UNIVERSITY SENATE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10210, 21 February 1919, Page 6

UNIVERSITY SENATE

SIX SUBJECT DEGREE BOAKD OF STUDIES BBCOMMEKDAj TIONS. 1 Press .Association.CHRISTCHUECH, February 20. The University Senate resolved that anatomy be added to the list of ad vane ed subjects for B.Sc, with a proviso that zoology must be taken as a pass subject. The University Senate to-day decided that the adoption of the new B.A. and B.Sc. syllabus should not involve any lowering of the standard for the pass degree. Seven subjects should be required. Professor Wall dealt at length with the present sis-subject degree, stating that under the present system a student was tempted to take his degree in the easiest possible manner. Under the present system, the pass degree was the easiest obtainable in any university in the world. The six-subject degree had been introduced dnto.JN.ew Zealand because the Scottish University had adopted that system after a trial. However, the Scottish University had abandoned the system. The Chancellor asked why the Board of Studies had not recommended the abolition of the six-subject degree. Professor Wall said that it was a matter of practical politics. The relations existing between the Board of Studies and the Senate were such that it was necessary to adopt political means sometimes. Mr Ton Haast said the proposal was the most extraordinary that had come before the Senate. The Board of Studies had complained about the number of courses a student had to take, holding that they got only a "smattering" of knowledge, yet now they were proposing to increase the number of courses. The Chancellor said it seemed to him the Board of Studies spent half its time in dealing with the external examiners and the other half in amending the decisions it had arrived at the previous year. The Board of Studies was en advisory body. He suggested the board was going round the corner in the matter. The honest course for the board to have taken would have been to say that it did not approve of the six-sub-ject degree. The matter w*as not one of practical politics. Professor Segar opposed any change being made in the matter till the present system had been given a fair trial. Professor ilacmillan Brown said he always had been in favour of helping the average, student. Two-thirds of the students were not fit to specialise in any subject. They must remember that there were many students in the backblocks, and the passing, of the motion would penalise these. The amendment by Professor Hunter, that the matter be referred to tho arts and commerce committee, was carried by 11 votes to 7. The Board of Studies recommended that', there should be some statute of limitations for students completing under the old statutes, it was recommended that a period of five years should be allowed for the completion of the pass degrees. Kecommendations from the Board ot Studies that the keeping of terms be required in all subjects for the LL.B. degree, and that a section for the LL.B. degree might be taken at the end of the first year provided terms had been kept, were referred to the law committee. Eecommendations that a travelling scholarship in law be instituted on the same terms as those in arts, science and medicine, and that candidates who .had been on active service during the present war might be admitted to the University under similar conditions to those adopted by the joint matriculation board of the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham, were referred to the finance committee.