Drop in diploma intake at Lincoln

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 19

Drop in diploma intake at Lincoln

A large number of deferments and cancellations by students enrolled for diploma courses at Lincoln College this year was clearly related to growing pressures on the farming industries, the principal of Lincoln College (Dr M. M. Burns) said yesterday.

More than 60 per cent of the 1972 roll was made up of undergraduates, and graduates taking masterate and other post-graduate courses. Dr Burns said the drop in the diploma intake was a clear indication that farmers were under pressure. Instead of doing the course, students had to stay at home and assist on the farm. This was the reaction of the farming community to

problems of getting labour and meeting increased costs, he said. Mr M. A. Connelly, M.P., asked whether the country could afford not to have these students at the college, considering the long term effect on the farming industry. He asked if anything could be done to make sure the situation did not deteriorate. “Student retention,” said Professor J. D. Stewart. The registrar (Mr H. G. Hunt) said a large number of diploma students came from urban areas and their absence from the college could be because the general future of agriculture was being “pushed around.”