meetings of classes for similar credits; at the Hays Normal there are 9 meetings of classes in 4-hour credit courses; and at the Pittsburg Normal from 15 to 20 meetings for 5-hour credit courses. At the Hays Normal and the Pittsburg Normal students are expected to complete about four correspondence lesson assignments for each meeting of a class.

The assumption at Hays and Pittsburg is that students do the correspondence lessons in the regular way and in addition have the benefit of meeting the instructor in a certain number of class lectures or discussions. The commission believes, however, that these two institutions have been unwise in the extent to which extension classes have been combined with correspondence work. It is obvious that in assigning to a class three or four correspondence lessons, each of which is supposed to represent the equivalent of the work accomplished at two ordinary class recitations, students are expected to complete an unusually large amount of work for every meeting of an extension class. The combination inevitably takes on more of the nature of an extension class than correspondence work, particularly when, as is sometimes the case, the correspondence lessons are graded immediately before or after each meeting of the extension class, without the formality of going through the central office of the extension division. Under these circumstances the commission is convinced that the amount and character of work which students present for four hours of credit at Hays and Pittsburg is neither the equivalent of the usual correspondence course of 32 assignments nor of the work accomplished in two extension classes each meeting, as at the university, for 15 double class periods with regular text and collateral assignments.

The commission wishes therefore to recommend that extension classes and correspondence work as now combined at the Hays and Pittsburg Normal Schools be more clearly separated; that approximately the same amount of time be devoted to classroom work for each credit hour as is required in resident instruction; and that the directors of the several extension divisions be called together for the purpose of agreeing upon a common method of conducting extension classes in line with accepted practice in other States. There are also a number of other matters about which there should be general agreement among the several institutions. The commission suggests the following items among others:

(a) The number of courses and hours which may be taken by a student at one time.

(b) The number of courses and hours which may be completed by a student within 12 consecutive months.

(c) Correct existing maladjustments in fees charged.

(d) Provide against mixed classes with unequal previous preparation in extension study.

(e) Consider whether a limit should be placed on number of credits earned by correspondence study which may be offered for entrance to college.

(f) Fix for all the institutions the amount of credit toward the degree and the life certificate that may be offered either by correspondence or by extension class study, or by both combined. The commission is of the opinion that the 60 hours now most commonly allowed is too high a proportion of the requirements for the degree to be satisfied by nonresident study. From one-half to threefourths of this number of hours would seem to be generous provision. (g) Establish regulations preventing or controlling the carrying of correspondence courses by students in residence.

(h) Establish procedure for examining entrance requirements and prerequisite training for all persons asking to be enrolled in either phase of nonresident study. There seems to be the greatest laxity in both of these matters, a situation which tends toward inferior standards in the work.

(i) Determine the distinctions to be observed between correspondence study and extension class study, and to what extent outlines and assignments may be used interchangeably.

(7) The number of assignments and general requirements to be observed for each credit allowed.

(k) The need for a special staff of readers for the proper conduct of nonresident study.

(7) Fix the number of visits by the instructor to extension classes. The diversity of practice here militates against comparable ratings for work done.

(m) The minimum extension class which will be allowed.

(n) District the State so as to obviate overlapping in travel of instructors in meeting extension classes.

(0) Consider thoroughly the educational equivalence of the correspondence or extension class study and the resident instruction, and what types of courses may properly be offered by correspondence and extension classes.

The matters about which there should be agreement raise the very important question as to whether there should not be some centralization of the extension service performed by the several institutions. The commission has in mind not only the elimination of annoying differences in the conduct of the work but also the waste of all five institutions in attempting to develop work most of which after all is of similar character. Consequently each institution, with the exception of the agricultural college, is compelled to depend almost wholly on the resident faculty to make the outlines and grade the papers in the various correspondence courses. The commission is convinced that the quality of correspondence work is greatly increased

when it is conducted by competent instructors on practically a fulltime basis. For this reason it seems to the commission that, although each institution should preserve its autonomy in developing correspondence work, it would be desirable for the board of administration and the higher institutions to consider whether it would be feasible to establish some central organization to assign the outlining and grading of courses to a single instructor who in one instance might be located at the university and in others at other institutions. In this way it would probably be possible to employ practically fulltime instructors in nearly all fields of work. If such an arrangement can be worked out in Kansas, the commission is convinced that it will result in better standards of correspondence work and enable the entire field of correspondence study to be promoted with greater vigor and unity.

