UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2018, 27 March 1914, Page 8

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT HINDERED,

SENATE THE OBSTACLE*

PROFESSOR PICKENS EXPERIENCE,

Tho New Zealand University and suggested reform were dealt with in an interesting manner by Professor D. K. Pieken, M.A., in an interview with a Dominion reporter yesterday. As previously announced, Professor Pieken lias been appointed Master of Ormond College, University of Melbourne, and leaves to take up his new duties about tho end of the year. At present ho is Professor of Puro and Applied Mathematics at Victoria College, and chairman of tho Professorial .Board, so that he speaks with an intimate knowledge of University matters.

"It is quite wel} known," .said Professor Pieken, "that I am far from being content with the University in New Zealand, and I am very glad indeed that the good fortune has come my way of an appointment much more suitable, and desirable, than J. could posbibly have expected. I tame to New Zealand six years ago, from Glasgow, with the fullest intention to throw myself whole-heartedly into the work. I came when I was young enough to enjoy a complete change, and because I had always had an inclination towards the colonies. From ma-ny points of view I could have done much better for myself by remaining where I was, ,as chief assistant to' the Professor of Mathematics at Glasgow; and I was strongly advised to do s6*By several University men, who had knowledge of the University _ conditions here. I think I can claim not to have spared myself in work connected with the collego and University, and to have done everything in my power (however ■little that may be) to advance University education ill Nqw Zealand. .The main ground of my own personal dissatisfaction, which I had- formulated heforo the University reform movement began, is tho very great difficulty aUniversity teacher has, in doing here what a University exists to do—namely, in developing one's own subject along the lines-.of tho most up*to-date ideas at one's command. And the difficulty is almost desperate, if, as ill my ease, one's own original work is right among the things ono has to teach. A Paradoxical Drawback.

"I beliove that my best qualification. for the post I hold is tho tact that I have been continuously for sflnio fifteen years doing original research On what we call 'elementary' mathematics;. meaning all tho mathematics which is usually' taught for university degrees, up to honours . standards, as distinguished from tho higher flights, which aro so extensive in the case- of mathematics, and are tho region to which most ofK ginal research in tho subject has been devoted. . But this very faoo, that- I can claim to be, in my science, a recognised specialist on the very things I am- ■ employed to teach, rather than, upon something only remotely related to that work, as might so readily bo tho case, lias, paradoxically, bean- the greatest possible drawback to Usy work here. Thestudents know that they will be taught to regard as most important things they have practically no chance of -being ask: ed in tho university examinations j that thoy will bo taught to- jea.d meanings into the examiner's questions whieh ho never meant; meanings which may very easily make impossi'l% difficult, for them, questions 5 whieh are actually meant to bo very simple; also) that they will be taught to regard touch, of tffait is ordinarily set as being unimportant stuff, not worthy of a. man's serious attention. And this must not. ho taken as condemnation of the examiner in England. It is a radical fault of the system. In mathematics, practically no course would be fair'for tho examiner, but to set papers along conventional lines. Ho knows that tho -students are taught in four different university - colleges, or, as exempted students, get no university teaching at all. He knows nothing of the actual teaching but what tho university syllabus tells, and, being himself a good man, he knows how manydifferent interpretations university teachers can put on a syllabus. Ike-, better a syllabus is, the- more- room is there for such diversity in university work, Difficulty of Examining. .

"Further, so much of what it is really most important that a student of mathe* matics should have read and understood is so' intrinsically difficult, and at thepresent time-so uncryafcaHised, that it is almost inipossiblo to sot fair examination questions on the most intimate knowledge of tho point of vifiw from which the students' have been taught..

"Anyone can see that conditions life these demand heroic self-sacrifice from students who wish to study such a subject as mathematics seriously with their professor, and it is astonishing that one can look back on a series ot students,, both men and women, who have taken up the work with the greatest possible enthusiasm."

"This illustration fram my Own subject," said Professor Picken, "will prob* ably be more effectiro than anything general I might say, which would a£ tempt to. cover similar an satisfactory experiences on the part of ,! my colleagues." The Bane and a Remedy,

Asked as to what the remedy would be, Professor Picken said that it seemed to him that the o-lily hope for tho University was: that what was really expert "University Work should be clearly defined; that infinite pains, .should, be taken to employ the. bestexperts available for tho teaching posts in the University; and that those men should bo left to do all the work for rhich their training peculiarly fitted them. "The bane," he said, "of all University education in New Zealand is that all sorts of people, whoso aerpiaint* anco with University work is quite superficial, as compared with those whoso whole lives have beonr immersed in it, believe themselves, 'capable- of dealing on governing bodies with the wholo of this most difficult question, in the time they can spare from their own professions, and Without- even any I proper organisation far training tliem> | selves progressively in ideas of University administration.

"It is.a great pleasure to realise that the Victoria College Council has set its; face hard against this principle. The addition, in recent times, of such men as Mr. Aitkcn, Mr.. Ostler, Mr. Ferguson, tho Hon. Mr. Herdmiin, Mr. M'Nab, Mr. Morison, Mr. Atkinson, and Dr. Hector has been a great strength to tho progressive party in the council. These are men who realise tho vital importance of getting from the export every ounce of what he specially knows, and can do, and of not interfering with tho free operation of his skill. At present tho great obstacle, is tho University Senate. There tho progressive party is hopelessly in a minority, and the Senate, Unfortunately, holds tho key of tho position. The scraps of reform which the 'progressives' succeed in gaining in "the Senate's annual week w two of work, seem to make the position only more and more unsatisfactory. The chief hope is that they might result in such complications that a radical reform will be forced by circumstances, in spit© of tbo Senate's wishes.

"It is characteristic of th.> position in Now Zealand that recent reforms in tho prescriptions for tho matriculation esami.iations have beast made, not

with reference to what tho University teachers require (row tlw students who niter their classes, but with reference to what tho Education Department and tiro secondary schools regard as tlio desirable, eulmiiiatiou of the school work. Proposals for alteration in the scheme for this nmtrkmlation examination aro not oven submitted to the Professorial Boards of tlio University Colleges. Otago and Scotland.

"Much was expected," concluded Professor Pieken, "of the present Minister of Education (the Hon.. James Allen), who is known to be opposed to many features of the University system which have- existed in tho past, but I fear that be is too much under Otago influence in this respect, aad, in my opinion, Otago is still too much what Scotland was twenty years ago. We very greatly fear that tho reforms which tlio Minister is likely to institute will prevent, or post* pc.ne, the advent of such real reforms as_ might bring our University into line with the modern University movement. I have written so much, from time to time, oh the various points in this matter of University reform, that I i'oar to weary yen with further repetition of what has been so often stated witli so little' tangible result. But I assure you that if I go from New Zealand at the end of tie present year I shall carry with mo tho keenest possible desire to see before very long conditions established in New Zealand which will make real University work the rule rather than tho exception in this country."