Chapter 71: Education at the University of London

Chapter 71 An Education at the University of London

Arthur and Elder stood within the old Carmarthen Square of the University of London, and looking up, they could see the school’s iconic building, the Octagon Building, which was built under the auspices of William Wilkins, the famous architect who had designed the National Gallery of England.

Although it was still early in the morning, the square was already crowded with supporters of Edgewaterism ready to listen to the lecture by the Athena sculpture.

In fact, it is not uncommon to see the campus packed with visitors during the week, because no matter what the newspapers say about it, it doesn’t change the fact that the University of London is by far the most open university in England, because even its campus is usually open.

The University of London admits students regardless of origin, race, creed, or political views, and treats all those who want to be educated, as long as you can afford to pay the tuition fee of 23 pounds and 6 shillings, then you can be admitted.

Although this amount still sounds quite expensive, but compared to Oxford, Cambridge and those lawyers’ clubs can easily be several hundred pounds of charges, but it is a lot lower.

As is the motto of the school, which hangs on the red wall in Latin – Cuncti adsint meritaeque expectent praemia palmae.

If translated directly, this means, Let all who deserve reward for their qualities run to us.

In a more elegant way, it might also be translated, Let all the world’s talents be educated, or, Let all endeavors win laurels.

Arthur had somewhat mixed feelings about the University of London.

On the one hand, he believes that he has wasted four years here, after all, after finishing his studies, the school actually can not even issue a degree certificate, and no wonder Arthur whining.

But on the other hand, he was also very grateful to his alma mater, because it did give him an equal opportunity to receive an education.

Through his four years of study here, it allowed him to not lose a war of words with Oxford and Cambridge graduates, and to talk and laugh in the face of the graduates of that King’s College, which had been founded by the Conservatives as a rival to the University of London.

After all, it’s a tough thing to get a higher education these days.

All in all, Arthur was still more grateful to his alma mater than whiny, because it had taught him to see the world in an equal light, and had given him the knowledge and ability to be able to see the world as an equal.

At this moment, apart from the visitors on the campus, some students rushing to their classes could also be seen, as well as some construction workers who were carrying out construction work.

The reason why you can see construction workers on the campus is that although the University of London has been established for more than four years, due to its unique open stance and questionable educational concepts, the school is always in a state of shortage of funds.

Although it does receive occasional donations from progressives, objectively speaking, the University of London receives less than a fraction of what Oxford and Cambridge receive each year.

Even King’s College, which was founded later than the University of London, is far better funded than the University of London.

The reason is also very simple, from the name can be seen, the founder of the King’s College is the current King George IV, behind the school there are a number of Tory bigwigs support, of course, they are unlikely to lack of money.

And the University of London because of the shortage of funds, so the school building has been repair stop, tossed more than four years to be considered the teaching area are built almost, as for some decorative buildings or galleries, libraries, such as extracurricular activities in the area, but also have to step by step to repair and expansion.

And even now, thanks to this construction progress, most of the designers who planned the construction of the campus are also progressives, so they did not receive too much pay, or even simply volunteer labor to complete the situation.

If they were to charge market prices, the University of London would not have much to live for.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that in two hundred years, the architecture program here will be number one in the world, because you probably won’t find another school where students can be so close to construction sites.

Students can even sit right in the construction site and take classes if they want to.

Thanks to Mater Dei, even history and classics students like Arthur and Elder know more about construction than architecture students at the average school.

Maybe that’s an overstatement, but even if they don’t know as much about construction as the architecture department, at least they know more about construction sites than the architecture department.

At this moment, Arthur and Elder happened to pass by the Classics major’s classroom.

Seeing this, Elder excitedly pulled Arthur to stop outside the door of the classroom and looked in.

At this time, the professor in charge of teaching has just stood on the podium, only to see the old professor with pale hair first took out a handkerchief and wiped the rain on his face, and then snapped and threw a few pounds of books under the armpit onto the podium.

Only heard a thud, the podium splashed a dust fog generated by the chalk dust.

