UNDERGRADUATE’S EXPENSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20312, 21 January 1928, Page 14

UNDERGRADUATE’S EXPENSES.

£250 ANNUAL INCOME. THE SUBJECT DISCUSSED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. The statement of the Master of Bal* liol, Mr A. D. Lindsay, that a number of students at the Universities are given too much money, and that £250 or, at most, £3OO a year was enough, has not unnaturally aroused keen interest among undergraduates—and doubtless their parents. “It is ridiculous for the Master of Balliol to fix on a definite sum required by an undergraduate,” said one of the leading figures in sport at Cambridge. “ Everything depends upon the temperament of the student, and the sort of life he leads up here. We all have to work, but we also play, and play is the most expensive.

“ If a man has a car, is a ‘ Blue,’ and has a good time without any suggestion of ‘ going to the dogs,’ £3OO a year is no use to him. Many do get through on that figure, and I know of others who do it on loss, but it is questionable if they get the full social advantages of the University.”

“ It is a thing which should have been said in public long ago,” said Mr John Fernald, president of the 0.U.D.5., and editor of the Isis. He quite agreed that if a boy were given more than £3OO a year it was a great handicap to him and his immortal soul was being imperillcdOn the other hand, if a man, before he came up, had been given an allowance of £3OO or over, it was difficult for him to live on less. When he vas at Oxford the normal undergraduate could easily live on £250, although life would be more expensive for him if he were elected to such an office as the presidency of the union, and it was, of course, a costly business to be a ‘ Blue.’ The question of expense, however, depended very largely on a man’s tastes. Some spent a lot on clothes. “I know fellows who have unpaid tabors’ bills of £IOO and over,” he added. CHEAPER FOR WOMEN STUDENTS. Women undergraduates, it was stated, succeeded in living mhch more cheaply than the men, and most of them managed on under £2OO a year. Undergraduates augmented their incomes in various ways. At Oxford not long ago there was a case of a Ruskin College man who offered his services to several hairdressers in the town during the week-ends. The Master of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge (Mr F. M. Rushmore), said it was impossible to generalise, and a great deal depended upon what a man. was used to at home. Obviously a boy from a country vicarage was not used to the manner of living experienced by a son who had wealthy parents, and it generally happened that the Cambridge undergraduate carried on much the same at the university as he did at home. When asked what he considered to be a minimum, Mr Rushmore said that it was possible by the strictest economy, to take one of the lesser expensive courses of study on £IBO a year at St. Catherine’s, but this would not include railway fares or clothes, nor, of course, would it include living expenses during vacation. “An average man at the university, by exercising a reasonable amount of economy, should manage very well on £200," he remarked. “ I know of two men, sons of wealthy shipowners, who kept within that sum.” OTHER UNIVERSITIES.

Mr Rosslyn Mitchell, M.P., who was a student at Glasgow University, stated that a Glasgow boy would consider himself lucky if he had 10s a week over and above his lodging and fees. When a boy is sent to the University, if he is put in possession of large sums of money two things follow,” said Mr Mitchell. “First, he is inclined to habits of luxury that do not help to the alertness of the brain. The Puritan has always been the best student. The second is, if he has too much money ha is apt to gather round him the ‘ spongers ’ and ‘ moochers,’ who flatter him up for all they can get oit of him. That is very bad for a young man-”^ Dr Ernest Barker, Principal of King’s College, London, while endorsing • Mr Lindsay’s statement, thought it should be made clear that it only referred to Oxford and Cambridge. “In London, Dr Barker said, “ the student may reside in a hostel, and get the amemties of life and discussion with his contemporaries, for the 30 weeks —the London University year—as compared with the 25 weeks of Oxford and Cambridge, at a cost, including college fees and other necessary expenses, of about £175 a year.”