UNIVERSITY SENATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1944, Page 2

UNIVERSITY SENATE

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

CHRISTCHURCH, January 18.

The Senate of the N.Z. University, which met in Christchurch today, decided that Russian should in future be one of the foreign languages for students for the B.A. degree. Two papers will now include unprepared passages for translation from and into Russian, and no student shall be deemed to have satisfied the requirements in Russian unless he translates to the satisfaction of the examiner at least one of the sight passages from Russian into English and at least one passage from English into Russian. When introducing the Bill to amend the Bachelor of Arts' Degree, the Pro-Chancellor. Dr. James Hight, stated that one of the University Colleges had appointed a lecturer in Russian, and he emphasised the importance of the study of that language. .Mr. A. E. Flower asked: Has anything been done in regard to Japanese?

“No attempt has yet been made to introduce Japanese," replied Dr. Hight, who said that all of the Oriental languages were important, though they were not under consideration at the moment. ACCREDITING SYSTEM CHRISTCHURCH, January 19. The Senate of the University of New Zealand this morning decided not to publish the names of schools which are to work under the accrediting system for the entrance examination. The question of a statement _ of the general principles of selecting schools for accrediting was referred back to the committee for a report.

At a later stage, the convener of the Accrediting Committee, Sir Thomas Hunjter. reported that after consultation with the Education Department the Senate drew up a list of schools which could, if they so desired, accredit candidates for the new entrance examination which was to be at a higher standard than that of the present examinations. The list would be subject to annual revision. “Any school that desires to accredit'

should make application to the University, which will consider its claims when it has before it the report of the liaison officers,” stated Sir T. Hunter’s report. Mr W ,H. Cocker said that if the list were made public it would remove some of the suspicion which had been created.

Mr F .N. Hogben said that publication would create an impression that those schools included in the list were the efficient schools and that others were not. They wanted to keep the schools free from that feeling of competition in efficiency. Mr F. A. de la Mare said that the Senate ought to publish the principles so that nobody would be misled.

The Senate of the University of New Zealand has declared D. W. Oxnam (Christchurch) winner of the Arnold Atkinson Essay Prize. Mrs Brenda Margaret Howel (Auckland) was highly commended. The subject of the essay was: “The Future of the British Communities as affected by Recent Developments.”