INTER-CHURCH ROLE FOR

HEYTHROP IN LONDON
BY A STAFF REPORTER
HEYTHROP College. near Oxford. the Jesuit Fathers' house of studies, is --as forecast in the CA-FROLIC HERA1.D on July 1 —to become a constituent college of London University. Its status will he that of a non-grantreceiving school in the Faculty of Theology, and its first Principal will be Fr. Frederick Copleston.
M.A., D.Phil.
The University Senate made its decision on July 16. The main academic and ad ministrative cent re of "Heythrop College (University of London)" will be established in the former College of Education in Cavendish Square, near London's Oxford Circus, and it should open in September 1970.
CONTACT
It will be a teaching institution, not a hall of residence. and will work closely with the University's other Schools. The Jesuits hope that their staff will contribute to the academic life of the University at large. and that their students will use the opportunities "offered by a university milieu for contact with other students."
A statement issued from Heythrop last week stated : "It is planned not only that students at present attending Heythrop College will move to halls of residence in the London area. but also that the College in its new role will provide more students with new facilities and opportunities.
"It is especially hoped that lay men and women students will take advantage of these new opportunities f o r university degrees in theology."
Students attending the College will sit for London University's B.D. and M.Th. degree examinations, and for the Academic Diploma in Theology — and will thus be eligible for government grants. Members of the staff may share in the teaching, tutorial and examining work of the University's Faculty of Theology. which, from the start, has warmly encouraged the project.
Members of other religious congregations, men and women. whose students have been attending Heythrop are expected to attend the new College in London. These would include the Salvatorians and the De Montfort Fathers.
Since 1965, Heythrop College has been a Pontifical Athenaeum. with power to confer Gregorian University degrees on Jesuits and nonJesuits alike.
ATHENAEUM STAYS The Athenaeum will continue to exist. as the qualifications it gives are required for ordination. but it will have to be separate, juridically and geographically. from Heythrop College (University of London).
Staff and courses may, however. be shared. Details of the Athenaeum's future are still being discussed by the
Jestlit Fathers and the
Hierarchy.
Heythrop College will aknowledge the Chancellor of London University, who is the Queen Mother. Cardinal Heenan remains Chancellor of the Athenaeum. There is speculation as to whether the University will invite him to be Visitor at Heythrop College, as the Archbishop of Canterbury is Visitor at King's College.
The new venture was prompted by academic, ecumenical and social reasons, according to a statement issued from Heythrop last week.
It was felt that both staff and students would benefit from working in a university milieu for recognised university degrees. The ecumenical movement demanded "cooperation between theologians of different denominations," and "students of theology should not be educated in isolation from the student body in general."
UP FOR SALE The present Heythrop buildings and estate will be sold as a whole, including the non-Jesuit premises, and the congregations concerned will receive their share of the selling price.
The sale is being arranged by Alfred Savill, Curtis & Henson of London and Banbury, and, according to reports on the property market. it is hoped to secure a price of more than £1,000,000.
The Jesuit Fathers have two other properties on the market : the former Beaumont College, near Windsor, and Harlaxton Manor. a former home of the Jesuits noviceship. in Lincolnshire. Both properties are being handled by Knight. Frank and Rutley.