Abstract
THE study of biology in the universities was one of the two subjects discussed at the annual conference of the universities of Great Britain and Ireland, held this year at the London School of Economics on May 11. One of the questions dealt with was whether the universities are sufficiently active in promoting the study of biology, and this part of the discussion was focused mainly on an appeal from the Colonial Office for university trained biologists competent to deal with the biological problems continually arising in the economic exploitation of the resources of various parts of the Empire. Commenting on this, Prof. G. N. Watson, of University College, London, emphasised the fact that for such work the narrow specialist is quite unsuitable, the problems in question being incapable of solution without wide knowledge and lively imagination. He outlined an appropriate four years' honours course. Prof J. Arthur Thomson and others directed attention to the necessity of providing in universities at least three separate courses in biology appropriate, respectively, to the requirements of the medical student, the arts student, and the student intending to specialise later as biologist. The report of the proceedings of the Conference, including the discussion of the other subject dealt with, namely, university entrance requirements and, in relation thereto, the curricula of the last two years of school, has recently been published by the Universities Bureau of the British Empire, 50 Russell Square, W.C.1 (1s.).
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University and Educational Intelligence. Nature 124, 601 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124601b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124601b0