UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 9

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

PROFESSOR SHELLEY’S EVIDENCE. APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. (Peb United Peeps Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, July 10. At tno University Commission, Professor Shelley gave evidence ou the inadequate provision of scholarships to meet later needs and the most important years ot a student's course, and.also, on the difficulty of properly organising university teaching to meet the needs oi teachers in training under the present system of organisation of the training colleges in New Zealand, tie had been impressed by the general contemptuous attitude of people to older lines ot social knowledge; but there seemed to be a growing respect for social distinctions, based on the mere possession of wealth. It did not seem to be the function of the Government of a democratic country to help in establishing such a cleavage, as it seemed to be doing in New Zealand by tno present system of scholarships in the university and in the schools leading to the university. Ur H. G. Denham, Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury College, said the staffing at that college was inadequate. Students in the science departments, whose studies were most affected by the lack, were those engaged on advanced and honours work. Calls on the staff for lecture preparations, overhaul of stores, and general departmental needs, meant that much of the laboratory work of that class of student had to be done without direct supervision, and that led to sloppy technique and general inefficiency of work. Serious research could not be carried out during term time by the teaching staff. To everybody acquainted with the stimulating influence fostered by the research spirit, it was evident that the work done at a thinly staffed institution must drift largely into the same type as that prevailing in a coaching institution primarily occupied in the production of mediocre science teachbrs. Its success in providing the community with young scientists capable of playing their part in industry and in the higher walks of the teaching profession must be very limited. It was not only because of the benefit of research work on students and professors' that he emphasised its importance. ' Dr C. O. Farr, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Canterbury College, said that in isolated places like this, even more than elsewhere, the university was the most likely, if not the only, place to which the manufacturing industrialist could turn for help in solving problems in hia business. Help given in this way kept the professor and staff in touch with commercial life and very often provided appointments for his students at the close of their academic careers. He advocated the full equipment of laboratories. He was inclined to wonder sometimes if the world knew how much of its progress was due to research by scientific methods.

Giving evidence of education in law, E. W. White stated that it seemed to be generally recognised that our law professional studies were hopelessly inadequate, and a radical change was necessary to enable students of law who were not sitting for the LL.B. degree to obtain a grasp of the fundamental conceptions of the legal system and of the origin and growth of the principles of English law. He supported Professor Algie’s recommendation, and contended that before proceeding with the law subjects proper, every student should be required to pass a .first section comprising jurisprudence, which was the true exposition of the legal system as a whole, and made the student see that the whole field of law was capable of something akin to scientific classification.

W. J. Hunter gave evidence concurring with that submitted by Mr White in voicing his attitude to the proposal for four separate universities in New Zealand. Mr Hunter said that the legal profession looked on this with apprehension, and, it feared there would be four separate standards for admission into the legal profession if four separate universities were established. It, would probably be desirable for the legal profession to seek legislation so that the New Zealand Law Society or some other body composed of legal practitioners would have power to control the examination and admission of legal practitioners. A diploma in fine arts was urged bv A. F. Nicoll, director of the Canterbury School of Art. That school, he said, had trained many students who gained distinction m other countries. On account of The school’s standing, students for many years had been attracted to it from other parts of New Zealand. G. H. Holford, B.Ag., recommended that only one properly staffed and fully equipped university school of agriculture on the of the Melbourne University Agricultural School should be maintained in Now Zealand. He also recommerided that a university school of agriculture should be established at Canterbury College in association with the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln, and that these institutions should be reunited by statute. Thethird recommendation was that the recentlyestablished university chairs of agriculture at Wellington and Auckland should be developed into research stations for the investigation of agricultural problems. At these tome of the graduates from the Cantorbuiy College should specialise m gome agricultural subieot. On behalf of the Rural Education Committee of the Canterbury Progress League. J. E. Strachan, principal of Rangiora High School, in the course of his evidence stated that the problems of industrial and commercial development wer©,_ or should be, the concern of educational institutions. The schools and colleges should be part of the corporate life of the community, conditioned bv its interests, and in turn conditioning them. The curricula of the teaching institutions should be to some extent conditioned by the practical problems which emerged from concerns affecting life in the dominion. These were partly Aiontific, partly economic, and partly political. None of these could be adequately dealt with until a university college of agriculture was established.