UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1925, Page 3

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

THE COMMISSION'S REPORT. HOW IT AFFECTS AUCKLAND. I I DISCUSSED BY HON. G. FOWLDS. '.\ While agreeing that the report of! I the commission on University Kducaj tion in New Zealand has commend- ' ably dealt with a complex problem, the . j Hon. lieorge Fowlds, chairman of tiie I Auckland University Council, is of the j ; | opinion that a number of the recom--1 j mendations will be strongly opposed by j ' each of the University Colleges, even . ' j though, and probably because, the com- ' j mission had rendered a thoroughly un- j i I biased finding on various controver- i \ j sial problems. The commission, he emphasises, definitely stated that local ' prejudice was not monopolised by . Auckland, and that Aucklandcrs had reasonable cause for complaint against the Senate in its attitude over the ■ Engineering School. Referring to the portion of the report having particular reference to Auckland Mr. Fowlds stated that it : "properly and strongly condemns the ; purely examining University. It is rather difficult to'understand how the .changes proposed in the constitution of the . governing body of the University will : transform it into a teaching University, i "That the freedom given to the teach- : ing faculties of the constituent colleges | ! under the supervision or with the concurrence of the Academic Board, and the improved methods of examination suggested, would be a great improvement on the present system may readily be admitted, but how the proposals would create a teaching University 1 ' fail to see. The proposed University 1 would certainly be less of an examining I body, but not more a teaching body. "The commission quite definitely re- \ cognises that its recommendations, if giA-en effect to, can only be of a tern-1 porary nature and that separate j Universities must be the ultimate goal, j All they claim is that the time is not . \ ripe for separation. I don't think that | ' the commission has given sufficient I I I weight to the peculiarly unique position j \ of New Zealand from a geographical ' ' point of view, nor to the impossibility ' j of getting rid of provincial prejudices under the constitution which it re- - 11 commends. On account of the prej ponderanee of voting power arising from ' ' j the present unfair monopoly of special , ' | schools in the South Island, the Aca- j 1 1 demic Board and the supreme council j of the University might quite possibly j j ! be more overwhelmingly composed of ] j South Island representatives than is \ \ the present Senate, and to expect from ! ' j such a body less local prejudice than j from the present Senate is to expect ! j the impossible, i Engineering School. 1 "The recommendations of the commission in favour of recognition of the Auckland Engineering School for the first and second professional examina--1 tions was what might reasonably have : been expected from any impartial ' commission. The fact that the ; Senate recognised the work of the school and allowed the students j to sit for examinations if the student i proposed to go on for degrees in minj ing or architecture, but refused to allow them to sit for examination for civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering degrees, although the examination papers aro identical, surely constituted the. ; most outrageous record ever established by any responsible body of men. School of Forestry. ' "The absurdity of the Senate's decision I that only one School of Engineering was I needed in New Zealand, but that it re- I quired two Schools of Forestry, is natu- ; rally condemned, and a recommendation made that only one school, at Auckland, should be maintained. School of Agriculture. ''The most disappointing portion of the report was the recommendation that only one School of Agriculture should ; be established in the North Island, and J that it should be located in some suit- j able locality in the North Island by a combination of the schools proposed for j 1 Wellington and Auckland. This is cvi- j dently intended to mean a location somewhore in the centre of the North Island, away from either Wellington or Auckland. It must be admitted that one pro-perly-staffed and equipped Agricultural School or College would be sufficient I for the needs of the North Island, and j that the cost of such an institution, j properly developed, would be as much I as the Dominion couid afi'ord for many I years to come. Thus far the commission was on sound ground, but when, it ! recommended a separate institution, | away from either University centre, cut i off physically and administratively from j i ;>oth University colleges, then it Avas ! i running against the practically unani- | nious judgment of all the leaders of | agricultural education in Canada and America. American Object Lessons. Mr. Fowlds contended that New Zealand should profit by the mistakes of Canada and America. He* referred to his personal investigations there at quite a dozen of the noted institutions and every man he met agreed that Agricultural Colleges as separate instiI tutions were doomed to failure. j On. this point he added tbat former ' Dean Bailey, of Cornell, giving evidence . before a commission inquiring into the question of separating the Agricultural College from tho State University of California, said: "All separate institutions are going backward and a State which adopts the policy of separation to-day dooms its own Agricultural College to mediocrity." In other words the recommendation of the commission I on this point means in its own words i i "anaemic mediocrity" or agricultural | education in this country. , "The only redeeming feature in this recommendation is the suggestion that bucli an institution 'may ultimately develop into a complete residential "University,' " continued Mr. Fowlds. "Better to adopt that aim and ideal consciously from the beginning. Ruakura State Farm would provide almost ideal conditions for a Dominion residential University with a highly developed Agricultural School as an integral part of it. "I am of opinion, however, that the Dominion is less ripe for the develop- . ment of such an institution than it is ' for the four separate Universities, and i until the time ripens, with a reasonable ' piece of land at Orakei for demonstration work or outdoor laboratories and the use of Ruakura Farm for experimental and practical work for the students, the needs of the North Island for agricultural education would be better met for years to come by tne Auckland School of Agriculture than it would be by the separate institution suggested by the commission. [

I The Matter of ■ Finance. . A notable omission from the report, j concluded Mr. Fowlds, was a reference to finance and large classes. It might ;be suggested that the commission I favoured reducing the classes by the elimination of a number of students but that would not find much support. The arguments of the commission in favour of whole term students Avere certainly very strong but in Mr. Fowlds' judgment that result depended to a large ' extent on the complete recasting of the academic term. Separate UniA'ersitie9, in his opinion, provided the only hope of such experimenting as would be , likely to secure a satisfactory solution jof that question. He favoured the Canadian and American plan of a long ; summer vacation, when students took jup reasonable occupations, «*hich j enabled them to devote their full time lat the University during terms. He 'would like to see the experiment tried jin the Dominion.