SYDNEY UNIVERSITY IMPRESSES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 99, 21 January 1936, Page 8

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY IMPRESSES

Professor H. B. Kirk’s Visit

Professor H. B. Kirk, of the chair of biology at-Victoria University College, Wellington, returned yesterday by the Makura after a vacation trip to Sydney. The professor stated that his visit had 'made him very envious of the state of university affairs in Sydney. There the students numbered about 3000, and tbe professorial staff was equal in strength of numbers to the staffs of all the university colleges in the Dominion. Sydney University was more liberally endowed, and had better Government grants, than all the New Zealand university colleges put together. There was at Sydney University a big medical school, and a veterinary school, Professor Kirk said. The schools of commerce aud law were more highly specialised than in the Dominion. He considered that education at Sydney University should prove more exact than here, and should enable students to carry their studies farther on a specialised subject. The aptitude of students, of course,' was no different from that of New Zealand undergradtir ates.

Tlie attitude of the Australian public was more helpful in Australia than in New Zealand. There there was generally keener support for, and greater interest in. university education, and in tlie Sydney institution itself. Although tlie New Zealand colleges hail endowments from wealthy men, they could not compare witli those received by Sydney University. Speaking of his owu subject, Professor Kirk stated that in Sydney there were separate chairs for botany and biology. Each of the sister subjects bad its own separate professor, assistant professors and lecturers. This bore out his previous remarks regarding the scope for specialisation. In general, concluded the professor, Australian students had the benefit of moving and studying in a much larger community.