We know exactly what Smith thought about Universities (and other schools) of his time. It is laid out at length in Book V, Ch. II, 2nd Article of *The Wealth of Nations*. He was highly critical, and thought that University teachers should be paid directly by the students. Of my own university, Oxford, where he had spent several years, he wrote, 'the greater part of the public professors have, for themse many years, given up altogether even the pretence of teaching.' With the current preference for research over teaching, we seem to be moving again in that direction...

Avner Offer

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 From Avner Offer, Chichele Professor Emeritus of Economic History, University of Oxford
     All Souls College, High St., Oxford OX1 4AL, tel. +44 (0)7551960880
    email: [log in to unmask]
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Recently published: Burn Mark: A Photographic Memoir of the Six Day War. See www.avneroffer.net
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From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jill Bradbury [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 23 February 2015 16:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] Smith Grades Reply

Humberto - I actually re-posted your question on the C-18L, since I thought it was interesting. A few tidbits to add -  the concept of a grade seems to be a nineteenth century one that originally referred to the rank one obtained from an overall evaluation, rather than from an individual class. Also pointed out was that part of Smith's salary would have been from student fees paid to him, so he had an incentive to attract as many students as possible. Makes you wonder what Smith would have thought about the economy of higher education in his time.  Jill

On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 8:05 PM, Humberto Barreto <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
So as not to waste anyone's time, Prof. Waterman answered my question off list, pointing out that Smith never gave any grades and there were no examinations (no Honours degree) in his day. He also pointed out this out:

"But by the 1830s Thomas Chalmers, who lectured in Political Economy at St. Andrews, had his students write essays. I discovered two such essays in the National Library of Scotland and wrote about them in JHET 2005. Chalmers made comments and wrote a brief opinion of the essay at the end."

Thank you, Prof. Waterman.

--
Humberto Barreto




--
Jill Bradbury
Professor
Department of English

Faculty Development Fellow
Office of Academic Quality

Gallaudet University
Washington, DC