Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 3. NATURE, FUNCTION AND AIM. It is to be noted that these colleges are ranked with the " Hoch- schulen," or universities, of the country. Like these they adhere to the classical maxim of " Lehr- und Lernf reiheit," viz., the professors are at liberty to offer any course or courses which in their opinion may be helpful, or for which there is a demand. On the other hand the students may arrange their programs of lectures entirely at their own pleasure, provided that those who work for diplomas pursue certain fundamental courses required in the examinations for such diplomas. These courses, examinations and diplomas will be discussed later. Here it may suffice to state that beyond these fundamental courses the student, in true university fashion, may lay out his plans to his own advantage and may hear any lectures which will bear upon his future work in business life. This university spirit furthermore asserts itself in the organizing of academic students' societies or fraternities, bearing Latin names. The members of these fraternities, like those in the older sister-institutions, wear the insignia of their particular societies in the form of colored caps and bandeliers. In Cologne, for example, we find the following fraternities: Hansea, Salia, Ubia, Arminia and Rheno-Frankonia. But it must be added that these younger fraternities in the commercial colleges are not recognized fully by the older organizations in the universities. The question may be asked, what is the aim of these colleges? This can not be answered by a general statement, fitting all six institutions, since each one is a child of its environment and conditions. The general task of these commercial colleges is to teach the social and economic sciences in their direct and indirect bearing upon all busin...