AGRICULTURE DIPLOMAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18345, 10 March 1923, Page 10

AGRICULTURE DIPLOMAS

FACILITIES FOR STUDENTS. EXTENSION ADVOCATED. Attention was drawn by the Auckland Provincial Agricultural Education Committee yesterday to disabilities in the way of certain students desiring to obtain the New Zealand Diploma of Agriculture. It was stated that, according to the University statutes, these who wished to proceed to the degree must attend courses covering three years at a recognised school of agriculture, and Canterbury Agricultural College, at Lincoln, was the only school recognised by the University Senate. The committee felt that those who held the National Diploma of Agriculture, or diplomas of institutions such as Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales, should be placed on the same basis as students who had successfully completed the course at Lincoln. The statute should be amended to give the chancellor discretionary power to recognise for the purpose of the statute colleges or educational institutions other than universities, provided he was satisfied their course and examinations were equivalent to those recognised by the University of New Zealand. Then many who at present .held such diplomas could avail themselves of the facilities offered to secure the New Zealand degree in agriculture. It was maintained that practically all those who would be affected by such a change were engaged in earning their living, and that to ask them Lo go through a three-years' course at Lincoln put before them an insuperable barrier. A resolution was drafted in accordance with the committee's opinion for consideration by the Board of Agriculture, and will be accompanied by a request that the matter be placed before the University Senate.