UNIVERSITY ENQUIRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 June 1925, Page 2

UNIVERSITY ENQUIRY

: EVIDENCE TO COMMISSION.

(Fer Press Association.)’ • 2 ' WELLINGTON/' June-45. The sitting of.:the Koya! GuiriffilfeMon. on. University education was'continued ■ t>day. The. connnissioa was ■wainny wUcomed by Sir J. 'Fajr, Of Education. . . ' S'-5 i'i-’cv'i The Government, he said, had set then up as a Royal Commission, in Ue . opinion t that their task was one of considerable importance to this couhtiy.': The Government had acted under ■ g.dme: pressure in ! the'matter- of the rrimriustion. Most of - the- -governing bodied of the cdlleges. had passed, strong resolutions urging on the-Government tie desirability of a commission to eri_ . quire into various matters' which had beep the subject' of- Jceteri cbhtrovdrsy for years in the Dominion. ‘ Sir Harry Reichel, thanking the Minister, . said that they ' felt ‘deeply the:great importance'ofthe work entrusted to them. Already, theriomiriission' had seen enough to show that the enquiry would be valuable. .They saw great possibilities- before them.-,- ; ../Mr Levi, Chairman of the Victoria College Council,' ! -gave'>-evidence that the University performed all functions of;'a University save‘exantirialioir for the conferring ’of'degrees. .The Senate Assembly published the/syllabus, pre. yaration for which was highly techni- / cal, and carried out by /the Senate prior to. .1914, when the Board of' Stud. i?s. of. 20 members was constituted part of the University by statute.’ • Eor all practical purposes, the really Important work assigned. to the University was delegated to this body, which was • al.ep a collection, of experts ori many subjects, with the rdtult that 4 as* each member' was expert rihly' in his own subject, that the’ recommendations were .not .ifrbm Jdie_ whole Board, but . from two or three.'e,Aperts in’eadh sub- ■ I’pct. The publication of the syllabus by an external .body tended to cramp the teueheri'veshecially ; in some subiec+s. Separate universities wovjd be pdvantageon s. Heci hse of the, increa ped . prestige yf the college itself, and the greater likelihood of benefactions. , (Proceeding).