INADEQUATE GRANTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1937, Page 4

INADEQUATE GRANTS

UNIVERSITY SUFFERS CHANCELLOR'S PLEA (Special to the "Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day.

The pica can be put forward with every justification that the University Colleges in New Zealand are greatly handicapped in their functions and efficiency for want of funds, both for adequate maintenance of their present and their continued progress, said the Hon. J. A. Hanan, M.L.C., during the course of his presidential address to the Senate.

"To meet essential expanding needs, such as increased building accommodation, staffing, and equipment, increased financial assistance is required by the colleges," said Mr. Hanan. "The claim for an increased grant being made to each of the four constituent colleges to enable each to have a progressive, well-stafi'ed, and wellequipped institution is obvious to any person who knows the unsatisfactory conditions of work under which each college is being carried on. That it is an imperative requirement to have staffs numerically sufficient and relatively permanent is made clear by the unwieldy classes found in our University colleges. In support of this statement, we have the fact that in New Zealand the number of students per member of stall is about three times that normally found in the universities of the same standing in other parts. "I would also respectfully plead for the restoration of the Government annual grant made to the University of New Zealand. As a result of certain conditions that have operated, . the financial resources of the University have been reduced, while its functions have increased. Should the grant be not restored, the University will be reluctantly compelled to balance its accounts either by reducing its scholarships or by increasing fees to its students. Either course would, I feel sure, be greatly deplored. But for a desire not to trespass longer on your patience, I would have submitted here a number of statements which I prepared, showing, since the World War, the largely increased amounts that have been appropriated by, and given for higher education, by some countries. For example, Japan, China, Russia, Holland, and the United States and England. It is worthy of statement here that, after referring to the increased liberal financial assistance given to higher education in the United States and in England respectively, President, Professor CofTman (University of Minnesota) observes:—'England is holding fast with grim determination to the thought that a competently trained intellectual leadership was never more necessary than now. She is paying the duty to intelligence that any nation must pay, if it. is not to be submerged by its own ignorance. It has also been well said that the efficiency of a people, their intellectual status, and their competitive ability in the international field, all derive largely from efficient university colleges.

"The question of the very unsatisfactory system for the superannuation of professors has been a topic that has received much adverse criticism, but I hope and believe this complaint will soon be removed.

: "In the courses of some public addresses which I have given, I have made the submission that an adequate and efficient education and training in (he sphere of public administration should be' provided. It is therefore gratifying to me to learn that this important national subject has become a live one in as much as representations have been made to the Government for financial support for the establishment of a school of public administration at Victoria College.

"All the foregoing submissions, respectfully made, call for the favourable consideration of the Government."