CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY. (See also UNIVERSITIES.) Schools of some sort certainly existed in Cambridge in the twelfth century, but we cannot speak of anything approaching a university in the technical sense, a studium generale, until the thirteenth. The reputation of Cambridge teaching was good enough to attract a number of Oxford students in 1209, when the lectures at their own university were suspended, and from this date Cambridge flourished. It had a chancellor, recognised by king and pope as early as 1226, and, before the end of the century, had a constitution modelled on that of Oxford and Paris. "Na tions" appear in 1261, there were two proctors or "rectors," and the usual four faculties. The supreme authority lay in the "full" congregation of regents and non-regents; in 1401 the chancellor was dispensed from seeking confirmation from the bishop of Ely, and in 1432 he was made entirely independent of him. Through out the middle ages, the town was kept, as far as possible, rigorously subject to the university. In 1318, a bull founding the university was obtained from Pope John XXII., although this meant nothing more than a formal recognition of its existence by Rome. Compared with Oxford, its history was insignificant until the fifteenth century, when it became the home of orthodoxy, the other having been left, by Wyclif's career, under a cloud of suspicion of heresy. By the fifteenth century, too, the Mendicant Orders had made Cambridge an important centre of their edu cational work in the east of England.
Of the two women's colleges, Girton was established in 1873 and Newnham in 1875 (founded in 1873, as a hall of residence).
During the same period the examinations were improved, writ ten examinations were more and more employed and in 1824 the classical tripos was introduced. In 1858, the university was thrown open to dissenters who were allowed to take the B.A., and finally all tests were abolished in 1871. In 1877 further reforms were carried, one of which included the provisions for natural science. The effect of these reforms is shown from the fact that in 1862 the number of undergraduates was 1,526 and in 1887 2,979. A large number of colleges at home and abroad were affiliated to the university. From the later half of the 19th century onwards a series of new triposes were created: moral science (1851), natural science (1851), theological (1856, examination theological tripos since 1874), law (1857, previously there had been civil law classes since i816), Semitic language (1878, since 1895 Oriental lan guages), history (1875), Indian languages (1879), mediaeval and modern languages (1886), mechanical science (engineering, 1894), economics (1905) and most of the triposes were divided into two parts. A similar growth in the university professoriate took place. New creations were made in archaeology, divinity (Hul sean), pure mathematics, political economy, zoology, Sanskrit, international law, Latin, fine arts, experimental physics, mechanics and applied science, Anglo-Saxon, ecclesiastical history, physiology, pathology, divinity (Ely), mental philosophy and logic, Chinese, ancient history, agriculture, biology, agricultural botany, astro physics, German, English literature, genetics. Readerships and college lectureships showed a like increase. A large number of important and often beautiful buildings were added to the uni versity, increasing in the majority of cases the provision for scientific laboratory study. Among the more important are the famous Cavendish laboratory for physical research (1874), the chemical laboratory (1887), the law library erected from funds given in 1898 by Miss R. F. Squire, and the Sedgwick Geological museum (opened 1904).
War Period.-This period marks in one sense a stage of great moment in the history of the university. Sixteen thousand members of the university were engaged on active service ; the contributions in research, invention, technical advice of every kind, rendered by the university, extended over the entire range of the activities provoked by the war over the whole of the British Empire; the university itself was empty of students and teachers; their places were taken for the time being by cadets, instructors, military staffs and troops, and to some extent by refugees, mainly from Belgium. Never, presumably, in the history of the uni versity was the co-operation between university and State so close, so intense or so fruitful, not without leaving permanent traces on the development of the university during the post-war period. At the same time, few phenomena of social life, after the conclusion of the war, are so impressive as the ease and rapidity with which the historic traditions of the university, in teaching, in social intercourse, in collegiate life, were resumed.
The immediate effect of the conclusion of peace was a very great increase in the number of students, temporarily swelled in addition by the presence of over 1,500 men whose education had been interrupted by the war ; assisted by Government grants, they were enabled to complete their courses by coming into resi dence for one, two, or in some cases three years. But the consid erable increase (about 75%) in the number of students over pre war numbers, which has continued even after 1922, would seem to be one of the several permanent features of the post-war history of the university, due to many causes such as the wide-spread redistribution of wealth in the country, the increase in facilities provided for education and the enhanced prestige of university training, both generally and professionally.
