STUDENTS FROM FORCES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25254, 5 August 1947, Page 8

STUDENTS FROM FORCES

REHABILITATION BOND OBJECTED TO

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES RESTRICTED

Returned servicemen who are studying at Canterbury University College with financial assistance from the Rehabilitation Department are protesting about a bond which many of them have been obliged to sign. It requires them to give an undertaking that they will not leave New Zealand on completion of their course for a period usually equal to the term for which they receive full financial aid. The Returned Services’ Club at the college, with a membership of 320, has recently held several meetings to consider the position. To-day, Dunedin students, through the Dunedin Returned Services’ Association, will place their objections before the Rehabilitation Board and a Christchurch representative will go to Dunedin to watch proceedings. The presentation of a case from Canterbury students will be determined after this meeting.

Returned servicemen students interviewed at Canterbury University College yesterday said that, since the whole • object of rehabilitation assistance was to place men from the armed forces on the same footing as civilians, they felt that the bond was an unfair restriction. So far, chiefly engineering students had been required to sign the bond, which they first heard of during the first term. Since then the requirement had been extended to some other faculties. It had been stated that the bond was designed to ensure that returned men studied diligently and to protect the taxpayer’s money used to help them. The students believed this to be an anomaly, which would handicap many able men. The conditions of the bond varied among different students. The case of the returned students rested in a comparison between them and students who had had no overseas service, members of the Returned Services’ Club said. Many returned men were studying engineering and desired to go overseas for further experience, yet, by their bond, they were compelled to remain in New Zealand for several years after qualification. There was no such restriction on civilian students. The returned man was already handicapped by war-time interference with his studies.

Engineering students said that opportunities for post-graduate study in New Zealand were rare, so it was essential for them to go overseas to qualify for executive positions. Most said that if there were openings in New Zealand they intended to settle here, but the experience available overseas was a pre-requisite. The students said they had elected the president of their Returned Services’ Club <Mr I. Hatrick Smith) to go to Dunedin as an observer, and they would mdet later to decide what further action was necessary.