College link-up – Lifeline or kiss of death?
The Free Church College is in crisis. Come September there will have been no new Free Church students for two years running. The roll will be down to five Free Church students and a few private students and yet they will be taught by four full-time professors. What can be done to reverse this downward trend? Get degree awarding status through the University of Edinburgh, is the answer of the College Board. This, they say, will attract private students, particularly from overseas. More students means more fees, and therefore more money. After all, some say it costs the Church at least £150,000 per year to subsidise the College, enough money to pay the salary of ten ministers. Increase the students numbers, and it will reduce the burden on the Church. It is also suggested that getting degree-awarding status will help safeguard the fees we receive from the Government for our own students. Is this the solution to our College's dramatic decline in recent years? Definitely not! It is not a lifeline, but a kiss of death.
Degree Status is unnecessary
Colleges with a similar outlook to our own such as the London Theological Seminary (LTS) and the Reformed Presbyterian College (RPC) in Belfast completely reject the need for degree awarding status, yet they attract students. The LTS prospectus states: "The examination system with its attendant emphasis on diplomas and degrees has been rejected. If the threat of examinations is what keeps a man diligent in his studies, it may certainly be questioned whether that man has been called of the Lord. The same thing applies if his supreme aim is the possession of some qualification....History and experience, however combine to support the Seminary's position to concentrate on the single aim of preparing men for the preaching and pastoral ministry". Interestingly the RPC investigated some years ago what would be involved in obtaining degree-awarding status and decided that the dangers were greater than the benefits. They see no problem over grants and fees, though even if there were a problem, they feel it would be a small price to pay to maintain evangelical independence.
Degree Status involves an unholy alliance
As an institution Edinburgh University is secular. Their divinity faculty, New College, does not hold to the infallibility of the Scriptures nor to the Reformed doctrine taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Its teaching staff includes a feminist, a Roman Catholic, and liberals. Yet they are giving "most favourable terms" to the Free Church. Why? The Free Church will pay £3000 per year and every little sum helps to keep the University afloat. Also it has been suggested that this link-up shows New College as an outward looking, active, and expanding institution when previously it had been viewed as suffering a decline, with few students who could not be part of a different sort of University faculty. So degree accreditation for our own College may help secure the future of New College. But surely we should pray rather for the reform of such an institution, not form an unholy alliance to keep it alive.
Degree Status will stifle criticism of errors
Every Pastor knows that it can be very difficult to deal with someone who is extremely generous and kind, yet is unconverted or is doing things they should not do. Similarly, if Edinburgh University is granting favours to the Free Church in validating its degree, our Professors will find it difficult to criticise errors taught within its divinity faculty of New College. Would not severe criticism lead to problems and even the loss of degree validation? Was there not evidence of this at last year's Assembly when it was more or less implied that we should not say that any of the New College staff were liberal and not truly Christian?
Degree Status will bring ungodly influences upon our College.
It is inevitable that sooner or later there will be negative influences on our College from outside the Church. The World is against robust Calvinism and will not tolerate it for long. There will be pressure eventually to spend more time studying the "scholarly" liberal writings rather than sound, godly books. The influence of the much bigger neighbour New College, will require more “openness” to liberalism. The change will not be seen for five or six years but by ten years time the influence of modernism is likely to be paramount. It is amazing how quickly the great evangelical and Calvinistic theological colleges of the Free Church last century, succumbed to liberalism. Are we today any more secure than they were? Also in the appointing of Professors someone from the University will have a voice, though no vote. But a voice can be of more influence than a vote. The Scots commissioners to the Westminster Assembly greatly influenced the outcome despite having no vote. Academic qualifications will eventually supplant godliness as the most important qualification of a potential Professor.
Degree Status has a poor track record.
In some institutions which have already gone down this road, it has been noticed that a distinct shift in position has soon taken place. This is seen, for example, in the textbooks used. Although it is argued that the errors in these textbooks can be corrected, the whole thrust of the course changes. The proper goal of training godly and faithful pastors is lost. The warnings are ominous.
The loss of potential Students.
There is only a limited pool of students wishing to study theology. As the Church generally shrinks in the West, so does this pool. Unless a distinctive niche is carved out for our College there is no hope of survival. To go down the road of linking with New College, is to become an insignificant, indistinct College, which no one would want to come to. Other Bible Colleges and Universities, which are inter-denominational, have greater appeal. The way for the Free Church College to attract more students is for it to become, and to be seen to become, more distinctive in its attachment to Scottish experimental Calvinism.
Degree Status will not save the college
According to a recent letter in a newspaper from one former student who left our College without completing his course, in order to study elsewhere (not the only one in the last few years), the lack of degree-awarding status was not why he left. The problem was the student’s belief that “to have sat under Professor Macleod would have contravened the doctrinal standards of Scripture” (P&J 14/4/99). Clearly the problems in the Free Church College are deeper than the ability to award degrees and the validation of the course through Edinburgh University will not solve them. Indeed any proposed link-up with the University and its New College will only further hasten the demise of our College. It will be no lifeline but a kiss of death.
Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.
[Back to Reformed Christian Pages][Back to Free Church Foundations]
[Back to Pre- General Assembly Issue]