LIMIT ON STUDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 184, 5 August 1940, Page 3

LIMIT ON STUDENTS.

MEDICAL COURSE. SECOND YEAR CONGESTION. OTAGO UNIVERSITY ACTION. Owing to the extraordinary increase in the numbers of students taking the first year of the medical course at the University of Otago and in the other University colleges during the present session, the Otago University Council has found itself compelled, after full consideration, to limit the number to be admitted to the second-year courses at th-> medical school in 1940. • Amplifying a i*ress Association message, the registrar of the University of Otago, in a statement, stresses the fact that the council wished to make it clear to present and intending students and their parents that the position ie such as to leave no alternative to this decision, and regrets the unavoidable shortness of notice. The new school, erected in 1926, made provision for a maximum of 60 students per annum, a total which was then considered sufficient for the needs of the Dominion for many yeare to come. Unexpected growth of numbers made it necessary in one year—l93s—to restrict the number of students entering the second-year courses to 60. At that period provision for a maximum of 100 was accepted as more than satisfying all predictable demands. Absolute Maximum. At the beginning of 1940, however, the school wae confronted with a secondyear entry of 110. All were accepted, but this could only be done by a series of special efforts and expedients. The experience of the last few months, however, has shown that the difficulties caused by this overcrowding cannot be allowed to continue, still less to increase. The figure of 100 is the absolute maximum which the school can take in any year under present conditions.

Inquiries made this year have shown that there are actually about 174 firstyear students in the four colleges (93 in Dunedin, 81 elsewhere) preparing to sit for the medical intermediate examination with a view to entering on professional studies in Dunedin in 1941. The number of passes is, of course, uncertain, but a further rise in the number of applications for entry can be expected. This fact caused so much anxiety to the Medical Faculty and the council that the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, was approached on the matter. The Minister stated that an output of from 60 to 70 graduates a year was reported by the Director-General of Health ae being fully sufficient to meet the requirements of the Dominion. Limitation to the maximum of 100 being thus imperative, the council has decided to introduce it accordingly. Method Of Selection. Second-year students who have failed to qualify for admission to the third year, but have been reported as satisfactory by the Medical Faculty, will have first claim to admission and, after these, graduate entrants. The remainder will be admitted on the results of the intermediate examination. A pass on the special examination next February will give no claim to admission in 1941 "unless the total otherwise qualified should till below 100. The council realises the hardship that may be caused by the unavoidable lateness of this notification to candidates who pass the intermediate examination of this year and cannot be admitted in 1941, and is prepared as a special concession to give such candidates preference in 1942.