UNIVERSITY'S FUNCTION

Evening Star, Issue 25698, 23 January 1946, Page 6

UNIVERSITY'S FUNCTION

CRUSHED BY ADMINISTRATIVE DETAIL CHANCELLOR MOVES TO RESTORE BLOOD CIRCULATION (P.A.) AUCKLAND, January 22. " We are attempting to administer a third-rate University, and it is time we set to work to raise the standard." said the Chancellor, Mr Justice Smith, when speaking, to-day to a resolution which he moved before the University Senate—" That the executive, after consultation with the Academic Board and the college councils, should bring down a five-year policy for the University to be dealt with at a special meeting of the Senate. ~ The resolution was seconded by the pro-Chancellor, Dr J: Hight (Christchurch) and carried unanimously. " I have felt for a long time that the University was proceeding without any comprehensive view of the policy it was pursuing, and no definite idea of what it was really aiming for," said Mr Justice Smith. " That impression was deepened when I examined the ex- , tent to which our University is equipped by comparison with other universities. The teachers are overburdened men, with classes larger than they can handle. One pro-/ fessor at Victoria College has 300 students in English to teach. It is impossible for a professor to give a proper university education when he is hampered in this way. " All our professors are overburdened with teaching," the Chancellor said, " and then doubly overburdened with administrative work. The ViceChancellor of the University is also the principal of Victoria College, and how he finds time to do all the work that is needed is hard to understand."

The Vice-Chancellor (Sir Thomas Hunter): He does not do it all. The Chancellor quoted cases of other professors whose time was taken up with answering letters, and said there was need for a business man of academic standing to survey all the departments in each college in order to ease this clerical burden on the teaching staffs. To remedy the state of affairs existing, it would be necessary to examine the standard of entrance. It was that which determined the number of buildings and the quantity ' of equipment required. He 'did not, however, suggest raising the standard merely to reduce the applicants.

The appointment of full-time heads for all the colleges was essential, ,Mr Justice Smith said, and these men should be paid up.to £2,000 a year " Then," he continued, "we need someone who could decide what finance is required. There is need, too, for publicity. We are not appreciated by tha public as a whole. We have no public enthusiasm behind us, and to got this we must explain to the public what we mean to do."

Lack of finance was the root of the whole trouble, said Mr A. E. Flower (Christchurch). The progress within the University in the last 25 years had been enormous, and the funds allowed were not nearly commensurate with the needs.