SYSTEM ABUSED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 284, 28 August 1935, Page 7

SYSTEM ABUSED

Exemption From University Lectures EXTRAMURAL STUDENTS By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, August 27. The question of extramural students was considered by the University Council’s Professorial Board last evening, when it was decided to rescind the previous regulations and grant exemption from lecture attendance only to students who satisfy Wie board that they are prevented from attending by the fact of earning their living or that such attendance would involve undue hardship. The board issued a general memorandum expressing the view that the recent growth of university classes in New Zealand secondary schools was a retrograde movement. The board expressed the further view that a university degree should certify . completion of a course which has included the essentials of university education, not merely examination success, and the value of a degree depended almost wholly on how far it did so. The report concludes: “Realising the effect which abuse of the extramural system is having on the standard of degrees, the board is forced to the conclusion that some restrictions must be imposed. At the same time it was never suggested that genuine cases should meet with anything but sympathy 1 and encouragement.’’