"BACHELOR OF SCIENCE-B."

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1908, Page 6

"BACHELOR OF SCIENCE-B."

Professor Shand's attack upon the new degree of "Bachelor of Science B" yesterday was distinguished by an engaging vigour which would secure the Senate a full house when the debate is resumed if the public could rely upon an equal display of animation upon the other side. Though it may bo premature for an outsider to attempt a final judgment upon the case at the present stage, it certainly looks as though the senate had followed too closely one of the least desirable of our Parliamentary practices in passing the statute in l question last session. The Bill was rushed hastily through, full consideration being reserved till after it was passed. During the recess two at any rate of the professorial boards have found time to consider the effect of the statute, and the result is in each case a sweeping condemnation. With two professorial boards thus strongly arrayed against the new degree, and the other two silent on the subject, Professor Shand thus started with the odds decidedly in his favour when he moved to have the statute rescinded. The laudable object of the degree is the encouragement of research, and we areagain reminded of political analogies when we find that the excellence of the name and the good intentions of the promoters have led to the taking on trust of a good deal of detail that really required the closest scrutiny. Just as in the political world much is accepted blindly in the name of democracy that would have little , chance of success on its own merits, so in the academical world, the claims of "research" may be made to cover a multitude of sins. In both cases the label is really a; small thins in comparison with the contents of the bottle. Tho inadequacy of the. requirements of the new degree in the matter of general cultuTe, the premature encouragement of research before the necefesary foundation of wide knowledge has been laid, and the uncertainty of an original thesis under ike prescribed conditions as a test of merit, are the main objections urged by the Professorial Rorrds of Auckland and Otago, and enlarged by Professor Shand yesterday. According to the Auckland! professors, a student may qualify for ai B.Sc. degree under the new system) "while still densely ignorant of the great body of even the most elementary science." As four subjects are made the minimum, instead of the normal seven, it -would be possible for him to pass to his degree through a course restricted say,' to Hebrew, History, Pure Mathematics, and a single science. This illustration is, of course, selected as an, extreme case, but that it should be possible is at least a proof that the> matter did not receive as much consideration as it deserved before the Senate passed the statute. Still more fundamental objections are that the new course would encourage a student to specialise before he had acquired that general knowledge of science without which he could not do so effectively, and that the premature encouragement of research would) therefore be fatal to its permanent and Buccessful pursuit. Professor Shand's plan for giving students "a thorough knowledge at the start" is one that cannot be ignored, and we trust thai the committee to whi<}3i the question has been referred may be able to outline a middle course that will b& free from the very serious objections to the crudity of the scheme as it now stands.