PART-TIME STUDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 38, 15 February 1937, Page 6

PART-TIME STUDENTS.

UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS. (To the Editor.) With reference to the question of University terms, as raised by the Auckland Education Board, will you permit me to ask the University Senates to publish the following facts? (a) The number of internal utudents who passed in term* for Ifl.'iii. and the number of same who followed up this success with a pass in the 1!M<! decree examinations; (b) the* number of i>\tcrnal students who passed in terms, and, ;i» in (a), succeeded in passing l!).'J(i degree": (n i |ip> number* of part-time students fullilliug t lie same requirements. I hold rio brief ii :;<in-t the universities but if the percentage of internal and part-time students who pass degree at the first attempt following terms success. is substantially higher than the percentage of internal students who do likewise, then to my mind a serious conclusion ran be di.iun. It is that the standard of jm-s requirements in terms is higher for one class of student than another. All extramural and pint time students would, 1 am sure, lie only ton pleased to see such a conclusion completely refuted by the publication of such details. a ]] recognise that it is preferable for the -tudeiit to take his degree a* an internal student, thus contacting directly with the intel|cef mil mind of the colleges. At the same time, it i- often the case that degree work mu-t lie taken extramurally. In such a c;i-e the student lois t ) H . unenviable task of plodding through texts and masses of information wi'hoiit the \,iluable guidance of the profe-sors. Surely it would he unfair then to expect at the same time a higher standard in the terms examinations. May I suggest that the solution may lie in the colleges taking over the extramural work in the form of correspondence work? It has been done by primary and secondary schools; surely it is not an impossible task to increase the university organisation to cope in this way with a growing part of college work by publishing notes of the professorial lectures'. STUDENT.