At this moment, the students who were originally sitting under the stage dozing off were also instantly energized, and they straightened their backs to face the teacher.

The old professor raised his hand and fanned the dust mist, then he sank his breath into his dantian, reddened his face, and roared with all his strength.

“What graduates of Oxford are!”

The students excitedly slapped their desks and yelled, “Sons of bitches!” “What about Cambridge!”

“So are they!”

The old professor nodded in satisfaction at this.

“Good! Very spirited today as well! Then, the class will now begin. Today we will mainly talk about the spirit of humanism in Shakespeare’s tragedies, as well as the poetic and romantic aesthetics contained in them ……”

Arthur couldn’t help but see his eyes popping.

And Elder, who was standing beside him, was practically moved to tears.

Elder took out a handkerchief and wiped the corners of his moist eyes, “Wow, I knew it, the education of the University of London is the best in all of England, nay, in all of Great Britain, nay, in the whole world!”

Arthur held his tongue for half a day, but finally he couldn’t help but ask, “Do you guys in the School of Classics engage in this kind of hate education every day?”

“Hate education?”

Elder frowned and shook his finger at Arthur, “Arthur, this is not hate education. Could it be that if we don’t scold Oxford and Cambridge, they won’t go against us?”

Arthur shook his head, “Of course they will still go against us, the difference between us and them is entirely the difference in education philosophy, it has nothing to do with scolding them or not.”

“That’s right!”

Elder laughed and poked Arthur’s chest with his elbow, “Since it’s the same whether we scold them or not, then why not? At least we feel good afterward, so why hold it in? We in the Classics Department never spoil those idiots.

Have you forgotten? Our spiritual mentor at the University of London is Jeremy Bianchin, equal education, utilitarianism, our Classics Department is quite good at implementing these two points.”

Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but wipe the sweat from his forehead, “Elder, you’re not being utilitarian, you’re being snobbish. As far as I understand it, utilitarianism and snobbery are two different things, do you stop scolding Oxford and Cambridge when they’re out of our way?”

“Of course not!”

Elder said, “If they’re out of our way, it means that our school’s educational charter has been issued, and since we have nothing to ask of them, of course I’ll scold them even more fiercely.”

Arthur gave him a look and shrugged his shoulders helplessly, “In my opinion, you should have gone to Oxford in the first place. The damage you would have done to their teaching reputation from within if you had gone to Oxford would have been far greater than if you had gone to the University of London.”

“Arthur, fuck you! You might as well have let me die if you’d let me go to Oxford.”

“But after Oxford, wouldn’t you be less likely to join the Royal Navy? There’s no telling, you could even get an MP.”

Elder sputtered with excitement as he slapped the wall and perked up, “Arthur! Being an MP is worse than going to the Royal Navy!”

Just as he was about to split hairs with Arthur again, he suddenly saw a couple of men coming up behind Arthur.

Elder took a sharp, deep breath and hurriedly took off his hat in greeting, “Mr. Horner!”

Horner?

Arthur remembered that was the Headmaster’s surname, and he whipped his head around to see that the Headmaster was leading several Heads of Faculties to assist an old, gray-haired man with a cane toward the lecture hall.

Principal Horner jerked his head back when he heard someone greet him, and a hopeless smirk appeared on his face.

“Elder, didn’t you kid graduate? Is it possible that you want to come back for a doctorate?”

The old man beside him also turned back to look at the promenade in front of the classroom, and his eyes swept over Elder and finally landed on Arthur.

The old man rubbed his forehead in thought and suddenly pointed at Arthur and smiled, “Young man, I remember you. I never gave you an answer to the question you asked me last time, and when I thought it over and came back to you, I found out that this little thing of yours had actually graduated.

Look at this police uniform of yours, it seems that my guess was not wrong at all, that Officer Arthur Hastings that appeared in the newspaper is really you!”

Hearing this, Arthur also smiled and took off his hat and nodded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Bianchin.”

(End of chapter)