THEOLOGICAL DEGREES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 100, 22 January 1936, Page 10

THEOLOGICAL DEGREES

Special Divinity College Suggested

REPORT TO THE SENATE

By Telegraph—Press Association.

Auckland, January 21.

A report on the question of the granting of degrees iOEtheology, as repeatedly asked for by representatives of the churches, .was presented to the New Zealand University Senate to-day by Mr. W. J. Morrell on behalf of a committee appointed to report on the question. The committee was of the opinion that the best way of obtaining the objects of the churches was to secure the establishment of a special college of divinity under the sanction of the Government.

Mr. Morrell said the committee considered the best means of meeting the wishes of the churches might bo by the establishment of a separate college on the lines followed in Melbourne. He was aware that the representatives of the churches, however, desired the degrees to be conferred by the university as thus having a higher standing and attracting more entrants. The committee thought, however, that the degrees of a college as proposed would acquire and maintain a status as high as that of university degrees. The college might later lie affiliated with the university. If the churches decided to go on with the proposal the senate would willingly co-operate by providing for divinity subjects in the studies for existing degrees. The committee was genuinely in sympathy with the desire of New Zealand students to obtain degrees in divinity. The report was adopted.