'VARSITY EXAMINERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 187, 9 August 1932, Page 3

'VARSITY EXAMINERS.

PRESENT SYSTEM ENDORSED. INTERNAL PLAN DISCUSSED. " BALANCE AGAINST IT." Unanimous approval was given at a general meeting of the Auckland District Court of Convocation which was held at the Auckland University College last evening to a motion which stated that the present system of conducting the examinations of the University of New Zealand was satisfactory. Professor W. Anderson explained a proposal, which came originally from the Victoria University College, that professors in the University of New Zealand should examine in Ptagc three of any subject and in honours, instead of securing examiners for those subjects from abroad. He pointed out the advantages and the disadvantages which would follow on tho adoption of the Wellington project. It would be possible to appeal against the decision of an examiner located in New Zealand. Results would be available sooner—a decided advantage. There were other points in favour of the scheme, but he thought that the balance weighed heavily against it. It ignored tho isolation of New Zealand, while British examiners were in direct touch with the latest developments in all branches of university subjects.

"I am quite unable to appreciate what has been called the indignity inflicted on professors here by external examiners," ho added. Professors here were not put in a position of inferiority. The higher the standard obtained, the better.

"I am strongly opposed to the proposal," said Mr. H. J. D. Mahon. Science was advancing very rapidly at the present time, and the professor in a New Zealand college did not have the same cliance to keep abreast of the times as did those in the better endowed colleges. External examiners gave New Zealand the chance to measure up to the stan-

dard of the Old World. "If you are going to award scholarships after a sort of a round table conference, the dominant personality is going to. secure the award for Jiis student," Mr. Mahon added. "It would be contrary to the interests of university education in New Zealand." In Favour of Scheme. Professor P. W. Burbidge, chairman of the Professorial Board, spoke in favour of the scheme. He had not found the external system of much value, and, personally, he thought he could do as well himself. A ■ professor should be capable of examining and teaching in a subject, or he should not bo a professor. The present system was cumbersome and depended on the efficiency of the examiner at Home. Results reached New Zealand in April and as late as May, a fact which was a serious disadvantage to a student. Then there was the divorce between examiner and candidate, a particularly forcible argument when practical work had to be considered. Arguments on both sides were conceded by Mr. W. T. G. Airey. The system of examination at Oxford was really as external as it was here, ho said. An examiner there might have done no tutorial work, and in any case a student might not have taken his lectures. He stressed the point of the desirability of contact with the more up-to-date world, but did not think that' if New Zealand took its own examining into it's own hands its degrees would fall in the estimation of universities abroad.

After further discussion, Mr. Mahon put his motion that in the opinion of the Auckland District Court of Convocation the proposals of the Wellington professors for stage three subjects and honours were contrary to the interests of the University of New Zealand.

This was carried unanimously.