Meanwhile within the university one of the most outstanding events was the admission in 1923 of women to degrees but not to full membership of the body academic. In addition, the courses of study for honours, and more especially for pass men, under went considerable revision. Greek, as a compulsory subject, was dropped from, and other noteworthy changes were effected in, the previous examination (1919) ; the regulations governing the pass degree were entirely remodelled (192o) ; several of the honours examinations, notably the classical tripos and the oriental lan guages tripos, were reconstituted with a division into two parts, the first of which does not normally carry the B.A. degree with it. New triposes were established in anthropology (1913) and geography (1919), while the mediaeval and modern languages tripos, greatly enlarged in scope and endowed with benefactions for Spanish and Scandinavian studies, was split into the modern and mediaeval languages tripos and the English tripos (1917). The university further recognized the value of graduate studies by establishing the degrees of Ph.D. (1919) and of M.Litt. and M.Sc. (192o).
New professorships, readerships and boards of studies were established beyond pre-war additions which have been listed above such as the professorships of Italian (1919), naval history (1919), French (1919), physics 0919), aeronautical engineering (1919), physical chemistry (192o), biochemistry (1921), animal pathology (1923), political science (192 7) ; reader ships in Spanish, modern history, geography, agriculture, agri cultural physiology, physiology, morphology of vertebrates, petrology, pharmacology, electrical engineering, geodesy, bio chemistry, preventive medicine and experimental psychology.
Aids to learning and research of a more material nature were provided by the erection of numerous new institutes or the ex tension of existing laboratories. The engineering laboratory on the north side of Downing street was twice enlarged and finally re moved to a completely new site behind Scroope terrace, Trump ington road (192o-21). Part of the buildings thereby vacated, as well as new buildings erected close to them, were taken over by the neighbouring chemical laboratories. On the south side of Downing street sites had been found for the School of Agricul ture (1910), which was further enlarged 1926-27, for the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (1910-15), the Psychological laboratory (1913), the Physiological laboratory (1914), the For estry school (1914) ; the Molteno Institute of Animal Parasitology (1921), a low temperature station for research in biochemistry and biophysics (1922), the Sir William Dunn School of Biochem istry (1924) and the new Pathological laboratory (1928) form imposing additions to the institutes on the same Downing street site. The Examination Hall and the Arts school, off Benet street, a fine brick building faced with stone, designed by G. Hubbard, which contains a number of lecture-rooms and also houses several departmental libraries, dates back to 1911. In that year the uni versity had accepted the Government's proposal to take charge of the Solar Physics observatory, then at South Kensington, and the necessary accommodation, in close proximity to the existing observatory on the Madingley road, was completed in 1913. Field laboratories in connection with the agricultural and other depart ments on the Milton road came into use in 1910-I I. An important and handsome addition to the university buildings was Stuart House, the seat of the new "Board of extra-mural studies" (opened in 1927). In 1924 the university purchased further estate for an eventual extension of the Fitzwilliam museum : a gallery leading to the projected addition was built and opened in 1925 for the temporary housing of the "Marlay Bequest" and one side of the quadrangle which is ultimately to form the ex tension of the museum, has been so far erected (1928). In 1925 the university also bought the "Lensfield House" estate, for the building of further institutes; "Lensfield House" itself houses the "Captain Scott Polar Research Institute" (founded 1925) and an extension of the university school of architecture, which since 1923 also occupies No. I, Scroope terrace. Another important site has been secured by the university in the "Backs" for the erection of the new university library.
Emmanuel, Queens', Sidney Sussex, Clare, King's and Jesus col leges and Peterhouse added to their fabric and the chapels of Sidney Sussex and Corpus Christi colleges were enlarged and re decorated. Wesley house, a post-graduate theological college for the training of accepted candidates for the ministry of the Wes leyan Methodist Church, was opened in 1925; and Cheshunt college, a theological seminary which was removed from Cheshunt to Cambridge in 1905, found permanent quarters at the end of Bateman street (1915).
The most serious after-effect of the war on the university, in addition to straining its resources and accommodation as well as its teaching powers to the utmost by the increased numbers of its students, was its financial position due to the serious rise in the cost of living and the depreciation in the value of money. Before the war and up to 1919 the university had never received any State aid, apart from small subventions of certain departments, like Agriculture or Medicine. But in 1919 the university was faced with the alternative of a considerable deficit or a reduction of its educational efficacy, and decided to apply to the Government for an annual grant. The result was the appointment of a royal commission, the first since 1877, to carry out "a comprehensive enquiry into the resources of the university and colleges and the uses made of them"; until the commission should be in a position to report, the Government made an annual grant of £3,000 with out prejudice to any eventual decision reached as the result of the enquiry. While abstaining from interference with teaching or curricula, the commission were bound to comprise in their en quiry also matters of administration and government of the uni versity. The report of the commission, presented in 1922, is a most interesting document, giving an historical survey of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, a review of the present situation of the two universities and a detailed statement of the commission's recommendations. In 1922 a statutory commission was created to carry the recommendations into effect.
