I !02.fc> M55f A A en o ^^== 5 ^^g IE 32 33 7 8 ^^ CD O 32 ^^^= ? 6 65 33 5 3D 7 5 1 ■ ■< - 3 o ^ THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH by JOHN C. MERRIAM n the part of the instructor will make useless whatever attempt he may make to serve as a leader or adviser in the field of constructive study. The third contribution of value (c) furnished by re- search related to education concerns the immediate use of the results of this study by the community. While the university is naturally assumed to be primarily an educational institution, it has been made clear that without continuing research it can neither provide adequate instruc- tion nor maintain its leadership in the educational work required. Constructive problems in all departments of investigation must be continuously the subject of successful handling, and the results of this work will be products of the first importance to the community. It is natural that to such an institution the whole people will look for the appearance of new ideas of broadest significance and of practical value. It is to be expected that the state will depend upon the university for information and will expect it to furnish the necessary knowledge and the constructive ability required in meeting new situations that make neces- sary the building of new plans of thought for community use. The contributions made by research in these institu- tions will generally tend to concern fundamental subjects and to group themselves on the more indefinite areas along the borders of knowledge, but it is frequently these broader principles which offer the largest opportunity for real addition to the sum of immediately useful information. The fourth reason (d) for including research as a part of the necessary programme of an institution of higher learning involves one of the distinguishing characteristics of the university. By reason of the extraordinary scope of interests represented in such a body, one might expect the unusual opportunity for contacts of investigators in related fields to produce new combinations of formulae, and through these the opening of new fields of discovery. No other organization presents the same wide range of sub- 11 jects represented by leaders of thought who are normally investigators. To these conditions the university adds an unusual freedom of opportunity for choice of materials or combination of materials to be used in investigations, as also the stimulating influence of a continuous stream of students with new inquiries and new ideas. In no other type of institution engaged in investigation are the chances greater for contribution in fields representing either new groupings of subjects or areas which have thus far remained untouched by the workers of all organized departments of knowledge. For all of the reasons that have been presented research has now an established place in institutions for higher learning. The position of constructive work in the univer- sities is clearly not accidental but relates to the generic characters of these institutions. To the university viewed as the highest training school, investigation becomes as necessary for natural activity as eating and assimilating are to continued effectiveness of the biological organism. The research so necessary to continuance of adequate instruction we come to recognize as a normal part of the life of the institution, and we look to this kind of an organization in the course of its growth to produce much of value in the forefront of discovery and construction. The university fails of its mission in creative work in many instances because, of all the types of institutions, it is the most imperfectly financed for this phase of the work which it should naturally conduct. With the clear requirement that, to keep its position in the first line of advanced thought, it must consist of men of the best type in the professions the university is often financed almost exclusively for teaching and administration without ref- erence to research, and it is assumed that the construc- tive work so necessary to development of the faculty and students will be cared for in other ways. Beyond funds for purchase of books, departments with large salary rolls 12 for instruction often show almost nothing for constructive work. The ultimate result of this policy must be failure to attain the full measure of efficiency. Potential leaders in the faculty will either find support of their greatest con- tributions to knowledge outside the institution, or failing in this they will burn out like a lamp producing feeble light by burning a wick to which no oil is fed. The university, then, takes its place with other groups of research agencies of the couniry as an institution caring for the initial training of nearly all investigators, and particularly given to wide range of investigations among a great variety of fundamental subjects. Its activities in (•(instructive work will often run parallel with those of other kinds of organizations, but breadth of interest, wide range of contact, unusual freedom of relationship, and spontaneity will alwaj'S be among its characteristics. 216591 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below l L-9-15m-3,'34 (W fJNIVERS UM i.AJb AJM-GlSJufitt >RAKI ins de\ res of educati onal institutions in development of researca. AA 000 786 5^ p