Developments 1903–18

Abstract

Looked at dispassionately in 1903 it was not altogether obvious that Cambridge was taking a much bigger step forward than was Oxford in the place it would be giving to Economics. Admittedly a Tripos or Honour School would at the time be regarded as a level above that of a Diploma. A Diploma was a new idea in Oxford, having only just been introduced for Geography and for Education. In the next five years other Diplomas were established in Scientific Engineering and Mining Subjects (1904); Anthropology (1905); Classical Archaeology (1907). There was, however, a suggestion that the new Diploma was to be postgraduate. This was how it was understood in Cambridge during the debates on the Tripos proposal.¹ Today the term post-graduate implies a course or examination confined to candidates who already possess a degree and at a level higher than that expected from first degree candidates. If that were to be the case the new Diploma might be expected to produce economics specialists of a level not less than that achieved by those who had reached Part II of the Economics Tripos by way of Part I of another Tripos.