THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN ENGINEERING

EDUCATION.

BY CHARLES L. CRANDALL,

Professor of Railroad Engineering and Geodesy, Cornell University.

The time which the average American student should spend in a technical school has been much discussed both in this society and out of it, and the conclusion seems to be that the limit should be four years. In regard to the time which should be spent in preparation, agreement is not so close. This is in part due to the failure of the preparatory schools to respond to advanced college entrance requirements, thus preventing an increase in the time required for preparation even if desired. There is a marked tendency however to encourage, if not to require, a decided increase in general training for entrance; the effect of this is to relieve the college course of literary subjects and thus give more room for technical ones. The time given to the technical work of the course is thus still on the increase, although the entire college course has a fixed length.

Many students take an A.B. degree before beginning a technical course, requiring six years if the two courses are well correlated or seven if they are not.

The time devoted to education for the engineering profession is thus on the increase despite the four year limit placed upon the technical course.

At the end of this four-year course the average student who may wish to take up advanced work or become an engineering teacher is usually advised to

first enter active practice for a few years in order to better appreciate the spirit and field of engineering.

On the other hand many of the large companies employing engineers prefer to take them at this period in order to train them in their methods and for their special needs.

The supply of men is far short of the demand so that no difficulty is experienced in obtaining positions and fairly rapid promotions.

Under these conditions the demand for graduate work must be small. It is however real and a demand which will increase in the near future. The field of engineering is broadening rapidly and its technical requirements are becoming more exacting. exacting. This makes necessary a broader and more thorough education and an earlier specialization. When the supply of young engineers again reaches or exceeds the demand, advanced engineering education will be sought as a means for advancement. When the speaker entered the profession, engineering education and a college degree were drawbacks in securing a position. Now they have come to be appreciated by the profession and to be demanded of the young man seeking a position.

To meet the demand for graduate work a large number of our engineering schools have established advanced or graduate courses of study in connection with their undergraduate ones. This is believed to be the natural and desirable line of development. The dividing line between undergraduate work as carried on at our best schools and graduate work is not sharply defined. With the great variations in undergraduate courses at the different schools, many students will come for graduate work who will wish

to round out their undergraduate course. The graduate school will elevate the ideals and aid in vitalizing the work of the undergraduates, acting on both the faculty and students. Much of the apparatus can be used in common, while many members of the faculty would give instruction and look after the needs of both.

The development for civil engineering at Cornell University may be of interest as somewhat typical for the American school.

At the opening in 1868, the degree of B.C.E. was provided for the four-year course, which was about one third technical and two thirds science and general culture. The master's degree of C.E. could be obtained after two years of additional study and practice by passing the requisite examinations. Twenty advanced degrees were taken on this basis between 1868 and 1891 inclusive.

In 1880-1 a one-year prescribed course of resident graduate study with free tuition was added as an alternate for the two years of additional study and practice, but no C.E. degree was ever conferred on this basis.

In 1885-6 the degree for the four-year course was changed to C.E. and the graduate course was replaced by prescribed courses in six different specialties, the student taking his choice between them. Seven university graduate fellowships of the value of $400 each were established in 1884-5. This number was increased to fifteen in 1891-2.

The first master's degree for resident graduate work was granted in 1890-91, and this should be taken as the date for the beginning of graduate work in civil engineering at Cornell. Since that time 34 mas

ter's degrees have been granted, about one half for resident graduate work and the other one half for non-resident. Tuition for graduate study was added in 1893-4 and this has cut off all non-resident study for the master's degree.

The college now has one graduate fellowship paying $500 and one graduate scholarship paying $400. No prescribed graduate courses are offered. The student chooses a major and one or two minors under the general regulations of the graduate department of the university and he is looked after by a special committee consisting of the professors in charge of the major and minor subjects.

Our students are also eligible for, and several have taken, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the same general system as for the master's degree.

From such catalogues as were available, representing seventeen of the leading civil engineering schools of this country giving graduate courses, we find there were teaching civil engineering subjects for the year 1905-6:

50 full professors, or an average of 3 per school, the greatest number being 5, the least 1.

24 assistant and associate professors, average 1.5; or 74 professors, average 4.5, greatest 9, followed by two of 7 each, three of 5 each, and two of 4 each.

58 instructors, average 3.4; greatest 20, least 2. 43 assistants, average 2.5; greatest 10, least 0; or 101 instructors and assistants, average 6.

Professor C. D. Marx, in a private pamphlet prepared for Cornell University last year, gives the following data for the civil engineering departments for three of the German technical schools for the summer session of 1905.

* These figures do not include instructors and assistants, nor those professors teaching mathematics, mechanics and descriptive geometry.

The Berlin school was established as a "Hochschule" in 1879. The school at Aachen was founded in 1870, and that at Danzig was opened for instruction in October, 1904.

The best of our civil engineering technical schools compare favorably with those at Aachen and Danzig as to the number of professors per school or per graduate student, but not as to the number of professors per total number of students. We have nothing to compare as to number of professors with the school at Berlin, the tendency here being to provide for additional students not by additional professors but by instructors and assistants. This tendency has been carried too far in all or nearly all our large schools with the result of lowering the grade of instruction.

On the whole the comparison warrants the belief that our existing schools are ready to meet, if not to anticipate, the demand for high grade advanced work as rapidly as it develops.

Some of the characteristics of German technical education are well brought out by Mr. Bashford in the Fortnightly Review, Vol. 84, 1905. He says that "there is no example in the history of education that can be compared with the rapid and extraordinary