ABSTRACT
Subject-mindedness on the part of the teacher, so often decried as a vice in schools, is nowhere more rife than in the university. There, by some unexplained alchemy in the learning process, it is exalted as a virtue and receives its reward in the shape of an Honours degree. Apparently the nature and content of the subject-matter are immaterial, for the modern seat of Higher Learning accommodates within its walls all the fissiparous branches of know-how as well as knowledge – humane and scientific, pure and applied, liberal and vocational – in a higgledy-piggledy free-for-all where each counts for one. Where subject-mindedness rules the roost, scholarly opinion can be obdurate to the point of being ingrown. The account which follows sets out as objectively as possible the results obtained from administering culture-tests to groups of students in the various Faculties of a single university.
