Psychologist Corrects Report About Careers

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30593, 9 November 1964, Page 19

Psychologist Corrects Report About Careers

Dr. N. V. Adcock, of the department of psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, has asked for a number of corrections to be made to a Wellington report on the respective academic careers of her husband, Professor C. J. Adcock, and herself. “In the first place neither my husband nor I ‘failed to pass our matriculation examinations'—we did not sit such an examination. My husband grew up on a remote backcountry farm and was unable to attend any secondary school at all,” she says. “He studied by private correspondence course in order to obtain Public Service entrance and when he had gained this he started teaching as a probationer. In 1924 he went to Auckland Teachers’ Training College and the following year obtained a Certificate of Proficiency in two Bachelor of Arts subjects, but, of course, he was unable to count these as B.A. units as he had not matriculated. “He then went teaching in country districts, and after becoming eligible for provisional matriculation at the age of 25, he enrolled at Auckland University College in 1930 as an extra-mural student. He completed both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees extra-murally. “He went to London in 1939 with the intention of gaining his doctor of philosophy from the University of London but

the war intervened and he did not complete his degree till 1947.

“As for myself I did not stay sufficiently long at high school to sit for matriculation (no accrediting then either). I went to commercial college instead. Accordingly I did not return to the university at the age of 34. I entered university at that time. “Secondly, in this university a Ph.D. may only be gained after a minimum of two academic years’ full-time study after completing an honours degree and I did not ‘complete my Ph.D. thesis in one year’. “While working part-time as secretary to the department of nhilosophy I completed my M.A. thesis and papers in psychology in one calendar year (usually it takes considerably longer), gaining first class honours and subsequently the V.U.W. Research Scholarship and a University Grants Committee Fellowship. “The Ph.D. thesis was actually handed in to the university two years and two months after registration although I was studying abroad for part of this time,” she said.