Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/642

 while on the practical side it is carried beyond the point which in a University would usually be possible. In England we have nothing, I believe, which properly corresponds to the German Technical High School; but we may expect to see some of the functions of such a school included among the functions of the new Universities in our great industrial and commercial towns.

Now Technical Schools or Institutes, which do not reach the level of a German Technical High School, may nevertheless be so planned as to be capable of being further developed as parts of a great teaching University. And the point which I now wish to note is this,—that the higher education given in a Technical Institute, which is only such, will not be quite the same as that given in the corresponding department of a teaching University. University education, as such, when it is efficient, has certain characteristics which differentiate it from the training of a specialist, however high the level of the teaching in the special subject may be. Here, however, I pause for a moment to guard against a possible misconception. I am not suggesting that the specialist training given in a technical institute, though limited, is not an excellent thing in itself; or that, in certain conditions and circumstances, it is not desirable to have such a training, attested by a diploma or certificate, instead of aiming at a University standard and a University degree. Universities themselves recognise this fact. They reserve their degrees for those who have had a