U.K. View On Contraceptive Sales

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 1

U.K. View On Contraceptive Sales

The presence of con-traceptive-vending machines in British universities would not be regarded as particularly shocking, Professor R. Quirk, of London University, said in Christchurch yesterday.

But their presence would be regarded seriously, even though the university authorities would not consider they were the relevant body to intervene.

Professor Quirk said that the sale of contraceptives in vending machines had been issues at Edinburgh and Sussex universities although he

did not know whether the machines had actually been installed.

“The sexual mores of students are obviously something that university authorities should have a line on," he said.

“Many of us feel such problems are for the individual —to be dealt with by a student’s family or somebody within or without the univer* sity as an institution. Many students are over 21,” he said.

Professor Quirk said he understood the New Zealand Government was concerned about the question in the same way as it would be concerned with problems of any similar nature. Professor Quirk said that British universities werC like those in New Zealand as far as the brain drain was concerned.

The attractive conditions in the United States, Canada and Australia were drawing people away from Britain bui their places were being filled by Australians and New Zealanders.

He did not mind this. “Academic nationalism is the. last thing we' want,” he said. The so-called brain drain tended to make universities raise their standards. Professor Quirk is one of a party of 30 British university professors, lecturers and administrators who arrived in Christchurch yesterday on their way home after attending the Commonwealth Universities conference in Sydney.

The party will visit Canterbury University today and fly to Auckland tonight. About 100 university authorities from Britain attended the conference.

They are taking various routes home to visit Commonwealth universities and discuss common problems relating to teaching methods, autonomy and finance. Professor Quirk said university education had become something available to everyone who could profit from it. But the Government, which provided most of the money to run the universities, was scrutinising their affairs very closely. The Government wanted the best value it could get for its money and was encouraging the teaching of those subjects which would most meet the needs of the people. This policy was tending to make universities develop into specialist institutions rather than provide very broad courses of study.