Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarships

The Rhodes Trust now issues Memoranda which deal with the regulations and instructions which govern the eligibility and selection of candidates in their respective centres. Information may be had from the Local Committees.[32] A brief condensation of these regulations as they appear at present will answer most of the technical questions which may present themselves to a prospective candidate.

Eligibility.

Candidates must be subjects of those countries which they represent, i. e. Colonials—British subjects; Americans—citizens of the United States; Germans—German subjects.

Candidates must be unmarried.

Candidates must have passed their nineteenth birthday (except: West Australia—seventeenth, Queensland, Jamaica, and Newfoundland—eighteenth); but must not have passed their twenty-fifth (Newfoundland—twenty-first, South Africa—twenty-fourth) by October 1st of the year for which they are elected.

Candidates, except those who are exempted by the Colonial Universities Statute or by special regulations (see, for various States, Provinces, and Colonies, below), shall pass the ‘Responsions’ examination of the University of Oxford or its equivalent before becoming eligible for election.[33]

This examination is in no way competitive. It is merely a qualifying test to guarantee a degree of scholarship which will allow a student to take up a course at Oxford.

The Examination.

At the request of the Trustees, the University of Oxford named in 1904 and 1905 a Board of Examiners to prepare and handle papers for this special examination. The same method will be adopted in 1907, and probably with little change henceforth. Papers are arranged in Oxford, printed, enclosed in sealed packages, and sent to the Chairman of each Committee of Selection. These packages are opened by the supervising examiner at the time and place announced for the examination and in the presence of the candidates.

This examination will be held each year (except in the case of American, German, and South African scholarships, as noted above on p. 24) in each State or Territory, Province and Colony, not later than the month of January, at suitable centres fixed upon by the respective Committees of Selection. The Committees will appoint suitable persons to supervise the examination and ensure its impartial conduct.

Stationery will be supplied. The packets of papers when opened will be found to contain the examination questions, time tables, the printed text of classical passages, &c., which are set in questions. Therefore no textbooks will be required.

The subjects and books assigned may vary slightly from year to year. The requirements, however, are as follows:[34]—

1. Arithmetic—the whole.

2. Either, The Elements of Algebra—Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Greatest Common Measure, Least Common Multiple, Fractions, Extraction of Square Root, Simple Equations containing one or two unknown quantities, and problems producing such equations;

Or, The Elements of Geometry.

Elementary questions, including propositions enunciated by Euclid, and easy deductions therefrom, will be set on the subject-matter contained in the following portions of Euclid’s Elements, viz.:—

Book I. The whole, excluding propositions 7, 16, 17, 21.

Book II. The whole, excluding proposition 8.

Book III. The whole, excluding propositions 2, 4-10, 13, 23, 24, 26-29.

Any method of proof will be accepted which shows clearness and accuracy in geometrical reasoning. So far as possible, candidates should aim at making the proof of any proposition complete in itself. In the case of propositions 1-7, 9, 10 of Book II, algebraical proofs will be allowed.

The American student especially should note that arithmetic includes circulating decimals and English money.

3. Greek and Latin Grammar.

4. Translation from English into Latin Prose.

5. One Greek and one Latin book.

Any of the following portions of the under-mentioned authors will be accepted as a ‘book’:—

Demosthenes: De Corona.

Euripides (any two of the following Plays: Hecuba, Medea, Alcestis, Bacchae).

Homer: (1) Iliad, 1-5 or 2-6; or (2) Odyssey, 1-5, 2-6.

Plato: Apology and Crito.

Sophocles: Antigone and Ajax.

Xenophon: Anabasis, 1-4 or 2-5.

Caesar: De Bello Gallico, 1-4.

Cicero: (1) Philippics, 1, 2; or (2) In Catilinam, 1-3, and In Verrem Actio I; or (3) Pro Murena and Pro Lege Manilia; or (4) De Senectute and De Amicitia.

Horace: (1) Odes, 1-5; or (2) Satires; or (3) Epistles.

Livy: Books 5 and 6.

Virgil: (1) the Bucolics, with Books 1-3 of the Aeneid; or (2) the Georgics; or (3) the Aeneid, Books 1-5 or 2-6.

