§ Mr. IRVINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether, in view of the extensive improvements in the educational system which have taken place since the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were last the subject of inquiry by a Royal Commission, of the consequent great increase in the number of personsqualified to profit by study in those universities, and of the urgent importance of securing that no young person qualified to profit by study in a university shall be prevented from doing so by financial obstacles, the Government will consider the desirability of appointing a Royal Commission to inquire into the constitution, government, finance, and endowments of the Universities and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge?
§ Mr. FISHERI sympathise with the particular object which the hon. Member has in view, and I shall do everything I can to forward it. The question, however, of appointing a Royal Commission on the two universities raises wide issues, and would require very careful consideration, at the hands of His Majesty's Government. I believe that there is a considerable body of opinion in both universities in favour of somewhat extensive changes in the general direction which I, in common with the hon. Member, regard as conducive to the interests both of the universities and the nation.