UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 5

UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS.

4 ■ DH. STARR JORDAN'S CRITICISM OF THE SYSTEM. AX OTAGO PROFESSOR'S VIEWS. (srECIAI, TO ;, THE FBJESS.") DUNEDIN, July 3. Dr. Shand, iv his address at the pre- ! sontation of the diplomas to the Otago ; University students to-day, referred to ; Dr. Starr Jordan's criticism of our examination system. He said:—"l do not anticipate much harm from Dr. Jordan's rocommendations, but there are not wanting other and more eerious ; indications that wo arc on the ovo of a ; pc: knl of unrest, in which endeavours \ bo made to supersede British ■ mocliods and traditions by ideas im- j ported from foreign countries. 1 can- j not .ngroo that this is the right course i to follow- in building up a University, which ought not to be constructed of miscellaneous materials collected piecemeal from incongruous systems. It should bo allowed to grow, as an organism grows, by a process of evolution, continually adapting itself more a n>l more closely to its own environ'iiu'iit. Tbis. is tho way in which tho Xew Zealand University has developed . in the past, always aiming, by modify- ; iiu: its requirements in one direction ' niu\ extending them in another direc- ' tion, to moot the needs of the commii- ! nity which it serves. Ido not think | either that it c:in lx> said with justice 1 of the Xew Zealand University that it ■ ha.* clunc too tenaciously to * subjects : and methods that have censed to have a bearing upon modern life, or that it has lagged too fur behind the nvt of tho world in assimilating modern ideas. When I joined the Senate thirty years ! ago. the University contained throe , faculties and conferred six different i kinds of degrees. To-day it has I eleven faculties and confers twontythreo different kind*; of degrees. It w,ns the first University in the British Empire to ndmit women to degrees and to the other privilege of a University. Greek, ngnin. has never been a eomnulsory subject for any dcvjreo in tho University of Now Zealand, -which on this point also had given a ler.d to the ! British Empire, and even Latin, which j was regarded not so long ngo ns an in- j dispensable instrument of culture, is compulsory as a University study in two only of the eleven faculties of the j University of New Zealand. The course J of progress which has been followed in tho past should he continued in the future, as our npeds make it deeirsWe and onr circumstances make it possible, but it should proceed not hy revolution- j ary changes, but by a continuous and consistent process of improvement. There is no need to ransack the Universities of the world in the seirch for experimental novelties or antiquated survivals, nor any pressing necessity for impatient efforts to accelerate prematurely our rate of progress."