UNIVERSITY STAFFING Difficulties In New Zealand

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 10

UNIVERSITY STAFFING Difficulties In New Zealand

“This is a small country with a population of two million, and it cannot be expected to supply the same facilities as, for instance, the United States with a population of 200 million,” said the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) last evening when asked to comment on a statement made by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago (Dr. F. G. Soper) on the urgent need for more university staff and accommodation. The Minister said that In some overseas countries the proportion of lecturers to students was about one to six. but this position was unlikely to be reached in New Zealand for some time. If additional lecturers were to be supplied there would be no rooms available for them in the universities. "The buildings are the bottleneck,” the Minister said.

The prediction was that within six or seven years, or certainly 10 years, the number ,of university students would be doubled and a great increase in accommodation was required. “Whether that can be made available depends on the financial position of the country. Nobody wants to prevent qualified students entering the university and everything possible will be done to see that they get the opportunity,” he said. “We do not want to stiffen the entrance examinations as we feel that everybody who wants to should be allowed to go to university,” the Minister said.