New Vice-Chancellor

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 14

New Vice-Chancellor

The appointment of Dr. L. L. Pownall to succeed Dr. F. J. Llewellyn as Vice-Chancellor marks the beginning of an important stage in the development of Canterbury University. Devolution of the New Zealand university system has cost Canterbury the services of Dr. Llewellyn, an able administrator who has accepted more onerous responsibilities as chairman of the new Grants Committee, established on the recommendation of the Hughes Parry Committee. The increase of local autonomy can scarcely be expected to reduce the burdens of his successor in Christchurch. However, Dr. Pownall can found his own contribution to the university’s welfare upon generally successful efforts to meet unprecedented demands for higher education and to surmount, daunting problems of finance, staffing, and accommodation. Under Dr. Llewellyn’s guidance the transfer of faculties to Ham has been begun; and to Dr. Pownall will fall the task of continuing to supervise a gradual transformation of the university on lines better suited to modern New Zealand requirements. Innumerable problems remain; but the Government’s adoption of the major proposals of the Parry report should ensure more enlightened recognition of university needs, not onlyin Canterbury but thifeghout the Dominion. Dr. Pownall is a comparatively young New Zealander. a graduate of Canterbury University, and •e specialist in a young < science. Only last year, after varied experience as a secondary school, training college, and university teacher, he was appointed to the chair of' geography at Canterbury University. That he has been preferred to an overseas applicant for

the Vice - Chancellorship may be taken to imply the university’s confidence in its own academic maturity and in Dr. Pownall’s known capacity for leadership. Extensive travels as well as educational attainments have fitted the ,new ViceChancellor for prominence both within the university and jn the larger community to which the university is itself responsible. At the age of 39, Dr. Pownall may look forward to a long, testing period of office, the rewards of which will be measured in terms incomparably more satisfying than money.