University Growth At Ham

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 22

University Growth At Ham

The University of Canterbury is awaiting Government approval to prepare working drawings for the third stage of buildings (arts and general) at Ham. Next year it will occupy major extensions to the engineering school, instal a second computer with 50 times the capacity of the first, make considerable academic developments, and see progress toward seven more halls of residence.

These points were made yesterday by the Vice-Chan-cellor (Professor N. C. Phillips) in an end-ofthe-year survey.

The last year, he said, had brought the fruition of many plans going back many years. The science buildings at Ham were now completed, and 43 per cent of the university’s students would now be on the new campus. This year Ham had 296 staff (academic and administrative) and 2104

students, compared with 3138 staff and students on the central site.

“The university still aims to occupy the third stage of buildings at Ham in 1971,” said Professor Phillips.

When the 1967 session opened, the new Students’ Union would be ready. Fine arts, engineering, and science students would then have long-awaited facilities. So long as the university was divided between two sites, the Students’ Union would have a vital role in maintaining unity. Professor Phillips said he hoped students from the city site would frequently use the new union.

Engineering School extensions in seven stages were proceeding. The mechanical engineering wing was completed, the civil and electrical engineering wings were progressing, and five new lecture theatres (three beside the circular theatre and two near the science buildings) were well ahead.

The new engineering library on Creyke road would be occupied at mid-year, and authority to call tenders for the five-storey chemical engineering extension was awaited.

The new Christchurch College was opened during the year, Rutherford Hall (Pres-byterian-Methodist) and Rochester Hall (Roman Catholic) were at the planning stage, and the university itself had received authority to i prepare working drawings for three more halls of residence at Ham. Sites had also recently been granted for an Anglican women’s hall and a Baptist hall. Professor Phillips said the third stage of teaching buildings on which action was awaited included an 11-storey library and arts tower with a net floor area of 100,000 sq. ft. and other buildings of somewhat greater total area. “Working drawings for the tower block alone will take 18 months and construction three years, so we must push ahead,” said Professor Phillips. Seven acres had been added to the Ham site, making a total of 171 acres. This was little enough compared with the 200 acres common in crowded Britain. Academic Changes All these physical developments would be obvious, but even more important were the academic advances.

Among these Professor Phillips listed: A committee on educational policy which would initiate and develop long-term planning. (“Self-scrutiny should go on continuously, though this need not necessarily mean continuous innovation”). Integration of disciplines evident in the new biology IA and IB papers in place of botany and zoology; the new general mathematics I; the new American studies programme: the inclusion in the B.A. options of “The legal system”; the proposal also to include “Constitutional history and law”; arrangements for the graduate course based on journalism to begin in 1968; the planned forestry school: and Asian history and New Zealand history in place of Pacific and Asian studies. “The breadth of activities of the University of Canterbury is indicated by two letters on my desk—a Christmas card from our Antarctic unit at Cape Bird and a report from two of our professors visiting North America and Europe in connexion with the Sir James Fletcher chair of industrial administration,” said Professor Phillips.