Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/111

Rh It cannot be claimed for the revised courses for the M.A. Economies that they are by any means perfect; they are, like many other things, the result of a compromise. The ideal would have been to re-arrange the entire course in both years completely on the lines now adopted for Course B, that is to say, insisting in all students' working in the Department under the University Professor, doing practical enquiries, and learning to handle statistics from the beginning of their studies. All students for the M.A. would thus have come under the system of an examination co-ordinated with the teaching, and would have attained a knowledge of the value of books by having learn how to handle the facts and realities which lie behind them. It is very useful, however, to have these principles recognised in the new course, and it would hardly be possible with the existing organisation of the University to obtain any greater advance at the present time.

A further striking change in the Prospectus is the abolition of the list of books recommended for study in connection with each paper, on the ground that students of M.A. standing should not be dependent on particular text-books. In place of the recommended books the Board of Studies have prepared, and printed in the University Prospectus for 1919, a classified list of more than one hundred books regarded by them as standard works, which the M.A. student ought to consult and to read so far as may in his judgment be necessary and his time permits. The list will be revised from time to time, and it may be taken as the nucleus of a library of books on economics. Certainly these books ought to be in the Library of every College affiliated to the University in economies up to the M.A. Standard.