84 Reviews — Recensions permettent à l'université d'explorer son environnement et de s'y adapter; mais, dans bien des cas, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit d'interventions de promotion collective, la transaction entraîne l'université dans ces luttes menées par les milieux populaires pour se réapproprier certaines pratiques élémentaires de la vie quotidienne telles que la santé, l'habitat et la justice: c'est alors que la notion de "service-frontière" prend toute sa valeur significative. Enfin, pour mieux situer et analyser les pratiques des services-frontières, Pineau utilise le modèle conceptuel de Havelock sur la production, diffusion et utilisation (PDU) des connaissances. La connaissance constitue, en effet, l'élément sur lequel et par lequel l'université et le milieu social environnant sont mis en relation l'une avec l'autre; or, cette relation s'articule autour de la production, de la diffusion et de l'utilisation de la connaissance. Le circuit de ces opérations reliées à la connaissance entraîne l'émergence d'un certain nombre de rôles dont le plus important est celui de "couplage" c'est-à-dire l'établissement d'une forme régulière d'interaction entre deux systèmes. Or, dans l'organisation sociale, ce sont, en définitive, les services d'éducation permanente qui jouent effectivement ce rôle puisqu'ils se situent "à la frontière" entre le système ressource (Producteur et diffuseur de connaissance) et le système utilisateur de connaissance. L'organisation même des services-frontières fait donc de ceux-ci des analyseurs types de la confrontation actuelle entre les universités et le mouvement d'éducation permanente. Cette application du modèle conceptuel de Havelock, comme certaines autres parties de l'étude menée par Pineau, d'ailleurs, n'est pas toujours facile à suivre: la pensée est dense, l'application de certains concepts est nouvelle et, de plus, le vocabulaire est souvent abstrait et technique. Heureusement, l'auteur a ajouté une annexe théorique sur "le mouvement systémique et l'éducation" dont la valeur informative est remarquable. De même, "l'index des concepts" permet au lecteur de clarifier et d'approfondir certaines notions importantes dans l'analyse organisaiionnelle et dans l'approche systémique. Dans sa préface, le doyen de la Faculté d'éducation permanente de l'Université de Montréal, M. Guy Bourgeault, fait, aux lecteurs éventuels de ce livre, certaines recommandations sur l'importance de suivre avec vigilance le développement des universités. Effectivement, cet ouvrage est susceptible d'intéresser tous ceux que préoccupent l'éducation permanente et le milieu universitaire. Mais, par son indéniable valeur scientifique, ce dernier livre de Pineau s'impose également comme un modèle d'analyse institutionnelle et comme un exemple d'application de l'approche systémique en éducation. Il s'agit vraisemblablement d'un ouvrage de fond qui fera date et auquel on se référera souvent. Mario Ferland Direction générale du premier cycle Université Laval Stanley B. Frost, McGill University, University Press, 1980, 298 pp. Volume I, 1801-1895. Montreal, McGill-Queen's In his approach to this new history of McGill University, Stanley Frost, happily, was able to avoid lengthy exposés of the embittered quarrels and political intrigues that feature prominently in the histories of most Canadian universities and colleges. For this, readers 85 Reviews — Recensions are partially indebted to Dean Cyrus MacMillan whose centenary history ofMcGill, published in 1921, explores such issues with unrelenting thoroughness. In the Frost book, the substance of the vicissitudes endured by the institution over its first century is there, but without the tediousness that necessarily characterized the MacMillan history. Each account, in its own way, represents a valuable contribution to historical research and they nicely complement each other. Dr. Frost has skillfully distilled a formidable amount of detail into just under three hundred pages, without leaving the reader either confused or weary. The judicious selection of pictorial illustrations, the deft handling of a wealth of historical data, even the attractive dust cover and the appendix of McGill College songs, combine to make this a volume of which all friends and alumni of the university may be justly proud. We are treated initially to a lively slice of the environment of the early settlement in Montreal and learn how closely the histories of the city and the college are linked. Members of the McGill family are introduced and the varied careers of the intrepid James are described — fur trader, merchant, magistrate, Colonel of Militia, public servant, devoted family man, devout church supporter and, most important here, founder of a university. Throughout the text, the author never loses sight of the social, economic, and political context in which the fledgling institution struggled, first of all, to come into being and then simply to survive. Effectively compressed are the details of the tortuous campaign to establish public schooling in the colony which preceded, but unfortunately did not end with, the passing of the 1801 Act for the Establishment of Free Schools in the Province. This legislation provided for the creation of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning to which was entrusted control of all schooling in the colony except for religious and private schools. Its trustees were also given the task of fulfilling the terms of James McGill's will which provided money and property for the purpose of building a university. Without belabouring unduly the complex circumstances, Frost explains why and how both the good intentions of James McGill and the terms of the 1801 Act were thwarted by the passing of another bill in 1829 entitled the Syndics Act which "implicitly rather than explicitly" placed the Legislative Assembly and not the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning in charge of education. This manoeuvre left the Royal Institution with only two already established grammar schools to oversee and the trusteeship of the McGill legacy. The entrenchment of the policy of publicly supporting separate Roman Catholic schools in Quebec would have far reaching