Developments in Undergraduate Education
T THE Senate of the University of Chicago recently approved an administrative reorganization of the work in arts, literature, and science which is significant, not because it changes administrative details, but because it is designed to facilitate projected educational developments. We are thoroughly aware that the administrative machinery of an educational institution is not an end in itself, and vindicates its existence only to the extent that it promotes, and does not impede, educational achievement. Though the educational developments which are in prospect run the gamut of our whole educational program from the admission of Freshmen to the award of the Ph.D. degree, I shall confine my discussion to the undergraduate work. The administrative reorganization recently approved was proposed and sponsored by President Hutchins, most opportunely, to facilitate the achievement of educational objectives with which he is in thorough accord, and upon which a Senate committee and two college boards have been at work during the last three years. The details of the plans now being devised center around a complete change in educational measurements. At the present time our quantity, quality, distribution, and concentration requirements for the Bachelor's degree are stated and measured in terms of quarter course-credits and grade-points. A few institutions have recently superimposed a comprehensive examination in the student's field of concentration in the senior college upon the universal requirements expressed in course-credits or semesterhours. We propose to permit the student to pass from general to specialized education, from the junior to the senior college, and to graduate with the Bachelor's degree, not at all on the basis of course-credits, but entirely on the basis of comprehensive examinations. We have two primary objectives in mind. First, we desire to protect the superior student against unreasonable lock-step, perfunctory, and time-serving requirements, and to make it possible for him to progress as rapidly in his educational development as his capacity will permit. Second, we desire to set up at least a minimum standard of educational achievement, which is not provided in the routine course-credit system, to be measured by comprehensive examinations which some inferior students, who now acquire a degree through course-credits, cannot pass. We desire to give meaning to the Bachelor's degree, that the student has passed through a stage of real educational development, and has really achieved intellectually, that he