UNIVERSITY DEGREES

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 August 1930, Page 6

UNIVERSITY DEGREES

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EXAMINATIONS.

• • mil(To the Editor.) ; A ' The Parliamentary Recces Committee Education has recommended that a system "internal" examination for degrees be set in tho proposed universities of the North South Islands. As the agitation of wkih this section of the report is the culmination has rather profited in the past by ' ambiguity in the term "internal oxai;? tion," it seems desirable that a clear T" tinction be i drawn between the two thE for which it has come to stand indiscriminate]! m the public mind. As applied to New Z e l land conditions these words may mean eitii ' |(1) an examination for degrees condiS entirely by examiners resident in New Zcala >1 to tho exclusion of the employment of exam' iners overseas; or (2) the system under candidates for degrees pass or fail on the -r verdict of their individual instructors TV former system is quite compatible, as £ latter is not, with the employment 'by th university of "external examiners" as the Q ffi P ! is understood in the universities of Great Britain, where their employment i s universal It should be understood that this is in f af f tho system at present in operation in th,« University of New Zealand for the first and second stages of all degrees in arts and in science, every student being examined bv at least one professor of a college other than his own. Only the advanced and honours stages, on the examinations for which depends .the award of scholarships, are examined over seas. Since the abolition of this last arrange" ment is proposed by the committee, it becomes a matter of some interest to know how they intend to carry into effect their demand that the New Zealand degree examination standards, in so far as they, are inferior to those of the best British universities, should as soon as possible be brought into line therewith With regard to the second meaning of "internal examination" to which I have referred I notice that the committee's ground for recommending it is, as they put it, that in almost all overseas universities of standing, including all the Australian universities, it is considered sufficient for a pass if the student satisfies "his professor" in respect of his year's work. As I have already indicated, this statement as applying to the British universities is simply fake. I doubt its complete accuracy even in application to the Australian institutions. But even so, does the committee really think that the work of the universities is such as to make them the pattern to which our own academic bodies should aspire to adapt themselves? It will be a sad day for university education in New Zealand when this view prevails. W. ANDERSON. Auckland University College.