STUDY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN 18 COLLEGES SHOWS DROP

The study of foreign languages has decreased 3.58 percent in 18 leading colleges and universities of this country during the eight year period of 1911-12 to 1919-20 according to the results of a study of the distribution of student hours of instruction as submitted to the Association of American Colleges by President Frederick C. Ferry of Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., here recently.

The report said the colleges from which this average was obtained are: Amherst, Bowdin, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Dartmouth, Hamilton, Harvard, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Princeton, Smith, Stanford, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Williams, Wisconsin and Yale. The tables presented showed in percentages the proposition of the total number of hours taken in each subject to the total number of hours taken in all subjects. The results were presented in general for undergraduates in the schools of liberal arts and sciences only. The decline was from 24.2 to 21.34 percent. The largest decrease is shown at Wisconsin, followed by Yale, Columbia, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Princeton in order. Columbia shows the largest increase in the science group, amounting to 15.47 percent, while it is closely followed by Bowdoin, with Yale and Brown next in order. In all the other subjects of the curriculum taken together an average increase of 2.77 percent is in effect. This increase is nearly all covered by the larger amount of attention given to economics.

The greatest changes in the distribution of student hours of instruction have occurred at Bowdoin, Columbia and Smith, while the smallest have been at Harvard, Wesleyan and Wellesley.