The True Function of a College

IN the course of his Presidential speech at the annual prize-giving ceremony at the Calcutta Scottish Churches College His Excellency the Governor of Bengal had something both interesting and instructive to say about the true function of a College. “A College,” he said, “should be a microcosm of the greater world outside, because every wise man was or should be a student.” Very true, but if the College is to be a microcosm in this sense and to fulfil its function as such, is it not essential that those in charge of it should make it their chief business to prepare their alumni for the fuller life that awaits them in the world outside? Undoubtedly the College should cultivate a spirit of reasonable detachment. But if the College is divorced from the practical affairs of life to such an extent as to make it almost a crime in a student to listen to a patriotic political lecture, one does not see how the student is to grow up into a man at all.