THE SENATE'S WORK.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1910, Page 3

THE SENATE'S WORK.

REVIEWED BY THE INSPECTORGENERAL OF SCHOOLS. [BX TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POSt.J CHRJSTCHURCH, This Day. Speaking to a reporter. Mr. G. Hogben, Inspector-General of Schools, who has come to Christchurch, after attend- } ing the session of the University Senate in Dunedin. said that, in his opinion, I one of the most important steps taken ! by the senate was the institution of domestic sciencp as a group of three subjects for the. B.Sc degree. By its action the senate had raised the professional life of women to the same level us I lit pr jfessionnl life of men. In the ordinary B.Sc. examination, he added, the four compulsory subjects were mathematics (pure and applied^, chemistry and physics, and biology, or geology, or physiology. In the variation in whicli domestic science appeared the four compulsory' subjects were physiology and domestic science, one, two, and Vhree in each case. One of the subjects taken must be a language, or mental science, or economics of education, and in. each there was an optional subject, which might be a science subject or one of the last-named. Provision was made for teaching domestic science at the Otago University, as that institution had appointed a welUqualified professor. . The next step in regard to importance, said Mr. Hogben, was the modification mode in the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture, and in the condition under which the degree might be obtained. Previously the de gree had been so weighted that some of t.he subjects had repelled anyone who might have felt inclined to sit for it. The degree, as a matter of fact, had never been taken. There were, for instance, the first, four subjects required for thi ordinary B.Sc. degree — mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology. Then there were eleven subjects more ! or less professional, making a total of j fifteen. Even now there were fifteen | subjects, but the modification made by the senate would lighten them. Instead of requiring four degree subjects it was now required that four of the medical preliminary subjects should, be taken at the end of the medical student's and first year, namely, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology. As to ths conditions, a four years' cour&o had been cut down to a three years' couise. Provision had been made for attendance at an agricultural^ college during that part of a year in which a student was attending the University College, when the latter was not in session. He could now lake the last eleven professional subjects in any year ; he mast leave at least four of his subjects for this third year. Mr. Hogben expressed an opinion that the course would require a- little more modification, but it .was thought that that might be discussed by Canterbury College and the Agricultural College. Thf third stfp 01 great importance, he Raid, was in connection with the niritnculntioii o.vni/iination-. A notablo ad\ ancc had . been made in that dircclioii. Two kinds of modifications ha.'! been made — one was a definite arrangement ot tti4 subjects required for matriculation, and the other, was the stiffening of the standard. The standard had been set so that it should represent such attainment and knowledge as might reasonably be expected after four years' satisfactory woi'k at a' secondary school. It did not* imply that a scholar must go to a. secondary school, but that was the. standard of attainment which had beentaken. '