Fellowship age limits may be dropped

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 9

Fellowship age limits may be dropped

Age limits on postdoctoral fellowships may be scrapped at the University of Canterbury. It was recommended at a meeting of the University Council yesterday that the regulations be changed so that persons of any age would be eligible for a fellowship as long as they applied within a certain time of gaining a Ph.D. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor A. D. Brownlie, said the present regulations meant a person had to be under 35. The change would benefit older students who left university with bachelors or masters degrees and who wished to complete a Ph.D. later, he said. Women who left to have families were especially affected by the present regulations. The council decided to support the change, which will have to be ratified by the University Grants Committee.

Name change The university’s botany department has changed its name to the plant and microbial science department. Departmental staff felt the old name was not appropriate, considering the wide range of activities the department covered. The old name dated from the 1950 s when courses such as biotechnology, genetics, and molecular biology did not exist. These courses did not fit the botany label, a report from the department said. Committee abolished The council decided to abolish its academic committee, ending a three-year debate about its usefulness. Professor Brownlie said the committee had not met for three years but members had been elected in case it

was needed. Its function had been to deal with academic matters, but new legislation mean that its decisions had to be referred to the Professorial Board before anything could be done. “It seems to me that the committee is something of an anachronism and we go through an annual charade of electing members and they never meet,” Professor Brownlie said. If in-depth studies of academic matters were required, the council could set up an ad hoc committee tailored to the situation, he said.