OUR UNIVERSITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 10

OUR UNIVERSITIES.

ONE GREAT WEAKNESS. TOO WJDE A RANGE. PROFESSOR CONDLIFFES VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. "I believe one of the great weaknesses in New Zealand University teaching is the fact that each of the colleges tries to cover practically the whole range of knowledge instead of specialising," said Professor J. B. C.'ondliffe, research secretary to the Institute of Pacific Relations, to-day. "The professors at each of the four colleges have to do so to meet a rigid examination syllabus. This means that they cannot specialise in any branch of their subject and train their students along that, particular branch. It reduces their capacity for research and a great deal of the vitality of their teaching, and they have to choose between coaching students for examinations and training men who ultimately become university graduates. This weakness comes from the external examination system. "My task with the Institute is to make arrangements with research men in the universities who are interested in furthering the investigations that relate to the economic and social problems of thei Pacific. I find it almost impossible to make such arrangements in £he University of New Zealand, because the men who are interested and keenest to do research work are in the grip of the examination svstem.

"A Japanese professor can accept a subsidy from the institute and arrange liis teaching so that his students cooperate with him and receive their trainin?.' by helping him to work on some important problem. A professor here is not able to do this, because, although he may be a specialist in banking and currency, he has also to teach labour problems, agricultural economics, and every other branch of his subjects. If he neglects these other branches his students fail to pass their examinations. "There seems no reason to me why a perfectly sound system of general instruction could not he given in the early years of the university course, the examinations for which would be held locally as now. In this way considerably gre"ater freedom could be given to university tea-hers and their assistants in their advanced work.

"The money that is being spent on the external examinations of the university at present would be much more profitably spent in bringing to New Zealand a firstgrade man in each of the principal subjects every two or three years. Such a step would stimulate teachers and students, and would assist them to keep abreast of the most recent work in the subjects.

"Also, the staff of junior lecturers and assistants should be increased, and some sent abroad so as to free the professors and enable both professors and assistants to keep in touch with the latest work that is going on. This country is far from the centres of academic education, and it needs some such stimulus as this."