© 1959 Meredith Sprunger
Ultimately the educational policy of the Urantia Brotherhood should aim at universality and excellence. To accomplish this goal the quality of instruction must be the best and it must be channeled in a form which will be applicable throughout the world.
Toward this end I would suggest a two-fold educational plan.
This course could be made available through correspondence as well as taught at regional centers. In he early years of the movement such licensed leaders could be granted ordination through special request to the Education committee. This procedure would be extended to all mission fields as they develop.
The object of the University would be to train graduates who would go into all phases of education and full-time religious, social, or humanitarian work.
All graduates of the Department of Religion on the doctorate level would be eligible for ordination. Those societies or organizations desiring full time workers would eventually be urged or requested to have individuals with this quality of training. These individuals could also go into the Religion Departments of colleges and universities or other full time religious work.
Such a Department of Religion in the Urantia University would be much better than the present day seminary. The seminary does not require the quality of work demanded for the University Ph. D. degree. Yet the class work for the Ph. D. in the Department of Religion could be finished in the same three year period spent in the traditional seminary. The candidate could finish his thesis and take his final exams after he has taken a professional position — as is now the case among most Ph. D. candidates. An individual with this type of training would have a much higher educational and social standing than the traditional seminary graduate.
The University could start with only one or two departments and add others as the University develops. If the quality of the institution is high, instructors will be in demand in the colleges and universities of the world. In this way the educational systems of the world would become the channel of natural, evolutionary missionary activities. This educational development would be paralleled on the social level by the growth of local Brotherhood societies.