University Courses: Searching For Whole Truth In Education

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22850, 21 January 1949, Page 3

University Courses: Searching For Whole Truth In Education

(P.A.) WELLINGTON. Jan. 20. Whether or not a university should consider establishment of courses designed to provide a liberal education for both scientists and humanists was the principal topic discussed by the chancellor. Sir David Smith, before the Senate of the University of New Zealand today. The chancellor spoke at length of his investigations abroad concerning the efforts by the universities to produce balanced graduates for the needs of the present age. , . "In conversation with some notable British vice-chancellors,” _ said bir David.’T gathered that their view is that university education needs as its basis not only a search for truth but also an emphasis upon values wmen constitute a satisfying way of life. "The search for truth should be the search for the whole truth and that includes the truth of religious as well as of other experience.” Free Use of Chapel Each university should have its own chapel, which should be freely open for use by any religious group in the university. Their view was that the pursuit of science was founded on values that were common to the arts. There were distinguished administrators in Britain who would like to see the university emphasise directly the values upon which an unprejudiced search for the truth was based. How much could be done and now it was to be done under New Zealand conditions were the main questions for consideration. Those were pedagogical and practical questions, and he offered no conclusive view. On the question of the desirability of making some courses available, he thought that senior students and recent graduates should be asked to state their views.