U.S.A. UNIVERSITIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1938, Page 13

U.S.A. UNIVERSITIES

ENGLISH SYSTEM COPIED. [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, April 25. The adoption at leading American universities of a system of residential colleges similar to those of Oxford and Cambridge was described by Mr. Harris Whittemore, of Connecticut, a traveller by the Franconia, speaking of undergraduate days at Yale. At Yale, he said, 10 colleges had been founded, each with 200 to 300 students in residence. While they made nd attempt to cope with tutorial work, as was done in the great English universities, they provided a valuable social background for students. They were encouraged to maintain as varied as possible a range of interests, rather than to attract all students specialising in one particular subject or one particular sport. They did not interfere in any way with the university system of instruction, but were purely residential ip nature. However, they organised their own. sports teams and so on, and played an. important part in the life of the university. Harvard, he understood, intended to start a similar scheme. It was not easy to work one’s way through an American university simply on one’s' ability at some particular sport, a charge sometimes laid against the English universities. On the other hand, senior men would naturally be likely to bring their influence to bear on a man who was adept at an important sport and things might be made easier for him in consequence. It was .also possible for many students to work their way through university working at a part-time jo.b when they were not studying. Although most of the students were there to gain a degree in some practical subject, which would be of service to them in after life, there were, as in the English universities, a number who were there solely because of the social standing of the institutions.