ramificaitons which, eventually, would affect the whole of Canada. Although Dr. Frost mentions the part played by the Roman Catholic Bishop Hubert of Quebec in blocking a 1787 proposal to establish "a non-denominational seminary whose secular subjects might be taught on an 'unprejudiced' basis (he argued that there was neither the money nor enough people to warrant the scheme), it is not made clear whether this was part of a grander plan to have a bilingual public school system encompassing elementary grades through to university. In this connection, it is of special interest that it was a francophone lawyer, Simon Sanginuet, who willed ten thousand dollars for the founding of the university. Sanction was obtained from the British authorities and from coadjutor Bishop Bailly de Messein, but the plan ultimately was defeated by Bishop Hubert on the grounds that the Habitants were not ready for it. His real objection was that the Roman Catholic church would have had no control over public education. William Dawson, the first native-born principal of McGill, commenting later on this episode stated that it demonstrated the sincere desire of the English-speaking colonists 'to erect a public school 86 Reviews — Recensions and university system, as distinguished from the purely sectarian and ecclesiastical methods advocated by the Roman Catholic leaders of the French inhabitants'. He emphasized that there was no intent to interfere with private Roman Catholic education and suggested further that "had this wise scheme been carried into effect immediately and with vigor, the whole future history of Lower Canada might have been different, not only educationally but politically; and a great impulse would have been given to the industrial progress of the people". It was not until 1818 that the British Colonial office was persuaded to appoint a board of trustees for the Royal Institution, and thanks to more political and legal machinations the College did not receive its charter until 1821. Eight years later, amid much fanfare and ceremony, the institution was formally opened. It took another six years to appoint a bona fide principal, the first one having been installed in name only in order to honour the letter if not the spirit of the law. At that time, four professors were also appointed and, as Frost wryly remarks, "it was as well for the success of the strategy that the wording of the charter ran, 'a competent number of professors' and not a number of competent professors". The selection in 1835 of the Rev. John Bethune (direct ancestor of the now much acclaimed Dr. Norman Bethune) as principal of the college was not a happy one. A diehard Anglican clergyman dedicated to the Oxbridge traditions, his intransigence and his ongoing feuds with the trustees of the Royal Institution often hampered rather than furthered progress. However, Dr. Frost's treatment of the Bethune incumbency is considerably more generous than MacMillan's. Despite all of Bethune's shortcomings, Frost stresses that he did oversee the erection of the first college buildings, hired the first arts teachers, and "welcomed the first arts students on 6 September, 1843". In general, sketches of all key characters in the McGill story are trenchant and illuminating, their weaknesses and their strengths are exposed with a subtlety that allows us to make our own judgement of them, rather than having that of the author's imposed. In his treatment of William Dawson (who is really the main protagonist in this volume), Dr. Frost, among other things, credits him with being responsible for establishing "the bicameral character of McGill's governance. . .thereby provid [ing] for the direct participation of the academic staff in the administration of the university, a circumstance which was to have considerable influence on its subsequent development". Regardless of policy adopted in other universities, Dr. Frost claims that "at McGill the institution of the Corporation, or Senate, began as a liberalizing measure and has continued to be of that character ever since". Having served the university in many capacities for over two decades, including those of the troublesome 'sixties' and 'seventies', his views on this subject have the credibility of a first-hand observer. Under Dawson's competent leadership, the university made tremendous strides, but Frost notes that development of departments and faculties always took precedence over improving faculty working conditions and salaries. He also points to the reluctance of the administration to follow the example set by other Canadian universities (notably Mount Allison, Queen's, Acadia, and Dalhousie), in providing unrestricted higher education for women. Frost attributes this in part to Dawson's view of women as fragile beings who must be protected from "the coarseness of male society", and to the prevailing influence of the "general conservatism of French Roman Catholic Canada" which "permeated the Protestant community of Quebec more than perhaps its leaders were aware". It was, nevertheless, a black mark on McGill's otherwise enviable record in the field of medicine 87 Reviews — Recensions that women were not admitted to the faculty until after World War I. Maude Abbott, who was refused entry in 1890, received her M.D. from Bishop's University and then went on to become a world authority on congenital heart disease. In a footnote, Dr. Frost reports that she was offered the chair of pathology and headship of the department in the Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania, and that although she was awarded honorary degrees in both medicine and law by McGill, she was never promoted higher than the rank of assistant professor. Without harping on the issue, in his chapter entitled, "Matters Financial", Dr. Frost makes it abundantly clear that, contrary to the opinion of many francophone critics of the university, the large benefactions received from the English-speaking business sector, were entirely justified. He cites evidence that, although the colonial government provided generously for elementary education, it did not honour its commitment to public higher education, that is to say to support McGill College, because it feared that 'any grant would be viewed