University

[Haggridd]

No: HPFGUIDX 18615

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> 
> Amy Z wrote:
> > IIRC, [JKR} has said both: (snip) --and that there is no 
> > wizarding university.
> 
> Yesterday (? - anyway, before I took my nap), someone asked how 
could 
> wizards and witches learn advanced skills and do research if there 
is 
> no university. I have thought that there could be research
libraries 
> and museums that have research labs and that scholars (on staff
with 
> salary, funded by a research grant from MoM, or independently rich) 
> could do their research and publishing there, better than having to 
> keep a whole library and lab at home. 
> 
> I have thought that people could LEARN to be scholars and 
researchers 
> through an apprenticeship system, based on guilds (collegia) for 
each 
> discipline. Each guild would collect dues from its members and use 
> the money for pensions and maintaining a guild hall, containing at 
> least a library shared by all the members, and a lecture hall which 
> would be used both for public lectures and for oral examinations
and 
> dissertation defenses.
> 
> The future scholar would apprentice himerself to a senior scholar
in 
> the chosen field. Here are some similarities between the systems:
> 
> --Apprenticeship : undergraduate college.  
> --Journeyman : B.A.  
> --Master (Magister or Magistra) : M.S. or professional degree like 
M. 
> Eng or LL.B.  A Master is allowed to teach apprentices and promote 
> them to Journeyman.
> --Doctor: Ph.D. A Doctor is allowed to teach Journeymen and
Masters. 
> I suppose that the Journeyman who wants the rank of Master has to 
> pass an oral examination by a committee of Senior Doctors of the 
> guild, and that the Master who wants to the rank of Doctor has to
do 
> research and write it into a dissertation and print several copies 
of 
> the dissertation and make them available for the public to read,
and 
> then spend 24 straight hours at the lectern answering questions
from 
> all comers. Some members of the public would come to the oral 
> examination and the dissertation defense as a form of
entertainment; 
> some would prepare the hardest questions they could for the
doctoral 
> candidate.
> 
> The Senior Doctors would listen in shifts. The Senior Doctors
decide 
> whether the candidate has passed the test for the promotion. If
yes, 
> the promotion is awarded by the Guild at a formal Guild Dinner. I 
> imagine that Guild Dinners are quarterly? The Senior Doctors also 
> select which of the Doctors of the Guild are to be surprised with a 
> promotion to Senior Doctor.
> 
> While many vocational skills could also be taught by
apprenticeship, 
> there could also be vocational schools. In some cases, it could 
> be difficult to distinguish clearly between an apprenticeship and a 
> vocational school -- suppose the small-student-population people 
> were right and there were 40 graduates a year from Hogwarts. If 20% 
> of them went on to medimagical school (a large proportion, I
think), 
> how would that be different than the medimagical professor(s)
having 
> 8 apprentices?

There is a real life parallel to the above.  In the early history of 
the U.S. lawyers were admitted to the bar, not after graduation from 
lawschool; instead they "read law" under the tutelage of an 
established attorney, who was not even a recognized professor.  I 
don't understand why anyone finds a university structure necessary, 
though. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century in Britain, 
did not the ruling class enter into their jobs after graduating from 
"public" schools such as Eton or Harrow, without attending University?

Haggridd