ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 65, 18 March 1930, Page 19

ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES.

SEPARATION SUCCESSFUL. .DR. RANSTON'S OBSERVATIONS. Commenting on the system of separate universities, as he found it in England, Dr. H. Ranston, who has just returned from a trip abroad, told members of the Auckland University Council yesterday that the separation was recognised as being generally successful. His scope of observation, he said, had been confined to the northern universities, but there the idea was firmly established. At first it was feared that by separation the standard of the degrees would fall, but the reverse /had been the case: This had been proved by the University of Manchester, which, as the centre of the old federation, had stood to lose the most by the experiment of separation. A distinct feeling was arising that , there should be a closer understanding between the universities and the com- , mercial world, Dr. Ranston said. Men of standing in business were coming to realise not merely that university men could be of use to them, but further, that the intricacy of modern affairs demanded the use of highly trained minds, and such could be best supplied by a, university. There were places in business for every kind of university training. On the other hand, Dr. Ranston said, there existed the difficulty of an adequate salary. Graduates who went into an office were apt to think their services too valuable, and to demand for a beginner more than their prospective employer was willing to pay.