The last few years have seen a striking change in the direction of the interests and activities of large numbers of university students in Great Britain. The tendency which existed some years ago for the university student to abstract himself from the world round him and to maintain that its problems were not his concern, has given place to an intense realization among large numbers of students that such an attitude cannot be justified and that students must, as well as every other section of the population, concern themselves intimately with the outstanding social and political questions of the day.
e reason for this change in the interests of the students is not far to seek. Since 1929 young people have seen the world in which ihey are to live and to work grow more and more unstable, They have witnessed the breakdown in the economic organization of society and-the deterioration of international relations. As the drive to war became increasingly clear their hope of the ordered development of society receded into the back ground.
This growth in the social awareness of the students has expressed itself in many ways, not least in their attitude to the universities, themselves. For if the students are seeking to play a constructive role in society, it is natural that they should ask that their education should assist them in this object. With this aim in view the students have made many suggestions for the reform of the universities so that they will produce graduates who are informed and responsible members of society rather than people who may be experts and specialists in their own particular "subjects" but who are otherwise largely ignorant.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.