Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/124

 deal with subjects of an interest inferior to none. Their value as educational instruments has always been recognised in this University. But there have been practical difficulties in the way of giving them that full recognition which we all admit to be desirable. That this University has never been indisposed to concede to science, in the restricted sense of that term, a place among the other instruments of education, is proved from the position the physicial and experimental sciences have all along held in its Matriculation Examination and its scheme for the M.A. Degree. But the increasing perception of the vast benefits which science can, if we give her room, offer to India, and the desirability of giving full and unfettered scope to those among our students who are attracted towards her by the bent of their own mind or the hope of doing service to their country, combine to form a loud call to the University to institute new and exclusive courses of study in science and to grant new scientific degrees. The matter is still sub judice, but I have no doubt that the Senate will join the Syndicate in the hearty response they are prepared to make to the call of the Chancellor. Passing to the other Faculties, the schemes for degrees in them have received from time to time consideration and some modifications, but not to such an extent as to call for further allusion on the present occasion.

Greater changes have been made in the Matriculation Examination, For many years we stood alone in requiring the attendance of all candidates for that examination in Bombay. The year before last the experiment of conducting a portion of the examination at certain centres was tried, followed in the year just concluded by the entire examination being conducted in the above manner. It is too early to form an opinion as to whether the alteration has been successful. But on this point I may venture to throw out a suggestion as to whether an entire modification of our entrance examination should not be made. My own opinion inclines to making the English portion of the examination more searching and more practical and reducing the number and the importance of the other subjects. There is no doubt that one of the greatest difficulties the student finds on joining the Colleges is to understand the lectures and the text- books. Whether the University should confine itself to the English test, leaving the other subjects to be dealt with by the Colleges, is a matter for consideration. But at all events I think that proficiency in a great portion of the other subjects in the present Matriculation Examination might be postponed to the F.A.