STUDENTS AND STAFF

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25380, 31 December 1947, Page 2

STUDENTS AND STAFF

TRENDS REVIEWED BY MRS N. M. MACELWEE Mrs N. M. MacElwee, wife of the new Professor of Electrical Engineering at Canterbury University College, is especially keen on fostering close relationships between students and staff in university life. “Looking after my husband’s students” was the way she laughingly described her chief interest in recent years, when she arrived in Christchurch from England yesterday morning. More and more attention to this aspect of university life was being paid in England, she said. Born at Ayr, the birthplace of Robert Burns, Mrs MacElwee took the Diploma of the Glasgow College of Domestic Science, and held several teaching positions before she was married. During the war years she joined the staff of Cadbury’s continuation school at Bournville. The continuation school idea was gaining greater recognition in England, she said, having been proved in value by several large firms. Many workers in England left school early, and the scheme permitted them to advance their education during working time. Cadbury’s allowed the equivalent of a day a week for their staff to study at their school where she had lectured in domestic science. The courses were popular and considered worth while by the firm. Such schools, though operated privately. Were under the supervision of the local education authority. A good number of firms provided technical training for their own direct benefit: but few had so far extended the scheme to general education. Mrs MacElwee-is a brother of Mr D. Wilson MacArthur, who has travelled extensively to gather material for historical and descriptive novels. He is at present in South Africa and intends soon to visit New Zealand. An uncle. Mr David Alec Wilson, wrote “The Life of Thomas Carlyle” in six volumes, Mr MacArthur completing the last after the death of the author.