Men in Service Came Back To College After Last War

War certificates were given to all men who left College to serve in the armed forces in the last war, but many recipients came back after the war to complete their studies and to earn degrees.

A tremendous number of men had departed to help in the war effort. For instance, 571 out of 722 men in the Class of 1922, everyone who was physically fit, were in the service, some of them in training at the College, but most of them away.

University Encourages Return

Because so many men had left, the policy of the University was to encourage the return to academic life in every possible way. Following the Armistice, Army and Navy men whose studies had been interrupted by the war were allowed to re-enter immediately.

Courses were started over again in January and April 1919 for those who had returned. That year there were two summer school sessions of six and five weeks respectively. These extra sessions enabled the students who had been absent to catch up in their work, and to regain time that had been taken up in fighting.

The return to student life was encouraged most of all by the decision to grant degrees to men who had completed only three fourths of their work and had been in military service for one year. That meant that 12 months of service, a man could graduate with 12 courses and English A. The experience in the armed forces was considered as valuable as a year in College.

That these measures were successful is shown by the fact that only 96 men in the Class of 1919 who received War Certificates failed to complete the requirements for the degree. On the other hand, 216 students in that same class returned to the College and fulfilled the shortened requisites for graduation. One hundred and fifty of these degrees were given in the Class of 1920.

There was a decline in the number of students who got the shortened degree in the following classes because these students had not been in the armed forces in such large numbers, and they preferred to spend the full four years in Cambridge.