UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 11

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

FEAR OF STATE CONTROL

DISCUSSION BY GRADUATES

COMMITTEE TO SUBMIT VIEWS,

A protest against alleged attempts of the Department of Education to encroach on the administration of the University was voiced by a number yof graduates at a meeting of the Auckland Universiy District Court of Convocation last evening, when the report of the Parliamentary Recees Education Committee was discussed. It was decided that the convocation committee should further investigate the report and submit proposals at a general meeting to be held within two months. "Behind the findings of the committee one can clearly see a Government Department very much concerned that secondary education should not add to its financial burdens, and, more serious etill, determined to exercise a greater control over the University," said Dr. H. Ranston. There was grave danger of political interference, for example, in the proposed State payment of University lecturers. The committee had apparently recognised the need for autonomy in the University, but some of its proposals worked in the opposite direction. Such a course would only prove destructive of a true University spirit, and the. progress of advanced thought would be hampered. The proposal to set up a University jof North New Zealand apparently implied that each college would be virtually autonomous. If that was correct —and it seemed almost too simple to be true— then, as one aiming at an ulitmate separate University for Auckland, he was prepared to accept the proposed division. But the situation needed to be watched very closely. Mr. W. S. Dale commended the proposed co-ordination of training colleges with the University. The existing democratic system of scholarships should be maintained at all costs, said Mr. H. J. D. Mahon. He did not think the time had yet arrived for the establishr.vit of schools of technology with University statue. Professor F. P. Worley said the proposed division of the University into two had been first suggested by Professor T. Hunter, of Wellington. If the committee had thought of the alternative plan to set up four separate universities, it would, no doubt, have incorporated this in the report. He considered it advisable to accept the reforms suggested rather than continue with the present unsatisfactory system.