The main burden of the recommendations may be summarized as aiming (a) to effect a closer co-operation between the uni versity and the colleges financially (revised system of college taxation; adjustment of university and college salaries, etc.); (b) to unify and centralize university finance; (c) to increase the number and to improve the status of university lecturers and demonstrators ; (d) to introduce a pension scheme for university teachers ; (e) to increase the accessibility of the university by a revision of the scholarship system, and to improve the provision made for research students, etc. ; (f) to introduce certain changes in the administration of the university (such as the creation of a regent house) in order to simplify legislative machinery for the in ternal government of the university; and (g) to secure an annual grant (which was in 1925 fixed at f85,000).
The period from 1922 to 1927 saw the introduction of most of the changes decided on by the statutory commissioners, including the recasting of college statutes to bring them into harmony with the changes in university administration. It was a time of intense activity, carried on in the most friendly spirit of collaboration between the statutory commissioners, the university and the col leges, and destined to mark the beginning of a new era in the his tory of the university. Enjoying more than ever public confidence, fuller than ever, with a constantly increasing pressure of appli cants for admission, advancing into the ever widening fields of study and research, more than ever generous in help to merit and intelligence, the university, as always conscious of its tradition, has also adapted itself to the exigencies of the new situation, created by post-war conditions, and to the call of further educa tional progress.
The senate in congregation is the legislative body. Those who have votes in it are the chancellor, vice-chancellor, doctors of divinity, law, medicine, science, letters and music, and masters of art, law, surgery and music. The council of the senate, consisting of the chancellor, vice-chancellor and sixteen members of the regent house, brings all proposals (called "graces") before the regent house or senate. The senate is the legislative body but the majority of its business is done by the regent house, the senate only acting as a court of appeal. The regent house consists of burgesses, university officers, heads of houses, members and secretaries of faculties, boards and syndicates and all fellows. The revenues of the university are derived chiefly from fees at matriculation, for certain examinations, and for degrees, from a tax upon all members of the university, and from con tributions by the colleges. A board, consisting of the vice-chan cellor ex officio and certain elected members, administers the finances of the university. There are boards for each of the various faculties, and a General Board of Studies, with the vice chancellor at the head. There are 6o professors, 27 readers, the total staff with lecturers, demonstrators and teachers amounting to about 25o. The oldest professorship is the Lady Margaret professorship of divinity, instituted by the founders of Christ's and St. John's colleges in 1502.
The head of a college generally bears the title of master. The foundation of each college includes a certain number of fellows and scholars. The affairs of the college are managed by a college council of the head and the fellows. The scholars and other members in statu pupillari are termed undergraduates. Those who receive no emoluments (and therefore pay the full fees) form the bulk of the undergraduates. As regards his work, the undergraduate is under a director of studies; the disciplinary officer in college is the dean.
The total number of students is over 5,000. The colleges can not accommodate this number, so that a student commonly spends some part of his residence in lodgings, which are licensed by, and under the control of, the university authorities. Such residence implies no sacrifice of membership of a college. There are three terms—Michaelmas (October), Lent and Easter (summer). They include together not less than 227 days, though the actual period of residence for undergraduates is about 24 weeks annually. Un dergraduates usually begin residence in Michaelmas term. An elementary examination or other evidence of qualification is re quired for admission to a college. After nine terms' (three years') residence an undergraduate may take the first degree, that of bachelor of arts (B.A.). Students from affiliated colleges are allowed to present themselves for the first degree after a short ened period of residence. The examinations required for the ordinary B.A. degree are (I) Previous examination or "Little-go," or its equivalent to the School Certificate with five "credits," one necessarily in Latin; (2) examinations in the main subject; and evidence of study in three subordinate ones. Candidates for hon ours are required to have passed the Previous examination with certain additional subjects or the equivalent School Examination; they then take a tripos examination in one of the following sub jects—mathematics, classics, moral sciences, natural sciences, theology, law, history, oriental languages, mediaeval and modern languages, mechanical sciences, economics, anthropology, English, geography and archaeology. The mathematical tripos is divided into two parts, in the second of which the candidates are classed in the result as Wranglers, Senior Optimes and Junior Optimes. The classical tripos is also in two parts, to the second of which certain kindred subjects are added (ancient philosophy, history, etc.) ; other triposes are similarly divided with three classes in each part. A pass in the first part of some triposes does not ensure a degree and the candidate is obliged to take a further examination. The university also awards a certain number of diplomas in agriculture, etc., and also certificates in French, as well as research degrees which require one or two years of residence.