Candidates, in preparation, may save time by noticing that one Greek and one Latin book only are required. Translations only are required; no questions being asked on the context or the grammar of the passages in the set Books. Greek and Latin Grammar and Latin Prose should be given special attention for the separate papers set on those subjects.[35]

The Texts used are the Oxford Classical Texts (so far as published).

The papers written by candidates will be collected at the end of each examination, sealed, and sent to Oxford, where they will be examined. The names of those candidates who have satisfied the examiners will then be listed and sent to their respective Committees, and from these and the names of candidates who have otherwise qualified the Committee will make a selection. A certificate of having passed Responsions or of exemption from Responsions holds good permanently, so that a person once having obtained such certificates need not take the examination again in order to qualify as a candidate, and no holder of such certificate will be required to take Responsions upon entering the University of Oxford.

Any questions of doubtful eligibility are to be settled by the local Committee of Selection.

The appointment shall be made each year; not later than the first of March in Australia and New Zealand; not later than the end of March in the other States, Territories, Provinces, and Colonies. The Scholar elected will begin residence in Oxford in October of the year in which he is elected.

LOCAL QUALIFICATIONS.

Australasia.

The Universities of Sydney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria), Adelaide (South Australia), and Tasmania have applied for and been admitted to the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute[36], so that candidates coming from these Universities who have fulfilled the stated conditions are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships without further examination.

New South Wales. Candidates shall be undergraduates or graduates of the University of Sydney.

Candidates shall have resided in New South Wales for an aggregate period of four years during the five years immediately preceding the date of election.

Queensland. Candidates shall have passed their eighteenth birthday, upper limit (25) remaining the same. No candidate shall be eligible for election who has been at a University for more than three years. No person who has taken advantage of a Queensland Exhibition shall be eligible for selection unless he consent to resign the Queensland Exhibition on election to a Rhodes Scholarship.

Every candidate shall have attended a Secondary School or Schools in Queensland continuously for three years, or his parents shall for the period of five years immediately preceding his application have been resident in Queensland.

South Australia. Candidates shall have lived in South Australia for an aggregate period of four years during the six years immediately preceding the date of their election.

West Australia. Candidates shall have passed their seventeenth birthday, the upper limit (25) remaining the same.

Candidates shall have been educated in a recognized School or Schools in West Australia for at least three years immediately before the election.

Victoria. Candidates must have been resident for at least seven years in the Commonwealth of Australia or its dependencies, in New Zealand or in Fiji, and for the three years immediately preceding the election must have been resident in Victoria.

Tasmania. Candidates must have passed the first and second annual examinations for any Bachelor’s Degree in the University of Tasmania.

Candidates must have been resident in Tasmania for five years prior to being awarded Scholarships.[37]

Bermuda.

A candidate must be a natural-born British subject who was born in Bermuda, or one of whose parents has been domiciled and resident in Bermuda, for at least five years immediately preceding January 1st in the year of selection, or in the event of his parents being dead, one of them must have been domiciled and resident in Bermuda for at least five years immediately prior to his or her death.

A candidate must have been educated in Bermuda for at least five years between the ages of twelve and twenty years.

A candidate who has attended a Colonial University affiliated to Oxford is exempted from Responsions.

Canada.

An elected Scholar must have reached at least the end of his sophomore or second year’s work at some recognized degree-granting University or College of Canada.

Candidates may elect whether they will apply for the Scholarship of the Province in which they have acquired any considerable part of their educational qualification, or for that of the Province in which they have their ordinary private domicile, home or residence. They must be prepared to present themselves for examination or election in the Province they select. No candidate may compete in more than one Province, either in the same or successive years.

The following Canadian Universities have applied for and been admitted to the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute, so that candidates coming from these Universities who have fulfilled the conditions are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships without further examination:—

Jamaica.

Candidates must have passed their eighteenth birthday, the upper limit (25) remaining the same.

The parents or recognized guardians of candidates must be actually domiciled in Jamaica, such domicile to include at least seven years of residence in Jamaica immediately preceding the election. In cases where, during the seven years’ period, the parent or guardian has taken short holiday trips off the island, such absence shall not be counted.

Candidates must have passed at least five years of their life in Jamaica. If educated partially abroad, candidates must not have left Jamaica to commence such part of their education before the age of eleven years, their preliminary education having been secured in Jamaica.

