The Press FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1968. Critical Years In N.Z. Universities

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1968. Critical Years In N.Z. Universities

New Zealand’s universities are already working under pressures that threaten their future and the value of their service to the community. The loss of good teachers to positions in other countries can only be accelerated by the effects of last year’s devaluation. The discrepancy between Australian and New Zealand salary scales has widened; that the cost of living has—so far—risen only slightly more in New Zealand than in Australia tends to be overlooked by academics. The number of students seeking tuition continues to increase. The combination of these trends can bring only bad results—bad for the standards of tuition, bad for students who fail to pass units, and bad for the community which pays the bill and expects a commensurate return from the output of graduates. The most serious and the most lasting damage will be suffered by the universities themselves if some solution is not found to the problem of growing student numbers and the loss of good teachers. Enabling the universities to offer their best professors and lecturers higher salaries would go a long way towards stopping the loss.. Although a general increase in salaries is not timely, a firm promise by the Government of increases as soon as the economic outlook improves would surely cause other teachers to consider the merits of sticking to their posts at a time when the whole country is suffering an economic setback. It should also help the universities to recruit staff overseas. Entrance to the universities is a much more debatable question. Virtually free entry to the universities is now almost an article of faith to the main political parties. Even if the intake of students could be substantially reduced, the need for higher education in technical and other institutions would grow correspondingly and would be no less expensive to meet. On purely economic grounds it might be shown that it is cheaper to accept students for firstyear classes in the universities than to encourage more to stay at secondary school.* thereby enlarging the demand for school teachers and classrooms. Academically, the overburdening of the universities imperils the standards of the universities and is unfair both to the most able students and to students who, for the want of institutions better suited to their talents and to the needs of the country, fail early in their university careers. Raising the standard of the entry examination has been suggested; likewise, raising the fees of students who do not qualify for bursaries, thus providing the finance the universities need to acquire and retain adequate staff. Such Draconian measures to relieve the strain on the universities would be more tolerable if the technical institutes were better equipped to accept more students and to exploit fully the talents of their students. It is unfortunate that there is little up-to-date evidence on winch to base fundamental changes in policy on entry to the institutions of higher education. Some wide-ranging inquiry is called for, perhaps a Royal Commission. It would have to assess the country’s need for graduates and others with high educational qualifications. It would have to weigh the social and economic advantages of meeting the need by education in New Zealand and by importing graduates from overseas institutions. It would have to examine the effect of failure at the university on students and on the universities. Important administrative and financial decisions must soon be made. They should be made in the light of full and up-to-date information on the problems with which they are concerned.