UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16326, 23 August 1913, Page 15

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

THE PRESENT POSITION. THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE. (Contributed.) On the petition of 1910 the Education Committee of tho House of Representatives presented a report to Parliament m October, 1911. This report, which was adopted by the House, laid down, among other things: (1) That a case lias been made out for reform in the constitution of the Now Zealand University, more particularly in the direction of the utilisation ui a larger measure than at present of tlio professorial staffs of the colleges in the framing of curricula and syllabuses, and in tlio conduct of examinations.

(2) That the appointment of a Royal Commission is not necessary at present, as the committee believes there is evidence that the university is itself moving in a direction which will gradually evolve a scheme of reform on tlio lines indicated, and this is borne out to 6omo extent by the fact that in November, 1910, in accordance with a resolution of tho Senate, a conference of representatives of the professorial boards was held in Wellington to consider certain academic questions referred to it by tho Senate. The report also advised that the Inspector-General of Schools should inquire into the finances and libraries of the university colleges. Tho report showß that the Education Committee, and, apparently, the House of Representatives, recognised that reform of the university was necessary, but considered that there was no immediate need for a Royal Commission, because the Senato had given evidence by sotting up a professorial conference that it was proceeding to carry out the ideas or tlio Education Committee, stated in sections (1) and (2) of the report. Lot us see what happened. Tho professorial conference met, and sent forward certain proposals to the Senate, and the following decisions 6how how tho Senato “ utilised ” the advice of the conference. Tiro conference suggested : (1) That there be ono pass degree in arts and science.—Rejected by tho Senate by 14 votes to 8. (2) That the external system of examination bo abolished within five years, and that the examinations in any subject be conducted by a board of the responsible university teachers of that subject.—Rejected by the Senate by 17 votes to 6. (3) That tho course of study of a candidate for the B.A. and B.Sc. degrees should be approved by the Professorial Board of his college.—Rejected by the Sonate by 13 votes to 9. (4) Tba.t a candidate be allowed to “repeat” two subjects in the final section of his pass degree.—Rejected by tho Senate by 12 votes to 10. And finally, on the motion of Mr Yon Haast, the Senato ; by 15 votes to 7, decided to discontinue the “ annual ” Professorial Conference, established only the year before. It is obvious, therefore, that the Senate is totally opposed to tho report of the Education Committee of the House, and if the framers of that report, including the present Minister of Education, had now to report on the prayer of the petitioners, there could be no doubt what their verdict would be. It is true that those who wished to avoid an inquiry might point to the facts:

(1) That the Senate resolved that reports from the teachers on the work of degree candidates in some subjects should bo forwarded to the examiners in England. But this method of dealing with the problem of examination lias never been considered by the teachers in the colleges, and the Senato refused to allow the teachers to report upon it. a decision totally opposed to the spirit of section I. of the report of the Education Committee.

(2) That the Senate has agreed that the constitution of tlio University should bo altered, and lias set up a committee to deal with the question. But when the public is told that the Senate’s method of dealing with this difficult problem is to send three schemes (out of hundreds that might be suggested) to about 1700 graduates, to .tlie Councils, Professorial Boards and Courts of Convocation, with a view to framing a Bill, “ if a basis of agreement is reached,” everyone will realise that this is but further evidence of tlio incompetence of the present Senato in dealing with University questions. It took this same Senato five or six years of hard work to achieve nothing in the way of reform of tlio B.A. and B.Sc. courses, and, adopting the same method in the wider question of University reorganisation, it is already doomed to failure. There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that the Education Committee’s reason for not recommending a lloyal Commission lias ceased to exist.

But, unfortunately for the “ reformers,” who now hail from the tour university centres, there is a new Education Committee constituted as follows:—Messrs Poland (Auckland University district) Guthrie and Callum (Victoria College University district), G. M. Thomson, Statliam and cuctey, Hon James Allen and Messrs Hanan, Malcolm, J. C. Thomson (Otago University district). Tlio rather peculiar distribution of these members—two for tho North Island and eight for tho south; one for Auckland University district, two for Victoria College university district, none for Canterbury College district and seven for Otago University district—would perhaps not bo of such moment if the question had not been complicated by tlio report of tho Inspector-General of Schools on the finances and libraries of tho colleges. This document takes no account of the fact that Auckland University Collego and Victoria College servo about 05 per cent of tlio population of the dominion, and proposes to spend GO per cent of tlio grant for university purposes on the two southern colleges which 6erve—with due allowance for their special schools—not more than 45 per cent of tho population ; it determines that the two North Island colleges shall ho of inferior standing, for it proposes to rob Auckland of its special mining school and Victoria College of its specialisation in Science and jaw. There are. to be no special schools in tlio North Island. Surely Parliament never intended that a committee that so unfairly represents the university districts should adjudicate upon tho grants that each university college should report is made tlio basis of tlio Government’s financial arrangements for tlie university colleges, the policy of tlio colleges will bo fixed in such a way that for the next ten or fifteen years tho North Island colleges, which have been not too generously treated in the past, will have to tako their place as distinctly inferior university institutions to tho colleges in tho south.

WOLFE’S SCHNAPPS. A pnlatablo and refined spirit. 2 Nearly two-thirds of all letters carried by the postal service of the world are written, sent to, and read by Eng-lish-speaking pcoplo.