UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 230, 27 August 1935, Page 7

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

USE OF A DEGREE,

AN OTAGO EXPRESSION

Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, Aug. 27. ■ The question of extra-mural students was considered by the University Council’s professorial board last night, when it was decided to rescind the previous regulations and grant exemption from attendance at lectures only to students who satisfy the board that they are prevented from attending by the fact of earning their living, or that such attendance would involve undue hardship. The board issued a general memorandum expressing the view that the recent growth of University classes in New Zealand secondary schools was a retrograde movement. The board expressed a further view that a University degree should certify the completion of a course which has included the essentials of University education, not merely an examination success, and declared that the value of a degree depended almost wholly on how far it did so. The report concludes: Realising the effect which abuse of tho extra-mural system is having on the standard of degrees, the board is forced to the conclusion that some restrictions must be imposed. At the same time it was never suggested that genuine eases should meet with anything but sympathy and encouragement.