RHODES SCHOLARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1937, Page 10

RHODES SCHOLARS.

SELECTION METHODS.

ARE THEY TOO YOUNG?

TWO SIDES TO QUESTION.

Scholastic ability aiul attainments, qualities of manhood, force of character and leadership, fondness for sports— these are in brief the qualifications on which a Rhodes scholar is chosen. Which is to be given more emphasis than another? This is a question which has apparently been raised by the Australian Students' Congress, which, as reported by cablegram on Friday, has passed a resolution expressing dissatisfaction with the method of selection, alleging that insufficient consideration was given to Cecil Rhodes' expressed desire that emphasis should be placed on personality and capacity for leadership.

The results of inquiries made to-day indicates that no similar complaint has been made as far as New Zealand is concerned. A student body official stated that the system here worked fairly. However, the question was raised whether or not the age limit of 21 years is inadequate, in View of the fact that as the result of his age the candidate must necessarily be judged almost solely on his secondary school record.

Students' Recommendation. Several applications for the scholarships pass through the students' executive at the various university colleges, and they are considered on their merits, "sorted Out" and sent on with recommendajtons to the professorial boards of the colleges. The boards further consider the applications and interview the applicants; in their choice they are influenced, though not necessarily bound, by the recommendations of the student executives. The board of each college selects two applicants and the nominees are brought before the selection committee,s of which the Governor-General of the Dominion is chairman. By this body the filial choice is made. If the allegations against the Australian method are true, it seems that a breach is being committed of Rhodes' trnst. For his aim was the development of leadership in an Empire in whjch he himself played the part of a leader.

•It is accepted in New Zealand that scholarship shall not count as everything. Students hold that the combination of personality and leadership, and fondness for and prowess in the most manly sports is of greater account. If a man happened to be an All Black at the age of 20 that achievement might sway his chances more than would a degree, for it bespeaks both prowess in the Dominion's leading sport and the innate quality of leadership which is more often than not a characteristic of a representative player. But that, of cpurse, is not to say that academic achievement is not to be an important element in the candidate's qualifications, t Scholastic attainments, although there havrf been brilliant students who have | been classed by their fellows as "bookworms" or "swots," lacking in personality and self-confidence, are usually an essence of leadership. It is borne in mind that a Rhodes scholar goes to England as a representative of the New Zealand university colleges, and the universities are judged accordingly. Secondary School Record. One section at least of student opinion holds that the limiting of the qualifying age to 21 is in some cases a hardship. At 20 or 21 a man may not even have attained, for instance, his B.A. degree. He may not have had time to display his prowess in sport by the winning of a place in the senior university teams. Thus, it is held, a man tends to be selected on his secondary school record rather than his university record, and between these two careers there may be a considerable difference.

But on the other hand, it is pointed out that a reasonably early age is to be desired in view of the study and ultimately the career that lie before the 'hewly-ehosen Rhodes Scholar. It is necessary that he should be at a formative age, and desirable .that he should be still young when the time comes for him to enter, perhaps, the Colonial Service in some distant part of the Empire. There is greater room for the development of Ms character and his potential leadership, and for the assimilation of that influence of tilings lastingly British, which are among the important reasons why he is sent to one of England's oldest universities.