UNIVERSITY IDEALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20302, 9 July 1929, Page 13

UNIVERSITY IDEALS.

NECESSITY FOR AUTONOMY.

ADVICE TO GRADUATES. ADDRESS BY REV. DR. H. RANSTON A plea for the maintenance of university autonomy and for the encouragement of learning for its own sake ivas made by the Rev. Dr. H. Ranston. president of the Auckland University Court of Convocation, at a welcome evening to graduates in the University College Hall last evening. " Universities as institutions originally grow out of the nature of things," Dr. Ranston said. " They arose themselves, rather than being the products of specific foundation. Scholars naturally gravitated to certain districts for mutual help. These original universities would allow no outside interference; they claimed and they exercised the right of free teaching and free self-government. We must preserve our independence. State interference with university autonomy, although it is perfectly natural where the State supplies funds, is, as Earl Balfour said three years ago, ' extremely dangerous.' The State naturally wants value for its money. But value interpreted by changing politics or by a Government department may be a very different thing from value as interpreted by the highest and truest culture. " A true university must teach many things which cannot be cast in terms of money and commercial profit or calculated in the values of Government statistics. Everyone who cares for the future of the university will resist the present tendency "which can only mean that eventually we shall become an appendage of the Department of Education." The Accrediting System. Accrediting for entrance to the miversity from secondary schools was new being widely discussed. It was hij conviction that on principle the university should continue to provide its own entrance tests. Possibly faults existed in the matriculation examinations, but that was no reason for the university to abdicate its proper function and delegate it to others who, themselves, seemed to be divided as to the wisdom of the proposed 1 system. Referring to full and part-time students, Dr. Ranston said it seemed certain that many part-time students could devote all their time to university work by means of a little sacrifice. The university should have more full-time students, but on the other hand there were many students who had to earn a livelihood while attending lectures. They deserved credit for their enterprise. No difficulties should be placed in their way, and he would not care to see the universities confined to the children of the well-to-do and to the brilliant scholar-ship-winning children of the less well-to-do. Much credit had been brought to the university in the past by part-time students, and no change in time-tables should be made if those who had to work for a living during the day would bo excluded from lectures. A university should take a wider view of its functions than the teaching of a certain number of official students in its lecture rooms. It was gratifying to know that the Auckland University College was taking its place in giving" guidance on scientific matters to the public. The university had never stood higher iri public estimation than at present. The more such guidance was given to the public the sooner would people realise their debt to the university. Rich men had been generous to the city in the past, and it was to be hoped that some would consider the endowment of the university in the future. The Ideal Graduate. " The university should concern itself with teaching matters of immediate and concrete commercial value," the speaker said in referring to the idea), of higher education. " Knowledge which enables us to employ Nature and ourselves and others for the material benefit of ourselves and society may be very worthy iudeed. Yet my complaint is that many seem to forget the necessity for an intellectual interest which has 110 kinship with the making of money or the obtaining of a living. Life is, after all, more than can be assessed in terms of material interests. ' Man shall not live by bread alone/ and a true university, while preparing its students for their professions, will remember all lifo's fullness, and prepare them for a higher function than merely ' grubbing' for a living. The ideal graduate is one to whom the university has meant not only a first-class preparation for professional life, but to whom it has given also a love of learning for its own sake, without a taste for the finest in literature, in art, in philosophy, in music or in scientific discovery. " The ideal graduate will not divorce knowledge from conduct, and will not forget the good of the rest of his fellows in the pursuit of private and personal, interests. The world needs expert knowledge, not only for private use, but also for the intellectual and ethical leadership of others. Gifts of learning and scientific skill, selfishly and exclusively used, mean not only the drying up of our inner fountains of culture and the shrivelling of our souls, but also a selfish world. And a selfish world is a very unhappy one, full of strife and war. International Outlook. " Young students and graduates often talk about possessing an international outlook and the necessity for international outlook and sympathy. They say that we should rise above national prejudice; that we should not be so much Britishers, Germans, Frenchmen or New Zealanders;, but cultured citizens of the world. This is excellent advice. All men are brothers everywhere. The world looks to the universities for a lead in international cooperation, and for the freedom of the world of what H. G. Wells calls ' nationalism.' " Yet, let me utter one word 01 warn ing to the enthusiasts of internationalism. The one who does not love his countrj cannot really advance the cause of a true internationalism. Only one who know; through his own experience what national ity means can appreciate what nationality means to others. Only as we lovo oui own nation and Empire, and have ab sorbed the significance of her institution; and traditions can we understand the attitude of others to their own institution! and traditions. Without this understand ing no internationalism can be surelj grounded; it will be superficial and transi ent. In tho end it will lead, not to true peace, but to more strife and misunder standing." , , Supper was served in the women s com mon room, and dancing followed in til* hall. Songs were sung during the even ing by Mr. A. H. 11. Fryer-Raisher.