Some of the artifacts worth putting into the digital record here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror are found printed on humble random pieces of paper discovered in files stuck in folders buried in archival boxes.
While there is nothing truly surprising in the following five point instructions to examiners (ca. 1915) in Harvard’s Division of History, Government, and Economics tasked with performing the General Examination of Ph.D. candidates, tablets with explicit commandments were indeed intended by some administrative spirit to guide the practice of such important rituals.
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An Analogous Artifact
from Columbia University
Columbia. Memo on Doctoral Exams in the Faculty of Political Science, 1946
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMMITTEES CONDUCTING THE GENERAL EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
- Special attention is called to the following statements, of which the first forms part of the requirements formulated by the Division for the general examination; while the second, quoted from the requirements in History, expresses (mutatis mutandis) the purpose of the general examination throughout the Division.
In judging of the candidate’s fitness for the degree regard will be had to the general grasp and maturity shown, as well as to the range and accuracy of his attainments in the specific subjects of examination. […]
The object of the examination is to ascertain the applicant’s acquirements within a considerable range of historical knowledge. He will not be expected to show an encyclopaedic command of minute details; but he must give evidence of thorough study, and an understanding of the significance and relations of historical events and institutions within the limits of his field of study.
- Each Committee should meet fifteen minutes in advance of the examination, in order that its members may familiarize themselves with the candidate’s record and plan the examination.
- An engagement as member of an Examining Committee should have precedence over all other university engagements, and the number of examiners present at any time during the examination should not fall below four.
- The Chairman of the Examining Committee is responsible for the general conduct of the examination and shall report in writing to the Chairman of the Division the result and the quality of the examination.
- The candidate passes or fails upon the examination as a whole. Conditions in individual subjects are contrary to the policy of the Division.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Exams. 1917-18 to 1920-21. Box 3. Printed instructions for the conduct of a General Examination in the Division of History, Government and Economics found in the records of Hebert Knight Dennis who took the General Examination in economics twice May 21, 1915 (not passed) and 29 Feb 1916 (passed).
Image Source: Harvard Square 1915 from Brookline Public Library’s Photograph Collection at Digital Commonwealth (Non-Commercial, Creative Commons license).