Republican View Of Honorary Degrees

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31187, 11 October 1966, Page 10

Republican View Of Honorary Degrees

What was disturbing many students was the belief that the Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) was to receive an honorary degree from the University of Canterbury because of his position rather than for what he had done, the secretary of the Republican Association (Mr B. E. Jesson) said on Sunday evening.

Mr Jesson said a meeting of republican students, held on Sunday, had authorised him to make a statement on the matter.

On Saturday the president of the Students’ Association (Mr J. Anderson) criticised the conferring of honorarydegrees. said Mr Jesson. In his reply to the criticism the Vice-Chancellor (Professor N. C. Phillips) said that “the merit of any particular recipient may well be debated.” “We can assure him that this one will be,” said Mr Jesson.

“Logically honorary degrees (if they must be given at all) should be given to people who have done something for New Zealand, or as Professor Phillips puts it, they should be given to men of distinction. If the university was giving Sir Bernard Fergusson this honour for this reason we could hardly complain. But what is disturbing a large number of students is the belief that he is being honoured in this way because of his position rather than for what he has done,” said Mr Jesson.

“Sir Bernard Fergusson has never done anything for the university, nor even New Zealand. He can’t be getting this degree as an appreciation of his services to this country, so we can only conclude that the University authorities are using the occasion to demonstrate their approval of a political institution. “Professor Phillips drew attention to the distinction between an honorary degree and an ordinary one We are aware of this distinction. An honorary degree is the university’s method of honouring people and if given too freely, or for the wrong reason, lowers the tone of the university. In this case, where the motivation is political, many students believe that it reflects on the whole university.

“Mr Anderson expressed concern in case the Governor-

General should be insulted. There is no danger of this. Our own protests in the past have been aimed at the institution and not the man, and there is no reason to suspect that other students opposing the conferring of the degree will have a lesser standard of behaviour,” said Mr Jesson. In a footnote to his statement Mr Jesson said that in his capacity as secretary of the Republican Association he would like Mr Anderson to clarify his reference to the association. “If, as I read his statement, he is saying we are irresponsible I would like him to retract this,” said Mr Jesson.