UNIVERSITY DEGREES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 11

UNIVERSITY DEGREES.

THE QUESTION GF SPECIALISATION. [From Our Correspondent.] DUNEDIN, January 21. The New Zealand University Senate has already received from the Professorial Boards qf the four university colleges reports on proposals to regulate as to the subjects to be taken in the course for B.A. and B.Sc. It was felt in some quarters that some check was needed to prevent students from selecting only the “soft” subjects for examination, and again that in the interests of general culture specialisation should not be begun too early by the student. The whole matter of reorganising the courses mentioned was discussed at this morning’s sitting of the Senate when the item on tlio order paper, “ Reports from Professorial Boards on questions remitted from last meeting of Senate,” was reached. In the course of the discussion Professor Shand (Otago) said that the New Zealand University was a copy of no university in the world. Its curriculum had been framed to meet the special needs and conditions of New Zealand, and the critics who found fault with it on tlio score that it differed from that of other universities were really paying a compliment to those responsible for the curriculum. As to specialisation or otherwise, the whole question was which ideal was best suited to the conditions of the dominion. He maintained that the broad and comprehensive ideal was suited t-o New Zealand. There uas very little use here for specialists in any department of education. f The dominion could not absorb them. That was proved by the fact that some specialists sent Home to -specialise jtHei having gained exhibition scholarships, had never returned here. Many people imagined that to be a loss to the dominion, but a case in point ulmio such a one had returned was that ol a student who had found absolutely nothing to do in Australia and New Zealand, and had been compelled to go back to England. He entirely agreed with Sir J. J. Thomson, the highest living authority on the subject, that there was a great deal in the London University system which New Zealand had been wise not to imitate. One of these matters was early and excessive specialisation, which Su J. « • lc : n son -said injured the- student by depriving him of adequate literary culture, and if specialisation were made in one or two branches of science, it tended to isolate one science Loin al Professor Chilton (Canterbury) said that lie was not satisfied with the piesent svstem.' There should be some intermediate examination between matriculation and the final examination for the Bachelor's Degree in Arts or Science, which final examination, although taken in two sections, really was one examination. Such an liuerme-diat-e examination would he a test as to whether the student had a sufficiently broad basis to build on. At present the B.A. degree could bo obtained by a student having no knowledge of either an experimental or an observational science. The B.Sc. degree could lie obtained by specialisation in science and. a total neglect of literature and kindred sciences.

Professor J. JR. Brown (Wellington) said that the New Zealand University was modelled on the Scottish universities more than on any other. Within a year or two their courses would all go 'into the melting-pot, and the Scottish universities would range themselves alongside the modern English universities. If they did not seriously consider their position they would be in danger of lagging behind the other universities of the world by reason of their present haphazard system. Pro>per courses of co-ordinated subjects should be drawn up. This would be a difficult matter for the Senate to do. There had been separate reports from the professorial hoards of the four Colleges, but these differed considerably, anti the Senate were no further forward. If the various professorial boards had been able to confer together a valuable report would probably have been the outcome. Ho suggested that the time had come when the University should take steps to bring the various professorial boards into connection with the governing powers of the University, as was the case in other universities.

The Hon J. A. Tole (Auckland) pointed out that the Otago University professorial board., which had declared the specialisation proposal “ impracticable, retrogressive and revoluntionary ” would possibly find a difficulty in harmonising it with boards favourable to a change being made. Eventually a motion by Professor F. D. Brown (Auckland), “ That no further action be taken in the matter of the Recess Committee, so far as changes in the courses for the B.A. and B.Sc. degrees are concerned,” was negatived, and it was resolved that the question should be referred to a committee to confer during the recess with representatives of professorial boards, and to report to next year’s Senate.