THE WANDERLUST

Despite a steady increase in traveling scholarships, a recent report from Germany reveals that only 63 students from this country are now attending German institutions. The academic exchange service begun in 1923 at first reacted to the greater benefit of Germany due to intellectual isolation during the war. At the present time, however, it would seem as if more American students should have the opportunity of studying abroad.

While doubtless fine equipment is a great attraction of American colleges, the universities of the Reich have much to offer other countries. Of profound significance is the "tough intellectual core" of German education which Dr. Flexner believes an antidote to the miscellaneous character of American curricula. Students there are trained in fundamentals and are steered away from any specialization which tends toward a vocation. Furthermore the acquirement of knowledge is a matter of self-discipline and individual responsibility to the German undergraduate rather than the too-frequent American custom of coaching from the dean's office.

One of the most attractive features of education in Germany is the wandering of students from university to university. Consequently in the Fatherland there is little of the sentimental loyalty which binds American alumni to the place of matriculation. If traveling scholarships could be brought into more general use, it would emphasize to many that knowledge is not necessarily embodied in an American college degree, but a universal pursuit which nothing can more accentuate than the "Wanderlust."