with great jealousy by the Provincial Government'. Frost maintains that if the college "turned to the wealthy anglophone community for the funds it had to have to survive, it did not do so from first choice; it was in despair of other means of support, and in defiance of those who, they believed, acquiesced in, if they did not positively hope for, the restrictions of its legitimate growth and development". This kind of plain speaking may not win the author many friends among those who, over the years, have openly criticized McGill and its generous supporters, but it will surely lighten the hearts of individuals who, either for lack of evidence or of a platform from which to proclaim it, have been obliged to sit back and silently accept the unfair allegations. In a section designated "Another View", some justification is offered for the early tactics employed to deny McGill the public support that was its due. Readers will have to judge for themselves how convincing is the case. This volume ends with the retirement of Dawson in 1893. He had successfully steered the university through its difficult years of growth to maturity, more than realizing the hopes of the men of the Royal Institution who appointed him. While acknowledging his many-faceted brilliance, Frost describes him as being "singularly uninnovative in strictly religious matters". Despite his scientific leanings, he did not support Darwin's theory of evolution, rather arguing for the "liberalizing truths of the Protestant form of Christianity and the illuminating truths of the created world". He had other blind spots, clinging tenaciously to some scientific theories "long after majority opinion" had discarded them. Viewed as a whole, however, his was a triumphant principalship during which McGill College truly metamorphosed into McGill University. He justly earned the many honours bestowed upon him as a scientist-fellow of the Royal Society of London (1862), president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1882), a founding father and first president of the Royal Society of Canada (1882), president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1886), and president of the Geological Society of America (1893). In addition, he authored innumerable scientific publications, and he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1884.It isnotlikely that his record will ever be equalled. Nowhere does the author state the purpose of this history but, in the Foreword, past principal Dr. R.E. Bell states that the project arose out of a "shared. . .feeling for the need for a formal, authorative, definitive history of McGill University". In this reviewer's opinion, at least, Dr. Frost has met these criteria. The style is scholarly without being pedantic, key issues are treated analytically with every effort made to avoid one-sidedness, 88 Reviews — Recensions and the narrative flows freely and easily so that the book may appeal to both the academic community and to a wider reading public. It is in every way a fitting tribute to an institution which for over a century has served the cause of higher education exceedingly well, both at home and abroad. We can look forward with pleasure to Dr. Frost's second volume of the McGill story. Gwendoline Pilkington The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education W. Clark and Z. Zsigmond. Job Market Reality forPostsecondary Graduates: Employment Outcome by 1978, Two Years After Graduation. Ottawa, Statistics Canada, 1981, Cat. 81-572E, 509 p. French version: Les diplômés du postsecondaire sur le marché du travail: Situation d'emploi en 1978, deux ans après l'obtention du diplôme. Cat. 81-572F, 530 p. In October the OECD is holding an intergovernmental conference on "Policies for Higher Education in the 1980s." There are to be four conference themes, one of which is changing relationships between higher education and working life. Without the data provided in this Statistics Canada report, members of the Canadian delegation to the OECD conference would be inadequately informed. Indeed, if the conference had been staged at any previous time our delegation would have been without an overall view of the employment outcomes of Canadian institutions of postsecondary education. In June 1978, Doug Lynd and his colleagues of the Postsecondary Section, Education, Science and Culture Division, Statistics Canada, conducted a telephone survey of a large stratified sample of the Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who, two years earlier, had graduated from the universities and colleges of nine provinces (Québec did not participate). The principal questions were designed to discover how the graduates had feared in the employment market, but much related information was gathered as well. During 1979 and 1980 some preliminary reports on the results were issued. Now we have from Zoltan Zsigmond and his team in the Projections Section a comprehensive analysis. Perhaps the best way to introduce the content of the report is to present a typical though abbreviated table, showing data representative of 66,481 university graduates: Table 6. The report itself also has a table showing data representative of 26,250 graduates of community colleges, technical institutes and other non-university institutions of postsecondary education — in both cases, in the nine provinces other than Québec. From Table 6 one learns, for example, that of 58,282 who received a bachelor's degree in 1976, two years later 6.8% were not looking for work, 93.2% were in the labour force and of them 8.4% were unemployed. Other columns give comparable data for those who received advanced degrees, and for men and women. Data for college graduates, presented in the companion table which is not shown here, indicate that of 26,250 who in 1976 received diplomas in courses of 1, 2, 3 or 4 years' duration, 4.0% were not looking for a job in 1978, 96.0% were in the labour force and of them 6.7% were unemployed. An earlier report, Higher Education - Hired? Sex differences in employment characteristics of 1976 postsecondary graduates by M.S.DevereauxandEdithRechnitzer( 1980), highlights the evidence that women graduates of both universities and colleges fared less well than men.