METHOD OF EXAMINATION

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 42, 18 February 1921, Page 4

METHOD OF EXAMINATION

IMPORTANT ISSUE RAISED

ARE PROFESSORS TO CONTROL?

In the "course of a letter to the Editor of The Post, Mr. John O'Shea raises some important questions regarding our University examinations, and encloses a copy of a lenethy letter written by Sir Robert Stout to the Minister of Education on the subject. AIM OF THE PROFESSORS. "As one of a number o£ the older graduates of the New Zealand University," writes Mr. O'Shea, "I have been very disappointed by the actions of the Senate in past years in regard to our University examinations. The Senate is now largely'composed, of professors who, acting (as they say) in the. interests ol the students in the University, are striving to have all the examinations conducted by themselves. Their first step was to approach Parliament and get a body graded called 'The Board of Studies' to control, examinations. This board was cpnstituted under the Amending Act of 1914; but was not given the power that the professors desired. The professors have now obtained a majority in the Senate, and have had a resolution passed to the effect that examinations ,for pass degrees should be conducted locally by professors with the assistance of assessors. The professors now have control to the extent that they can fail students in their term examinations, and thus prevent them from sitting for degrtes. With this they are iiot.,satisfied. They want to "have the power of granting degrees vested in themselves. The appointment- of assessors as examiners is agreed to only to hide the fact that they wj«h to have complete personal control of the granting of degrees. As one of the few people qualified to express an opinion, I wish to say emphatically that the appointment of assessors to act with the professors as- examiners will be no restriction on them. - The leading firstclass honours men of the University of New Zealand who have gone into professions other than the teaching profession have in no case kept thcir-edu-cational attainments up to the standard which they reached on obtaining honours. Their professional careers have in all cases been too arduous. It is generally believed by the leading students of. my day that the examination by English examiners is the only real test of the local professors' work. . . : I fear that the movement started over ten years ago which has now culminated in the resolution referred to will practically destroy our University as an educational institution, and I am strongly of opinion that the whole community should consider the matter with the greatest earnestness. If action is not now ta¥en the- whole control of the University will pass into vhe hands of the professors, who, in jtny * opinion, are actuated by a desire for personal power. It must be remembered that the professors are bound together- to achieve their own ends, and that they have been agitating for the last ten years. ' j