[12 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
SHOULD AN ANTECEDENT LIBERAL EDUCATION BE 
REQUIRED OF STUDENTS IN LAW, MEDICINE, AND 
THEOLOGY 2 
BY PROFESSOR WOODROW WILSON, OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 
[Professor Wilson first read the following letter from Professor James Barr Ames, of Harvard University. 
ind then continued the discussion of the above subject :] 
No one, I assume, thinks the time has yet come, if indeed it will ever come in this 
country, for us to imitate the Germans and make the college and the university profes- 
sional school the only avenue to professional life. I should certainly be opposed to any 
legislation making either an academic degree or a university professional degree a 
prerequisite to the practice of any one of the three old professions. 
But whether a university professional school should, by way of improving the quality 
of its students, insist upon an academic degree from a college in good standing as a 
prerequisite to candidacy for its own professional degree, is an altogether different ques- 
sion. To one who believes that we must look to the voluntary action of the universities 
for the elevation of the standard of professional education, this question admits of but 
one answer. Every university, in its own interest as well as in behalf of the community, 
should, as soon as reasonably practicable, treat the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Litera- 
sure, Science, or Philosophy as an indispensable condition of receiving the higher 
professional degree. The university would in this way not only improve the quality of 
the professional schools ; it would also help the college, by throwing the whole infiuence 
of the professional schools in favor of a college education. 
The desired result must, of course, come about gradually. The oldest and richest of 
American universities has not yet adopted the policy here advocated in all its depart. 
ments. College graduates alone can receive the Harvard degree in theology. The 
same will be true of the degree in law after the academic year 1895-96. The faculty 
of the medical school would like to adopt a similar rule, but the percentage of college 
graduates among its students is still so small that it is not thought wise to incur the 
isk of a large reduction in the numbers of the school. 
Two other considerations should be kept in mind. The principle here urged does not 
2xclude from the professional schools those who are not college graduates. Those who 
pass the moderate entrance examinations may be admitted as special students and 
receive the benefit of the instruction. The professional degree alone is denied to them. 
Secondly, much might be said in favor of a still further concession to special students 
of unusual ability, who have been deprived, through no fault of their own, of the 
advantages of a college education. 1t might be provided, as is the case under the recent 
legislation of the Harvard Liaw School, that a special student who resided at the pro- 
fessional school for the full course, and who obtained a mark within five per cent. of 
that required for the honor degree, should be entitled to receive the professional degree. 
These exceptional cases would, doubtless, be very few, but the concession would remove 
ail objections on the score of hardship. I should hope that this exception in favor of 
special students would be only a temporary expedient, and that eventually the degrees 
in law, medicine, and theology would be given on the same terms as the Ph.D. or S.D. 
This would give definiteness and coherence to our universities. The American univer- 
sity would be neither the English nor yet the German university, but an institution 
suv generss, the natural outgrowth of our peculiar conditions. 
Respectfully submitted, 
James BARR AMES, 
Harvard Law School. 
WE shall, I think, escape entanglements if we note at the very outset 
the twofold aspect of the subject. - It may be discussed (1) from the point 
of view of the individual who is seeking professional instruction as a means 
of gaining a livelihood, or (2) from the point of view of society itself, 
which must wish to be well served by its professional classes. The com- 
munity will doubtless be inclined to demand more education than the 
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