form of confcdcracy
somewhat analogous to that by which
the various states of the Union are
bound. 1t is sort of pluribus anum.
But in Oxford the power and influence
Of the colleges predominant over the
university.
Cambridge University, in England,
Is the only other school that is like
Oxford. The other English universl-
ties and the German and French uni
versities are more like ours, though
there are of course radical differences
between such institutions in the differ.
ent countries.
It would take years of residence at
the university to understand the pecu-
liar relations which exist at Oxford.
The institution is the growth of six
or eight centuries of time, and its his.
tory is as complicated as that of
nation. Yet a little inquiry will show
us it's distinctive characteristics-lit-
tie understood as they geherally are
by. the average American.
Oxford University was not turned
cut virtually complete at one opera
ton like Stanford. From the earliest
times the place was a seat of learning.
There was a nunnery there as early
as the eighth century, and Pope Mar
tin II in S02 spoke of the town as an
educational center. Vacarius lectured
there in Latin, on law, in 1149. There
were by that time number of mon.
asteries and other religious houses
there, to some of which schools were
attached, where students were bred
up for the church.
In course Of time the teachers of
the various schools came TO meet to-
gether in a sort of institute" to dis
cuss methods and adopt general rules
From this association, distinct from
and of higher authority than any par
ticular school, the University of Ok
ford sprang. The word university"
(universitas) was first applied in a
statute OF King John. in 1901.
Walter de Merton in 1864, first gave
the institution the character it was
destined to develop He founded Mer-
Ion college; and from time to time
iuring 400 years other similar colleges
"ere founded until there were 81 in
all. These exist today, and beside
them there are some collateral schools
also, sustaining special relations to
the university.
The original purpose in founding the
separate colleges was to give the
friends and townspeople of the found
eF q place to live and study together
The various colleges arc by no means
uniform. Each has its own character,
it own customs and rules, its own sup
porters
Originally the students lived where
they pleased in the town of Oxford,
but under the college system they
were required to take up their resi-.
dence in the college buildings called
inns, hotels or halls-somewhat as
our college fraternities have their own
Quarters-where they lived in common
the meals and the rooms being
called commons"
Out Of the college funds certain
sums were laid aside to pay for the
support of a limited number of poor
er undergraduate students. and these
provisions were called scholarships.
Then other funds were established
for the support of postgraduate stu
dents, called Gellowships, and the pos.
SCISSOR of one of them yas fellow"
There are now-not including the
Rhodes acknowledgement hum
dred scholarships. worth S400 to $500
each, and about 80 fellowships worth
about $500 each. The bequests Of
$500 a year each will therefore put
the Rhodes scholars on footing, fl
nancially, with the most honured class
of residents at the university.
When a young man goes to Oxford
he is not las at our American colleges,
assigned to classes where he has to
study textbooks. rccite, listen to lee
lures, and take frequent examinations.
There is no university examination at
entrane, but all the best colleges have
an entrance examination, varying in
standard with the college.
The colleges do the teaching, what
there is of 1t, but always with view
to the honors and degrees conferred
by the university. The university it.