UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18764, 18 January 1923, Page 4

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

QUESTiON OF SPECIALISATION. REFERENCES BY SIR ROBERT STOUT. Tn the course of his address at tho annual meeting of tho Senate of tho University of Nenv Zealand yesterday, tho Chancellor (Sir Robert Stout) said: Members of the Senate may he aware that in 1886 in a .statement made l>y mo •when Minister of Education I pointed out, that it was impossible for New Zealand to have special schools scattered nil over the colony; that. the University Colleges must, specialise in certain subjects. I suggested the Medical School should be at Dunedin ; tho Mining School and an Agricultural School in Christchurh ; that in Auckland there should bo a professor of astronomy, and that the Auckland College should deal with marine engineering and music, etc. I may lie permitted to quote what some of the members of the Universities Conference said regarding the need of specialisation even in the United Kingdom. Dr Farnell said: "All. the universities, including Oxford arid Cambridge, now receive grants from the State, anil the Slalo will expect, us to economise in function. At tho ontl of his speech the principal of St. Andiows said that a great university must teach all subjects. There are exceptions to that, general statement. Knowledge within, say, the last f'rfty years has divided inro new branches which have put, forth a imilfinlicity of new shoots. Physically and financially it "is growing impossible for any university to cultivate them all. Yet, we need to warn ourselves against the opposite view thai over-great, specialisation is good for the university. _ The idea that one university might devote itself to physical science and another to the humanities would be futile, both in the. interests of the humanities and of physical science. All must provide a broad and comprehensive complex of faculties; but, apart from the cost, there are reasons for which no -university can teach the whole of the myriad branches of modern knowledge. For some rtibjo't." local facilities are necessary. Take forestrv and metallurgy as examples. Engi_ neoring requires a wide equipment of mathematics and of science, pure and applied. The theoretical work should be done at. all universities. Eor practical work tho student must resort, to places where great engineering works are to bo found. It Li desirable that the universities nearest to engineering works should devote themselves to the complex and expensive applications of the subject. The universities should not compete with each other in running flourishing schools of engineering. Some would be sure to be outdistanced and ou'-classed by those more favourably placed." Professor 'Wertheimer, of Bristol, Mid: "I venture to suggest, that, post-graduate teachiiv-r in certain subjects should bo limited to certiin universities, where provision can lx> made on a liberal scale for staff and libraries or laboratories. Before starting new subjects universities should make sura that thev have sufficient funds to do the work well." Dr Duff, of "Glasgow, spoke as follows: "We have to face seriously, both on financial grounds and on general national grounds, the question of the development of universities on what I would call a federal or semi-federal system. Hitherto each university has been rim as a state, freo and sovereign in its own pro- 1 vince. But tho position has altered in the last ten vears. All the universities aro increasingly applying for public money, and that is not, to be obtained without prior inquiry and investigation and report. Wo must try to adjust our means to the greatest advancement of human knowledge, and each university may find that it, can best serve the common weal by restricting, in anrrecmont with others, its sphere. ' Right Hon. Mr Fisher said: "I see the necessity for co-operation. Tho expense of university education has become so great and the development, of applied science in a university has now reached such a point that, I feel it is quite impossible for the nation, as a whole, to advance unless there is a much hitrher degree of co-operation between universities in respect to the diatnourion of studies than has hitherto been thought necessary. So long as university studies were confined to classics, mathematics, and perhaps to chemistry and physics, the necessity did not arise: but now, when universities are pushing out their antennae in almost every direction and when applied science, has become increasingly expensive, it, is very important that we should husband onr resources. It will be seen from these extracts that the question of specialisation of studies is a difficult question in tho Motherland and must be a difficult ouestion with us. In almost ull the speeches at the conference the financial ouestion was referred to, tho members felt that economy had to be regarded even when the extension of educational efforts had to he advocated. The same question cannot be ignored by us. Do we realise then during the past thirty-six years the expenditure on education has increased both normally and relatively to tho increase of our population. The following details will, I am sure, be of interest. I include in the mean population the Maoris, as the increase in the expenditure on Native schools is included in the mineral educational expenditure:— __

If we liavo four imivoifities in New Zealand, each one having the right to have any schools they please, it- will mean a great increase in the cost of education without uny compensating benefit. It is at least doubtful if there wero four universities established amongst us thore woiild he any gain to scholarship or to the training of our people in the higher branches of" learning; nor would there be any gam to those who -would bo accredited by the different universities by the degrees conferred on them. The New Zealand University degree is now recognised as a good degree Is it likely that the degrees of the- individual universities would have the samo value? Even in Scotland, in the past, all the decrees of the Scotch universities were not in all subjects thought of equal value- though in later years and after the control of universities by the Privy Council Committee, thore has been a greut improvement in this respect.

rtMltHtU I Ex- ] penditure Mean popuTotal exper head. Years. lation, penditure. Shillings. 1P86 . .. 617,889 £ 427.905' . 13.8 .1891 ... 666,740 403.657 12.1 1896 77.6,185 473,531. 12.8 1C01 . 808.811 516,078 12.7 1905 .. 920,012 784,865 17. 1911 . .. 1,047,818 1.079,543 20. 1916 . . 1,150,340 1.631.172. 28.3 1921 . .. 1,2.55.181 3.229,058 51.3 1922 . .. 1,285,720 3.497,573 54.4 .