UNIVERSITY FINANCE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25085, 17 January 1947, Page 3

UNIVERSITY FINANCE

“COMPETENT REVIEW DESIRABLE ” CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS “We proclaim and we believe that wisdom is more to be desired than gold; but university administrators may derive benefit from some reflection on Samuel Butler’s dictum—‘Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less Pan it be gotten without it,’ ” said Mr Justice Smith, Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, addressing the Senate in Christchurch yesterday on the problem of university finance in New Zealand. “The provision of finance for the university on a sound basis is, as I have reiterated, of the greatest importance to the whole development of university education. He who controls the purse controls the development He should desire harmonious and complementary development. Arts and science, the subjects of the professional schools (medicine, dentistry, mining, engineering, architecture, and home science) and agriculture in the' agricultural colleges are all involved. To attain the maximum results for the money expended, co-ordination, carried out with expert knowledge of the whole field, is, in my view, very desirable.” The chancellor then presented a table of incomes of the university and its colleges for 1945, and estimated amounts of Government grants for 1946 and 1947. Until the work was assessed in terms of figures it was not possible to find how it should be administered. “Comparative statements for several years past for the university and the colleges would show how the revenue from endowments and from investments had been shrinking, while the revenue from fees and from Government grants has been increasing,” he continued. “For the future, the main source of revenue must almost certainly be the Government grant. This is strikingly manifested by the estimated amounts which will be required for the years 1946 and 1947, pursuant to the five-year plan for finance which has been approved by the Government. Harmonious Development “The general impression which I have derived from the table reinforces my view that university finance should be recommended by some expert body which can take an over-all view and make authoritative recommendations for, the harmonious development of university education. This will not involve at all that one college will get as much as another. It will involve only that each college will receive what it needs for its proper development as part of the New Zealand system of university education. It will involve also that the several departments of the one university college will.be properly reviewed in the light of the work of all the departments of the college. “For example, it is instructive to note that in 1945 the revenue of the Medical School alone exceeded the revenue required at Otago University for arts and science and all the general purposes of the University of Otago by some £9,000. I am not criticising the Medical School. We all know that the school makes good use of its funds and needs more. On the other hand, when other faculties of the university are crying out for .better support, it is instructive to compare the amounts spent upon them all respectively, not with a view to takin £ from the Medical School that which it should have, but with a view to inducing the authorities to grant adequate support to the other faculties. **Again, if the number of degree and diploma students were the only basis for comparison the revenue spent in 1945 on the agricultural colleges would be large in comparison with the revenue of the other colleges, even including Otago University and its special schools. The number of students is not a sound basis for comparison because the buildings, land, and equipment of the agricultural colleges must cost large sums in relation to the number of . students. Furthermore, both Massey and Lincoln Colleges have been taking many students on short courses. Nevertheless, a necessarily large expenditure on a comparatively few degree and diploma students seems to me to show again the desirability of co-ordinating operations and of bringing all university education under a competent financial review.”