Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-12
LENGTH OF THE COLLEGE, COURSE

UT 4LlH bEuk
In his first annual report to the trus-
tees of Columbia university President
Nicholas Murray Butler declares him
self squarely for cutting the college
course required for the A. b.. degree to
two years. This recommendation comes
in answer to the protest against keeping
students too long in college before
launching them upon the active profess
sional career which is the goal Of their
collegiate instruction and transfers them
into the income-prOducing class. In an
exhaustive discussion of the subject
President Butler points out how the
standard of college work has been stead
lily raised until the bachelors degree
granted at the end of a four years
course no longer represents what 1t did
three or four decades ago, but far more
than was required then, when young
men as a rule finished ut college before
attaining their majority, instead of as
now at an average age upwards Of %.
The requirements for entrance today, he
insists. are equal to what would for
merly give admission to the Junior year,
while the instruction formerly constitut-
ing the first two years of the college
course is now secured in the high schools
and preparatory academies before the
student seeks enrolment at college.
The idea advanced by President But
Ter is to retain the present four years
course, but to rearrange 1t so that 1t will
include a lesser course of two years, the
latter to be a prerequisite to further
study in the professional schools lead
ing to degrees in law, medicine, science
and theology. while the former would be
offered to those desiring a more com
plete culture course capped with the A.
NJ. degree, or bent on pursuing the more
exacting researches for which the doe
tors degree is the prize achieved.
That the tendency is everywhere to-
ward a shorter college course and more
strict requirements for admission to the
professional schools is plainly visible.
In all the larger educational institutions
the development of the elective system
has been to substitute for the last year
of the college course the first years
work in medicine, law or advanced sci
ence for those who figure on continuing
professional studies at the same institu,
ton, but discriminating to the extent OF
a years instruction against students
from other institutions. To an unpreju.
diced mind this handicap in the profes,
sional schools ON graduates of other col
leges as against those from the collegiate
department of the same university has
never appeared j%ustihable. In the field
Of higher education, If nowhere else
pure democracy should rule and merit
alone win, with each competitor accorded
equal terms with every other. That in
itself proves the unreasonable and un
tenable character Of the present college
course with intermittent fourth year anC
affords the basis for President Eliot's
move at Harvard to grant the bachelor,
degree at the end of the third year with
out deferment to students completing
the required work and the present rec
ommendation OF President Butler, which
will doubtless be denounced In many
quarters a revolutionary.
The college course is in a state Of huI
just at present-it is headed in the direc
ton outlined by President Butler, but e
carry II the whole distance he advocates