Every third year the selection of the Rhodes Scholars will be made from the candidates who have lived in Jamaica for the whole of the seven years preceding the date of examination. In case of such candidate having been off the island for the benefit of his health during this period, the Committee of Selection may decide, if they think fit, that this does not interfere with his eligibility. (Candidates who have attended a Colonial University affiliated to Oxford are exempted from Responsions if they fulfil the conditions of the Statute.) The qualifying examination will be held in the city of Kingston each year.

Newfoundland.

Candidates must have passed their eighteenth birthday, but must not have passed their twenty-first birthday, on the first of October of the year for which they are elected.

Candidates or their parents must have resided in the Colony for the five years immediately preceding the examination.

Candidates must have been regular attendant pupils or teachers in one of the public schools of the Colony for the three scholastic years immediately previous to the examination, provided that in alternate years, beginning in 1905, candidates who have received their education elsewhere subsequent to their fifteenth birthday, and who are otherwise qualified, shall be eligible.

The qualifying examination shall be held in the city of St. John’s each year.

New Zealand.

Candidates must be either graduates of the University of New Zealand or undergraduates of that University. They must have been for five years immediately preceding the year of election domiciled in the Colony, and must have been educated in the Colony four of such years.

The University of New Zealand has applied for and has been admitted to the privileges of the Colonial Universities’ Statute, so that candidates coming from that University who have fulfilled the stated conditions are accepted as candidates for Rhodes Scholarships without further examination.

The qualifying examination will be held in the city of Kingston each year.

South Africa.

Candidates must have passed their eighteenth, but not have passed their twenty-fourth birthday on October 1 of the year for which they are elected.[39]

Natal. (Additional Qualifications.) In Natal candidates are required (1) to have been educated at a School or Schools in the Colony of Natal for six years previous to the date of election, or (2) to have their legal domicile in Natal for six years, though acquiring their education or any part of it in other Colonies of South Africa. The Committee of Selection is free to make allowance at its discretion for temporary absences from the Colony or from South Africa during the six years referred to.

The Trustees desire to have assurances of full preparation up to the Oxford standard of Responsions of all Scholars elected by the four College Schools to which Scholarships are assigned in Cape Colony.

To this end permission has been given to these Schools to allow their elected Scholars, before taking up the Scholarship at Oxford, to pursue their studies, for a limited time after leaving school, at the higher institutions of the Colony.

In view of existing educational conditions, leave is occasionally given at present by the Trustees for candidates for the Scholarships assigned to Rhodesia who are being educated in other parts of Africa or in England to compete, provided that their parents reside in or are intimately connected with the Colony. In these instances the candidate is allowed to take Responsions or its equivalent either in England or in the Colony where he is receiving his education. Application for leave to compete under these conditions must be made to the Trustees directly or through the Director of Education for Rhodesia. Other things being equal, preference will be given to candidates educated in Rhodesia.

The United States of America.

An elected scholar shall have reached, before going into residence, at the least the end of his sophomore or second-year work at some recognized degree-granting University or College of the United States. An exception to this rule is made in the case of the State of Massachusetts, where, at the request of the Committee of Selection, authority is given to appoint from the Secondary Schools.

Candidates may elect whether they will apply for the Scholarship of the State or Territory in which they have acquired any large part of their educational qualification, or for that of the State or Territory in which they have their ordinary private domicile, home or residence. They may pass the qualifying examination at any centre, but they must be prepared to present themselves before election to the Committee of Selection in the State or Territory they select.

No candidate may compete in more than one State or Territory either in the same year or in successive years.

Selection.[40]

In accordance with the wish of Mr. Rhodes, the Trustees desire that[41] ‘in the selection of a student to a Scholarship regard shall be had to (i) his literary and scholastic attainments; (ii) his fondness for and success in manly outdoor sports, such as cricket, football, and the like; (iii) his qualities of manhood, truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship; and (iv) his exhibition, during school days, of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates’. Mr. Rhodes suggested that (ii) and (iii) should be decided in any School or College by votes of fellow students, and (iv) by the Head of the School or College.

Where circumstances render it impracticable to carry out the letter of these suggestions, the Trustees hope that every effort will be made to give effect to their spirit, but desire it to be understood that the final decision must rest with the Committee of Selection.

