Modern Pass and Honours Degrees

Abstract

ALLOW me to express agreement with the article on “Scientific Education in the Metropolis” in NATURE of January 20, p. 653, where you deprecate the premature specialisation of a so-called honours degree under modern regulations, as contrasted with the old plan whereby a pass degree in a great variety of subjects had to be taken before specialisation in one subject was allowed. In the old days all the subjects were compulsory, and the range of knowledge required for Matriculation and for First and Second B.Sc. was quite considerable. A candidate who graduated with credit under those strenuous conditions might fairly be considered educated—to some extent even in the Humanities; and, at any rate, he had a severe training in working at subjects for which he had no special aptitude, but of which he ought not to be ignorant, as well as at those subjects which could be assimilated by him without effort.