I recently received the alumni newsletter from the department of economics, Oxford University. When I was at Oxford there was no economics department. There were two university professors of economics. One was John R. Hicks, a theorist, who was awarded the Nobel prize in economics, and John Jewkes, an empirical economist who researched real industries instead of theorizing about them.
There were no departments at all, no classes, no courses that a student had to take. Oxford University consisted of men’s and women’s colleges that were gender specific. Students were admitted to colleges, which provided them with tutors and a reading list with which to prepare for an exam in three years that would determine whether they graduated with honors, a second class degree, a pass, or not at all.
The university provided lectures on the subjects that students needed to know depending on the subject that they were pursuing, such as mathematics, classics, science, or PPE (politics, philosophy, and economics). The lectures came from lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors. It was up to the student whether he attended the lectures. The gown worn by students secured admission. There were no class rolls.
The task of the student and his tutor was to prepare for the exam in three years. When a student met with his tutor, the tutor would quiz the student to determine if the student was attending to the reading list and attending the lectures that would provide a grasp of the subject to answer the exam questions.
After students sat for exams, their answers would not be graded by Oxford dons and lecturers. The written answers would be sent to other universities. This insured that universities could not give a leg up to their graduates in competition for the plumb appointments that came with firsts or honors degrees.
The exams imposed an orthodoxy, but it was one that rested on consensus based on objective research, not perfect, but not on politically imposed narratives as is the rule today.
Few, if any, Oxford faculty, to call them that, had Ph.D. degrees. Some were promising honor graduates that the colleges decided to keep. They paid a fee and were given a M.A. or M.S. That was it. Others with honor degrees went into the professional civil service.
Try to imagine an American student today or a British one being able to cope with preparing to pass an exam in three years. The enormous discipline and commitment are absent. It was this kind of discipline imposed on young people who would be Britain’s leaders that created and maintained the British Empire, the rule of a small island over much of the world.
Today, of course, the discipline is gone. In place of the British elite, Oxford is filled with foreigners, many of whose families are buying a ticket for their children to enter the Western world. Gender segregated colleges are gone. My college, Merton which dates to the 12th century, is multicultural. In the fundraising materials I receive I seldom see a white male.
It seems to me that Oxford University is reduced to selling its historic predominance. Cambridge is likely doing the same. The newsletter from Oxford’s economics department stresses the economists’ research in “Equality Diversity and Inclusivity,” designated as EDI. Oxford University has launched “a graduate scholarship for students pursing research in this area.” This success will be celebrated with drinks at a reception to which I am invited.
What does one make of the descent into commercialism by what was once the most prestigious university in the world? My answer is that the descent of Oxford into the marketing of the prestige of its degree is illustrative of the descent of the Western world. Everything in the West is based on money.
Where is the moral eminence of the West when it supports with money, weapons, and diplomacy Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinians, when the West supports pointless conflicts with Russia, China, and Iran, and when the West imposes tyranny against its own people, essentially wiping out all the gains made for accountable government over decades and centuries?
Try to find scholars who address these issues.
From the 12th century until the 21st century, the wardens (presidents) of Merton College, Oxford, were men. Now they are women. This shows the descent of men in the modern Western world.
Little wonder that Washington is creating robots to fight for its tyrannical rule. No white heterosexual male in his right mind would fight for the US or for the UK. Both governments do all that they can to oppress white male heterosexuals. The US and UK governments are the enemies of white procreation. They are intentionally replacing their white ethnic populations. It is a slow genocide, but none the less real than what Israel is doing to Palestine with American and British help.
Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts I recently received the alumni newsletter from the department of economics, Oxford University. When I was at Oxford there was no economics department. There were two university professors of economics. One was John R. Hicks, a theorist, who was awarded the Nobel prize in economics, and John Jewkes, an … Continue reading “Is Scholarship an Activity of the Past?”