AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION.

For some years there has been a growing recognition by both educators and the profession of accountancy that one of the major problems in accountancy education is the difficulty of keeping the teaching staff abreast of the practical problems in the field. Generally, practical experience is one of the requirements before a permanent teaching appointment is secured. Of necessity this experience can be only for a few years and needs to be reviewed from time to time. In addition, many universities have had the experience of sending out promising young men to secure needed practical experience with the expectation that they would return to their teaching assignment. Almost without fail this expectation has not materialized, because by the time the young man has received adequate experience his value to the profession is such that the university is unable to compensate him sufficiently to secure his return to the classroom. The American Institute of Accountants has recognized this need in education and has begun to set up faculty residences or internships so that faculty men, in very limited numbers, may secure six months to a year's valuable experience in the offices of a public accounting firm. This is a fine step in the right direction but, it is believed, will operate very slowly and will not meet the needs of education fast enough.