SEPARATE UNIVERSITIES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 567, 23 July 1909, Page 7

SEPARATE UNIVERSITIES.

A CHRISTCHURCH OPINION. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Christchurch, July 22. Tho prediction mado in Dunodin by the Hon. C. C. Bowen, Vice-Chancellor of New Zealand University, that all tho University Colleges in tho Dominion will become (separate _ institutions, has revived intorest in the subject, which has been discussed intermittently for some years. Speaking to a reporter to-day, Mr. 6. W. Russell, M.P., chairman of tho Board of Governors, Canterbury Collego, said that he believed that before twenty years bad passed Now Zealand would scd Mr. Bowen's suggestion carried out, that was to say, the present university would be abolished, and each collego would be managed separately. Under present arrangement, colleges were not ablo to work out their own schemes of education on their own lines, and the result was lack of individuality. On account of the constitution of the Senate tho university's scheme of education dealt too much with what might be called the scholastic side.' It was well known that arts professors, who waro in the majority on the Senate, looked aVeducation too much from the old standard point of-view. If there were more business men on the Senate there would bo some prospect of the system being made up-to-date. Another important point in. connection with Mr. Bowen's proposal was that the Senate was a' very expensive body. > Examination fees ought to be greatly reduced, and they could be reduced if the Senate was abolished' and the control, of each institution loft to tho Board of Governors and the Professorial Board; As : to tho method of conducting examinations;' it ought to bo possiblo for the Senate to set up an examining board. It would reduce cost, and it would have the enormous advantage of 'allowing students i« know results almost ■ immediately after the examinations : had been held. His faith in the English method was rudely shaken when he heard, the welktutucnticated story of a gentleman who hold a high position in educational circles.' On a visit to England that gentleman met one of the examiners, and was surprised to discover by an accident that he had-not examined tho papers at all, but had really handed them over to 'an understrapper. "Looking .at all these points,"■• Mr. Russell concluded, "and having gome practical acquaintance with the work of Canterbury College, I am of opinion; that tho different colleges are quit© strong enough to manage their own affairs as separate universities, and I believe that the present system will be abolished; before long."