POST-WAR AIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25021, 11 October 1944, Page 3

POST-WAR AIMS

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION developing character University education, the replanning of teaching departments and curricula, international collaboration, and the rehabilitation of universities destroyed or damaged during the war are dealt with in a report on post-war university education published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The report has been prepared by a committee under the chairmanship of Dr Maxwell Garnett. University entrance scholarships in England and Wales should, in the committee's view, depend more than at present upon a candidate's character as well as upon his knowledge and intellectual qualities. "The assessment of deep scholarship should always be supplemented by the assessment of character; and the latter should carry equal weight in the assessment of university-worthiness in the case of a majority of assisteil students." Other recommendations are made to overcome the excessive concentration of the upper forms of secondary schools upon-the deep study of one or more specialised subjects, to the neglect of of the wider study of the world as a whole f Science and Humanities The committee notes the tendency of university studies to split up into a growing number of separate specialisms, lacking any integrating principle and increasingly divorced from the lilo ol the community. Two distinct replanning proposals ary made:—(l) A type of geneial decree course including both natural science and humanities; and (2) inclusion, in the existing specialised schools in natural and applied sciences, courses in the elements of sociology and citizenship. Every undergraduate, it is urged, should acquire some appreciation of the achievements of science and their impact upon daily life. The relation between universities and Government administration is seen to bo closo and the growth of overspecialisation as dangerous to intending Civil servants as to any other type of university student. Some form of education designed to facilitate the process of international co-operation is recommended, and courses are also proposed for Civil servants after a period of service. The committee is unanimous on the need for university schools of education to play an essential part in the education of all qualified teachers. Educational research and the teaching both of undergraduates and of experienced members of the teaching profession who return for courses of advanced study should be the concern of every university. World Council Suggested The committee holds that it is to State and local assistance that the universities must look in the immediate future for their major development. Large additional expenditure will bo needed in many directions, but raising the salaries of university staffs of all grades, at present hopelessly inadequate in competition with the world outside, should be given high priority. At least £ISOO a year at J 938 prices should be paid to all whole-time professors. Agreeing with the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee that a Universities' Advisory Council should "be established bv the universities themselves to consider the whole range of university policy and act as a co-ordin-ating body," the committee adds that the council should be entirely free from Government control. This council would make representations to the University Grants Committee. To promote university co-operation on a world scale the committee suggests a World Council of Universities. Surveying the position of universities in war areas, tho committee recommends that the United Nations should require the enemy Powers to make full restoration of university property stolen or destroyed.