MATRICULATION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16117, 23 January 1918, Page 7

MATRICULATION.

A SENATE PROPOSAL. (SITCIAL TO "THE PRKSS.") DUNEDIN, January 22. A matter of wide importance in the possibilities of recovery it offers to Hen of ability who may havo neglected •tudy in early youth, or have been unablc'to undertake it, but to whom the •'rail" or tho opportunity comes later in lifo, was introduced in tho University Senate to-day on the Rev. A. Cameron's motion to consider possible alterations in the matriculation examination. such as, for example, perEiitting students 2o years or over to take tho matriculation in two parts, or, further, providing a separate degree. The motion to appoint a committee to consider tho question met with sympathy, nnd was eventually carried unanimously. Mr von Haa&t said it was one of the host proposals ever brought before tho Senate. It -would bring the University into touch with tho worker, and rejuove from the Sonate tho reproach of being academical. The members of tho Workers' Educational Association ■would welcome it, and it would encourage the Government to lind more funds lor tho Association. Profassor Hunter said tho workers * were well able to undertake university studies, but they would not undertake the drudgery or getting up _ ail the subjects of matriculation. What wa3 wanted was a regulation giving permission to excuse a student from the matriculation examination. It was unreasonable that those men at their ago of life should go back to tho matriculation. It was a wasto of time for that class of person. Tho Hon. J. A. Hanan said ho would go away delighted if the Senate -would only pass this motion, which gave a chance to thoso men who in early youth had had to neglect study for work in support of thoir families. The Chancellor said the first question was, how were they to deal with tho entrance examination? Tho necessary modification would appear to lie in mathematics. If this were modified, and a degree given on the social scienco side, this, he thought, would he what the workers desired. Tho subjects for such a degree might he English language and literature, economics, English history, constitutional history, jurisprudence, and one science. Dr. Anderson said one of the first -—"fteps to bo taken to associate the University with tho Workers' Educational Association would be to set up a dinloma in a croup of subjects comparable with a degro in social science. He suggested that instead of leaving the entrance to tho University to tho Chancellor, or doing away with the pntrance examination, they should provide for modifications, such, for example, as the acceptance of examination successes in cognate subjects. For exnmplc, success in some outside exrmirintion in economics and civics might be allowed to count, in place of mathematics in +ho elimination. In reply, the Rev. said he wanted th<* men to have tho opportunity of retting. +*>e ordinary degree, not a diploma. He """s very p'eased vith the reception of his proposal.