The University in the Modern State

In a recent pamphlet I considered the question of the relation of the University of Birmingham to its central and suburban sites, with a view of determining what recommendation should be made to the Council concerning the Departments which ought to migrate and the Departments which ought to remain. I was able to arrive at some judgment on the matter except in cnnnection with the Faculty of Science, and there the problem became so complicated that it was necessary to make a survey of the sciences in order to get the material on which to form an opinion. This survey is now printed, not only as an appendix to the former paper, but because it is hoped that it may be useful for other purposes; especially I hope that it may be of interest to those who are able to help financially in the forthcoming great educational development of the future, enabling them to realise the immensity of the area which we attempt to cover, and the largeness of the sum which could be properly invested in suitable buildings and equipment and in endowment of staff. Our position is such that if some man of power thought fit to exercise it by entrusting us with a sum of five millions for University development, it could be well and properly employed; nor could such an investment fail to exercise an extraordinary influence on the progress of the country. Hitherto the ideas of this country in education and scientific research have been conceived on a wholly inadequate scale,