EXTENSION IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS.

Under the provisions of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 the agricultural college received during 1921-22 the following sums of money to conduct extension work in agriculture and home economics:

With this money the agricultural college conducts a large variety of extension service, including county and home demonstration agent work, farmers' institutes and extension schools, boys' and girls' club work, and rural engineering.

It would be impracticable here to outline in detail the numerous projects which the extension division has under way. It seems sufficient to state therefore that the extension work is being prosecuted with vigor and, so far as the commission was able to determine after a very brief study, wisely.

The commission noted with pleasure the fact that 60 out of the 105 counties in the State now have county agents. It is hoped that the number of home demonstration agents may soon be increased considerably. (Table 20.)

Chapter VIII.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Inasmuch as an independent report on the medical school of the university has been made to the board of administration by Dean E. P. Lyon, of the University of Minnesota, the commission has assumed that it should confine its attention and recommendations to the remainder of the higher educational situation in Kansas. However, as an evidence of its keen interest in the development of medical education, the commission wishes to make certain suggestions concerning the value of medical education to the people of the State.

As is well known, there has been during the last 30 years marked development in the field of medical education. This development has resulted largely from the emphasis which has been placed on higher standards in the medical schools. In Kansas, as in other States, there occurred a merger of medical schools, which gave to the medical school of the university, located at Kansas City, Kans., a clear field of work. The university medical school was therefore presumably under obligation to train a considerable portion of the physicians who were needed in the State.

From evidence which has come to the commission, the university medical school, on account of a long series of small State appropriations, resulting in inadequate buildings, equipment, and faculty, has been unable to perform its functions on as extensive a scale as might reasonably have been expected. For example, the statistics of the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association covering the year 1920-21 show that the number of medical students being cared for at the Kansas University Medical School in 1920-21 was a little less than one-half the total number of Kansas students who were attending medical colleges. During the five years from 1917 to 1921, inclusive, the Kansas State Medical Board registered 407 physicians. The university medical school during this same period graduated only 150 students, or a little more than onethird the number of physicians who registered in the State.

It seems apparent therefore that no other part of the State's higher institutions has been so starved for appropriations as the medical school. Fortunately, the last legislature appreciated the

desperate circumstances of the medical school and provided an appropriation sufficiently large to make a good beginning at an entirely new plant on a new and favorable site. The State is to be congratulated on this wise action, and the next legislature should bend every effort to provide another building appropriation as large as that made at the last session, and so on, until the State has a medical plant and a medical school adequate for its needs and worthy of its high position among the American Commonwealths.

GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH.

The superior character of the graduate work of the University of Kansas is attested to by the fact that the university has for a number of years been one of 25 universities belonging to the Association of American Universities, an organization which is composed of institutions recognized as fully capable of giving graduate instruction and conducting research in a variety of fields of higher education. Reference to the statistical tables shows that in the 10 years from 1912 to 1921 the number of advanced degrees granted at the university was 542. (Table 13.)

The figures show that the university has so far confined itself almost exclusively to graduate instruction for the master's degree. The commission commends the wisdom of this policy up to this time, while calling the attention of the governing board and the State to the fact that the time is very close at hand when the university should be encouraged in a number of lines to carry on more extensive research and advanced study than that represented by the master's degree. In all the Southwest there is not for many hundreds of miles an institution which has the same opportunity to develop graduate work as the University of Kansas. The State will be lacking in its opportunity to develop a graduate school comparable in importance with the State universities of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, if it does not encourage the university to take that position of leadership in research and graduate study which its location places within its grasp. There should therefore be at the university a conscious development of graduate study in a number of lines leading to the Ph. D. degree.

It should be remembered also that at the earliest possible time the State is under obligation to train leaders not only in the elementary and secondary fields of education but also for the higher institutions in Kansas. Unless a State has facilities for this purpose, it will necessarily be compelled to look to other States to supply it with leaders in the realm of higher education. A State with the resources of Kansas should plan definitely to do its full share of this important work.

The university has taken a number of important steps to develop graduate work. There are, for example, 15 university fellowships