A Vice-Chancellor ‘With Muddy Boots’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31780, 10 September 1968, Page 18

A Vice-Chancellor ‘With Muddy Boots’

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Dr C. I. C. Bosanquet) said in Christchurch last evening that he had “had muddy boots all his life.” Raised on a farm, he took degrees in history and economics, but still farms a family property, with the oldest Border Leicester flock in England, established in 1849. Dr Bosanquet said his university had had a school of agriculture since 1890, in which the senior chair was the third oldest after Oxford and Edinburgh. There were now eight faculties at the university, with 5580 students ranging from medicine and engineering to arts and science. Dr Bosanquet said he was realising a life-long dream to come to New Zealand “which knows so much more about agricultural education.” He knew about the New Zealand output of graduates in agriculture, Dr Bosanquet said, but he wanted to find out how they got back on to the land, into Government advisory services, teaching, research, and service industries. As chairman, a few years ago, of a committee inquiring into the demand for agricultural graduates in Britain, Dr Bosanquet said he was unhappily aware that only 10 or 12 per cent went farming. Some went farming overseas, but most found jobs only in the national agricultural advisory services or similar services of big companies. “Others find an agricultural degree a good start for business, journalism, and even the Church,” he said. “But 1 would like to see more graduates back on the land. The world needs farmers trained in science and

business,” Dr Bosanquet said. “Far too many leave school at 15 and go on to family farms, with no training. We need a new, tough, educated, and scientific breed of farmers.” Earlier, there had been a good outlet for agricultural graduates in the colonial services, said Dr Bosanquet. Hundreds went to Africa, Malaysia, and other lands. Independence often sent them home. Now they went out for short-term contracts rather than for a career. However, many students and graduates from developing countries came to Britain for agricultural education. Dr Bosanquet said that at Lincoln and Massey Colleges he hoped to get ideas on how to achieve his personal objectives.