STUDENTS' FORUM

Evening Star, Issue 25776, 26 April 1946, Page 10

STUDENTS' FORUM

PROBLEMS OF LARGE CLASSES

MCVE TO REMEDY POSITION Unusually largo classes in some University faculties have presented an embarrassing problem for professors and lecturers, who are confronted on the one side with the matter of obtaining examination passes and on the other with the necessity for instilling a certain amount of knowledge and appreciation of the subject into the minds of their students. Not only is the problem acute in certain first-year classes, some of which have more than 100 enrolments, but also in the advanced stages, where a dozen pupils might require as much supervision and instruction as 10 times that number in an elementary grade. In an endeavour to- reach some basis for staffing, the conference of colleges last year recommended that a ratio of 40 students to a lecturer be instituted in the University, and a ratio of 30 to one where practical work was •indertakeii in a subject. It is admittedly a compromise, for various other complicating factors must be considered later, but as an overall provision it is at least a step in the right direction. Present staffing is admittedly inadequate, and one authority has estimated that to invoke the recommendation made by the conference of colleges the number of lecturers at present employed would have to-be doubled. i

The Chancellor, of the University of New Zealand, Mr Justice Smith, has interested himself in the problem, and in a recent circular has invited criticism and discussion of a five-year plan for developing the University. It is hoped that when the results of the appeal are discussed at a special meeting of the Senate to be called some time in the future a decision will be made as to a broad ratio of staff to students, so that a basis for. further planning can be laid. »

Exchange Visits. International eo-operatidn and understanding can be fostered by the exchange of professors and lecturers, and in pursuit of this ideal ■ the University Developments Committee is making inquiries as to-exchange- visits to Otago. The success of visiting lecturers last year has' encouraged the movement, and it is hoped that men of the same calibre may be attracted. The committee has inquired from Sydney University the terms of its visiting professorships, whereby a professor from overseas occupies a special chair for a year's term. It is_ hoped that these visiting professors might be able to deliver lectures in New Zealand either on their outward or homeward journeys from Australia, or establish contacts with American and other overseas educational centres by which exchange visits could be made. Professors Soper and Hercus. arid Dr F. Turner have been requested to make personal inquiries along these lines when overseas.

Capping Preparations. With little more than a fortnight before the curtain rises on the 194(5 capping celebrations, student interest is focussed on, this highlight of the year. The celebrations will open on Tuesday, May 14, with the capping ceremony, while the ball will be held that evening. The procession will be held the next day, with the concert begiuuing its four-night season that night.. Almost 50 floats have been registered for the capping procession tins year. Three hundred women students are being mobilised to collect from offices, factories,, and shops in the morning, while during the procession and for the rest of the day the men, in fancy dress, will shake " just a penny " tins uiider the noses of citizens. The proceeds will go -to the Dunedin branch of'the New Zealand Crippled Children's Society.

Last year the 8,000 capping books were sold by 10.30 a.m., and the capping book controller has ordered 0.000 for 1946. lii. ' his instructions to student vendors of the book, the controller writes: "Any citizens venturing on the street are easy meat for the high-pressure salesmanship of the men and the guileless eves of the women. No holds are barred." Canteen Gossip. A sub-committee to consider a fiveyear developments- plan for the University has been appointed by the University Developments Committee, which is the new name of the Post-war Developments Committee. The subcommittee consists of Drs . Focken, Eccles, Raphael, and Mr J.. Harris. A long-felt want, a common room, will shortly be provided for both men and women students in the basement of Mararaa. Hall. The Students' Association is prepared to allot up to £4OO for the purpose of fitting out the basement with tubular heating, glassfronted notice boards, and a radio. The hall, which is under the jurisdiction of the Otago University Medical Company, was erected.with funds provided from the surplus of money subscribed during the 1914-18 war to the Hospital Ship Fund. A ' Critic ' contributor has made the following observations on the competitive examination markings for admission to the medical and science faculties:— 1 Father, oh father, come comfort me, do, -'.:,■_ '_".. The average has risen to seventy-two. Come home to your father, my browbeaten son, Before it goes up to a • hundred and Olie. ■ .■■■■ / : .y.