FIELD EDUCATION PLANNED

Plans for the establishment of a "field university" in Europe immediately after the actual fighting ceases have just been announced by Professor Erskine of Columbia University. It will be for the purpose of educating American soldiers overseas during the period of demobilization. The enterprise came into being due to a survey of the educational needs of American soldiers abroad by A. S. Stokes, secretary of Yale University. The project will be financed by the Y. M. C. A., and controlled by it under the supervision of the military authorities.

The university will offer industrial and vocational courses, as well as graduate and professional courses, to those who show sufficient military and academic merit to make them worthy candidates for admission. The subjects offered will be so fitted to the needs of the men that every individual from the most illiterate to the university trained will be able to profit by the opportunity. And it is expected that fully forty per cent. of the soldiers will avail themselves of the chance offered by the school.

As soon as the warfare has ceased all of the army buildings possible will be converted into schools. And in them the men will receive six to eight hours of instruction each day. In addition to our own army huts, a great many of the British and French universities and technical schools have offered to accommodate as many men from the American Army as possible. The books necessary to the carrying out of this plan will be furnished by the American Library Association.