STATE AID FOR UNIVERSITY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 2

STATE AID FOR UNIVERSITY

MR ALGIE REVIEWS PROGRAMME INCREASES IN GRANTS TO COLLEGES (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, Nov. 5. In two or three centres which he had visited, he had been told some university professors had. stated that the Government grants to the colleges of the University qf New Zealand had b£en reduced, the Minister, of Education (Mr R. M. Algie) said today. It had even been suggested to .him that oae professor had assured his students that they had little to hope for from the present Government in the way of university education/he said. He wbuld say positively that the Government had not reduced the grants, it made to the several colleges of the University of New Zealand, said the Minister. One of the grants made annually was to each college for salaries, equipment, and other things. “I am in a position to state categorically that this particular grant ha's been increased in each year since we took office,” he said. “In 1949, the grant stood at £602,863. This year £1,217,590 was granted. . That means that We havfe doubled the grant in the brief space of five years. “I recently gave approval for a procedure which will have the effect of raising this grant by an additional £200,000,” the Minister said.

“The figures I have given do not include the sums that have been provided for bursaries, minor capital works, and major building Works. In 1949, £102,000 was set aside for bursaries; today the figure stands at £150,000. “We have been spending about £20,000 each year on minor capital works. Since 1949 we have spent £650,000 on major building projects at the several colleges. “We have not overlooked the necessity for providing adequate salaries for professors and lecturers,” the Minister said. “All these salaries have increased since we took office. In 1949, the basic salary of a professor was £l3OO a year. It has since increased to £1792. The'basic salary of a lecturer in 1949 was £9OO. We have increased it to £1292.” Mr Algie said the general grant for research made to the University of New Zealand had been £15,000, but 'it would now be £25,000. In the construction of new buildings, colleges had fared quite well, and would fare better, said Mr Algie. Two splendid blocks had been completed at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, and a third storey was being added to Victoria University College, Wellington, “We are just about to call tenders for the five-storey science block at Victoria College, and the sketch plans for the splendid dental school for Dunedin are ready,” he said. “We are also making excellent progress in the provision of a fine new engineering school for Canterbury University College and a similar one for Auckland.

“This, we think, is a magnificent programme of development, and sympathetic understanding of university needs,” Mr Algie said. “Over the next three years we will spend on university education alone about £2,000,000 a year. This is. very nearly 10 times what Labour was spending in -the last year before the 1939-45 war.”