BRITISH VIEW

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 16

BRITISH VIEW

Polytechnic growth Many of the polytechnics and colleges of technology that had grown up in Britain since World War 11 had a high standing, Professor J. A. W. Bennett, of Cambridge University, said in an interview in Christchurch. The British universities did not see the rapid growth of such institutions as a threat to their standing, and stronger links were developing between the two branches, Professor Bennett said in an Interview. Professor Bennett, who is professor of medieval and Renaissance English at Combridge, is on a lecture tour of New Zealand at the invitation of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee. The British polytechnics and colleges of technology—which are similar to the New Zealand technical institutes system—were well planned and had attracted a high class of academic staff, he said. “What I think is more interesting is the way in which undergraduates now tend to feel that people at the colleges of technology are their brothers under the skin. In a sense this student solidarity is a new phenomenon. Many of the courses offered by polytechnics and colleges of technology were more than their name implied, Professor Bennett said. “In many, students may come through in the humanities and some are awarded scholarships for later university study.’’ While encouraging closer links between the two types of institution, Professor Bennett said that anything that would dilute the ordinary academic standards of universities needed to b? watched very carefully.