As a separate memorandum is prepared for each of several groups into which the scholarship system has been divided, it is impossible to reproduce here all the details of each. The following clauses are taken from the Memorandum issued for the United States:—

To aid in making a choice each qualified Candidate should be required to furnish to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection:—

(a) A Certificate of age (showing that he is within the eligible limits of age).

(b) A full statement of his educational career at School and College, his record in athletics, and such testimonials from his masters at School and his professors at College, in reference to the qualities indicated by Mr. Rhodes, as will assist the judgement of the Committee of Selection.

(c) In cases where more than one Candidate from a single School or College or University has qualified, the School, College, or University should be required to select (in accordance with the views of Mr. Rhodes) its chosen representative to go before the Committee of Selection for final choice, and a Certificate that he has been so chosen shall be sent to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection.

Each Candidate should personally present himself to the Committee of Selection before a final decision is made, unless specially excused by the Committee itself, in which case a statement of the reasons should be sent to the Trustees.

If a careful comparison of these records and personal interviews with the Candidates do not furnish sufficient grounds for making a decision, the Committee of Selection is free to apply to the Candidates, or to any selected number of them, such further intellectual or other tests as they may consider necessary (for purposes of comparison).

The Chairman of the Committee of Selection should at once notify to the Trustees and to Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, the name of the elected Scholar, and should forward to the latter all the records, credentials, and testimonials relating to the Scholar on which the election was made. These papers should be transmitted immediately, as they are used in consulting College authorities in regard to the admission of Scholars. It has been the experience of the past two years that Scholars have frequently been unable to gain admission to any of the Colleges of their preference owing to remissness in forwarding to Mr. Wylie the necessary information.

The following ‘Instructions’, issued to Scholars elected for the year 1905, indicate the course of procedure by which a Scholar is entered at Oxford:—

‘1. In order to be admitted to the University of Oxford, it is necessary to be first accepted as a member of one of the Colleges which compose the University.

Election to a Rhodes Scholarship does not of itself admit to a College.[42] Every College has its own standard for admission, for Rhodes Scholars as for all other applicants, and accepts or rejects at its own discretion. Moreover, the number of Rhodes Scholars which any one College will admit is strictly limited. Few Colleges will admit more than five in any one year; and in the majority of cases four is the maximum. From the different candidates for admission a College will select those whose records suggest that they are most likely to do credit to the College to which they may belong. It is therefore essential that, in applying for admission to a College, a Scholar should submit the fullest possible evidence as to his personal character and academic record.

‘2. The procedure for a Scholar-elect should be as follows:—

(1) Immediately on receiving notice of his election he should write to the Oxford Secretary to the Rhodes Trustees, Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, stating in order the Colleges which he prefers.

(2) He should satisfy himself that the credentials which he submitted to the Committee of Selection have been forwarded by the Chairman to Mr. Wylie.

(3) He should himself forward to Mr. Wylie any portion of the following information which may not have been included in the documents submitted to the Committee of Selection:—

(a) A Certificate of age;

(b) Testimonials as to character;

(c) Certified evidence as to the Courses of Study pursued by the Scholar at his University, and as to the gradings attained to by him in those Courses. This evidence should be signed by the Registrar, or other responsible official, of his University;

(d) A Catalogue of his University;

(e) Evidence as to the general tastes and pursuits of the Scholar outside his Academic Course;

(f) Information as to the intentions of the Scholar in regard to the line of study he proposes to follow at Oxford.

It is also desirable that the Scholar should state to what religious denomination he belongs.

All this material must reach Mr. Wylie by the beginning of the Summer Term—that is, by the middle of April at the latest.

‘3. When Mr. Wylie has the necessary information in his hands he will attempt to secure for each Scholar admission to the College of his preference. That will not be always possible. When a Scholar fails to gain admission to the College which stands first on his list of preferences, Mr. Wylie will enter into negotiation with the College second on that list, and so on.

Where he is specially requested to do so, Mr. Wylie is prepared to select a College for a Scholar, but it is greatly to be preferred that each Scholar should, so far as possible, choose for himself.’

The Scholarship will be paid quarterly. The first payment (£75) will be made in the course of the first week of the Michaelmas Term (October). No request for any earlier payment can be considered.

After a Scholar has been once accepted by a College he should conduct all further correspondence as to residence, studies, &c., directly with the College in question.[43] A Scholar must arrive in Oxford not later than the day on which his College assembles; and it will in most cases be advantageous to arrive a few days earlier.