UNIVERSITY CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 13

UNIVERSITY CONTROL

OPINIONS IN ENGLAND PUBLIC MEN ON GOVERNING BODIES , TTHE PRESS Special Service! WELLINGTON. March 7. Much information about current legislative proposals in New Zealand, both of measures concerning the educational system generally, and moves to amend the constitution of university colleges in the Dominion, was obtained by Professor W. Anderson, Professor of Philosophy at Auckland University College, who arrived in Wellington tonight by the Tainui, after a brief visit to Great Britain. In the short time at his disposal Professor Anderson was able to visit the university centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Cardiff, one English public school, and a' number of intermediate and secondary schools in Scotland. "I made specific inquiries at university centres if such a thing were known in Great Britain as interference by the State with the right of a university to set its own standards of qualification for intending students, and to adopt its own methods of examination for this purpose," said Professor Anderson, in an interview. "I was informed that nothing of that kind is there. Such proceeding on the part of a State department would be regarded as tantamount to the destruction of the institution's standing as a university at all. and the negation of academic freedom. For anything of this kind I was informed that it was necessary to go to countries like Germany, where it is dangerous to fail the sons of leading party members." Constitution of Authorities

Professor Anderson said that on the question of the constitution of the governing bodies of university institutions he elicited a remarkable expression of opinion from a very high authority in university government. This man emphasised the vital importance of securing the presence of public men or representatives of the public on governing bodies, and the undesirability of entrusting university government predominantly to members of the teaching staffs or to representatives of the graduates. "For this his reasons were principally two:—(1) Public men or representatives are much better able to resist attempts at encroachment upon the proper rights of a university by Government officials, who find .1 purely academic governing body much easier to manipulate; (2) with a predominantly academic governing body questions of educational policy affecting the respective prospects of different departments are liable to be decided by professorial majorities to the detriment, it may be, of particular subjects. There are parties in the intellectual world just as in the political world, and.it is not in the public interest that the curriculum available in a university, or its form, should be finally controlled by such majorities. Men of experience and standing in business and public affairs are generally safer judges of the importance of the work of a department than are other professors. "I also made inquiries into the position in Great Britain of what is calleu the new education, and of the move for the substitution of self-expression for discipline and authority." Professor Anderson said. "I found that those who say that New Zealand is behind the times in this respect would have to say the same about the Old Country. There have been develop- ! ments of this kind, but the point of view shows no signs of having achieved final acceptance and authority. A body like the New Education Fellowship cuts very little ice at Home, and is simply regarded as a theosophical side-show."