H. J. Tancred who, as chancellor, had dominated the Senate so long, died in 1884. His successor, Sir James Hector, who remained in office till 1903, though a signatory to the 1879 commission's report, lost whatever zeal for reform he may once have had. After him came Stout, now Sir Robert, and Chief Justice. So far as the University was concerned, he remained the astute politician he had ever been, but with this difference: once he had been a liberal reformer, now he became a defender of an institution.

In the last 20 years of the century, a period for the University of growth in size but not in wisdom, only two other matters deserve mention. An amendment Act in 1883 and a supplementary charter authorised degrees in science; secondly, by 1899 fees paid by examinees more than covered the costs of examination, and a proportion of profits was thereafter wisely invested in a Scholarships Endowment Fund which in the course of years proved of inestimable value to hundreds of scholars. Up to 1902 members of Senate had held a life tenure of office. An amendment Act in that year reconstituted the Senate, membership being reduced to 24, on a three-year tenure. Four members were appointed by Government, and five came from each college — two elected by the council, two by graduates, and one by the professors, thus giving university teachers some direct representation.

The early part of this century was occupied, as the closing decade of the last had been, with arguments about extra-mural students, with the minutiae of prescriptions, and with the continuing controversy about the examination system.