Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/122

 since my appointment to that high office, and thus as it were give you an account of the stewardship which has been confided to the Syndicate over which I have presided for that period. It appears that while for the first ten years up to 1871, 176 degrees were conferred; in the eight following, including the present Convocation, the roll of graduates has increased to 571, while the total number of students who presented themselves for the Matriculation have increased from 4,567 to 12,931, and those who succeeded in passing that test from 1,227 to 3,565. While the B.A. degree has been progressing in a satisfactory manner, the scientific degrees of L.M. & S., M.D., and L.C.E. have increased in a greater proportion. I think this is a fact on which the University may well congratulate itself, as it shows that a large number of the young men of the present generation are educating themselves for the purpose of gaining a professional livelihood. It further shows, from the results of the Matriculation, that the University has maintained that high standard for its entrance which has distinguished it from the beginning from its sister Universities. It will be seen that while in the first ten years the ratio of successful students was about one-fourth, the same proportion has been maintained during the succeeding eight years. Our great object has been to prevent in the first place Matriculation and afterwards the attainment of degrees, being made too easy. We have preferred a few comparatively highly trained men to a multitude of an inferior quality. I trust that when another decade draws to a close, when one of my successors may have to submit a similar review, that the results may be, especially as to the standards, equally satisfactory.

In 1870 the University was in the possession of Courses of Study and Regulations for Graduations in the various Faculties, over the elaboration of which much thought had been spent, and which had stood the test of experience on the whole very satisfactorily. But it need cause no surprise that as time went on some modifications suggested themselves, and no small part of the attention of the Governing Body has during the last five years been directed towards the task of removing inconsistencies, adapting our courses of study more and more to the surrounding circumstances, and giving fuller recognition to the great advances that have been made in recent times in certain branches of knowledge. Chief among the changes to which I refer have been the modifications introduced, on the recommendation of a Committee presided over by Mr. Justice West,