Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/ Document : 542 Title: Report on the Faculty of Arts, Regarding the Teaching of Female Students Author(s): Ramsay, George Gilbert University of Glasgow REPORT OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS November 11, 1895. University of Glasgow REPORT OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS. (To be considered at next Meeting of Senate.) THE FACULTY have met twice to consider the remit of Senate of June 6, 1895, to the following effect: "The Senate referred to the Faculty of Arts to consider and report upon the following representation by the General Council transmitted to the University Court, viz.: That the Council represent to the University Court that it is now desirable that women who intend to graduate should be permitted to join in the ordinary classes of the University." After full consideration, it was resolved to report as follows: "The Faculty of Arts having considered the remit of Senate of June 6, are unanimously in favour of the admission of women to the ordinary graduation classes, provided that there is no special difficulty in the way of their admission to any particular class." The Faculty have carefully considered the whole question involved in the above remit as it now stands, in the light of recent experience both here and elsewhere, and they have come to the general conclusion that so far as the Faculty of Arts is concerned, the interests of women students, and of the University as a whole, will best be served by permitting women, in most subjects, to attend the same graduation classes as men students, and that any objections to such an arrangement which may fairly be entertained are more than outweighed by the corresponding advantages. Such an opinion would no have been held so clearly by members of the Faculty - certainly not unanimously - some years ago. Before the system had been tried, various difficulties suggested themselves. That both men and women students would feel embarrassment in joint classes, - that the treatment of certain subjects might suffer, - that difficulties of various kinds in the order and management of classes might arise, - such things were naturally feared: but the experience of other Universities, and of our own - in which women have been admitted to the Honour classes, and to some of the ordinary classes - has practically allayed these doubts. It has been found that after the first novelty of the situation was over, in the Honours and other classes, men and women students could be taught together in a perfectly natural way, without embarrassment or difficulty, and that if any difference at all has been brought about by the introduction of women into the classes, it has been to the benefit of both kinds of student. If then the feared objections fall to the ground as more imaginary than real, the advantages of joint teaching, wherever possible, are obvious. In the first place, it is a positive wrong to a subject that a Professor should be forced to deliver over again the identically same lecture, or the same instruction, twice in one day. It is a mere waste, and a useless waste, of force. Such repetition takes life and interest alike out of the man and of his subject; it wastes not time only, but also part of that freshness which is essential to a Professor if he is to do his work well. And the loss to the woman student is not less great. If she is taught solely or mainly by an assistant, she is not getting the same teaching as the men. If she is taught by the Professor, she loses the zest of large and free competition, all the life and enthusiasm which affect both taught and teacher in a large University class, and in which the best inspiration of University teaching is to be found. It is only by being taught under the same conditions as men, as members of the same class, that women students can receive the same University education as the men. Nevertheless, the Faculty recognise that the circumstances of all classes are not the same, and they are of the opinion that each case should be considered on its own merits. As regards the preparatory classes in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics - those outside the Arts curriculum - there seems good reason why separation might be maintained in these. Where the classes are sufficiently large already, and likely to be largely attended by women - as in the case of English Literature - separate classes may be a matter of necessiry. If, again, a Professor has a strong objection to mixed classes, and finds himself cramped in his treatment of his subject by the presence of women, due weight should be attached to such objections; but where the classes are not too large, and the probable number of women students is small; where the Professor is willing, or even anxious, to have but one class; where the subject is such that interest in it is quickened by the contact with numbers - in such cases, the Faculty are of opinion that women may be allowed to attend the ordinary curriculum class on the same condition as men. Should any difficulty arise in any particular case, separate classes can again be resorted to; but the experience already obtained in the Education class, in the Moral Philosophy class last session, in the Political Economy and History classes, as well as in various Honour Classes, warrants the expectation that such difficulties are not likely to occur. Without therefore insisting that all classes and all subjects should necessarily be treated in the same way, and recognising that there may be advantages in proceeding tentatively in a matter of this kind, the Faculty would recommend that separate classes be discontinued in those subjects to which the conditions above stated obviously apply. G. G. RAMSAY, Dean of the Faculty of Arts. November 11, 1895.