The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1958. University Salaries

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28620, 24 June 1958, Page 12

The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1958. University Salaries

An article printed on this page today sets out the case of university teachers for urgency in the review of salary scales. It was written at our request to express their opinions, not ours; but we feel the writers have shown reason why the University Grants Committee should not defer an approach to the Government as is proposed. If the committee waits until economic prospects are clearer permanent damage may be done to academic standards through the loss of able staff and the inability to recruit qualified replacements overseas. Superior intelligence is a commodity of world trade that cannot be controlled by export restrictions. The university staffs’ claims should at least be examined thoroughly at the highest level to test their merits. Delays can be dangerous, especially when the New Zealand universities must plan for a tremendous growth in student numbers and for meeting unprecedented demands on their training facilities. Recent comments by university teachers after their return from overseas have been disturbing. They have indicated a fairly widespread concern lest New Zealanders, preoccupied with the need to provide better and bigger buildings for the universities, may lose sight of the equally pressing need for staff Without adequate, qualified staffs, new buildings will be of little value. Teachers and research workers, more than buildings, make a university. Losses of the ablest teachers may have an insidious effect on the general tone of the universities: as one attraction of university employment in

Australia, Professor H. N. Parton, of Otago, recently mentioned “a stimulating” atmo- “ sphere through the presence “of other able people ”. The present Government has shown no inclination to depart from the policy laid down by its predecessor on the fixing of university salaries. In 1956, when the last major review of salaries was undertaken, Sir Sidney Holland, then Prime Minister, said that the Cabinet committee making the review had “ recognised the general “pattern of our New Zealand “ society ... in which there “are few rich men and prac- “ tically no poor ones ”.. This was, he said, of some importance “in view of the com- “ parisons which have some- “ times been made between “ New Zealand and overseas “ salaries for certain professional “ men. The disparities men“tioned do exist, but other and “ sometimes far greater dis- “ parities also exist between “ the New Zealand and overseas rewards for other activi- “ ties than those mentioned. “ The disparities exist through- “ out the whole range of “ salaries, and also throughout “ the general economies. It is “ quite unrealistic to ignore the “ whole circumstances Since then, the “ whole circum- “ stances ” may have changed significantly. Dr. G. A. Currie, chairman of the Grants Committee, appears to think so; otherwise he would not have said earlier this month that the committee had “ a plain obliga- “ tion ” to recommend salary adjustments which would enable New Zealand to compete more favourably in obtaining university staff.