UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21446, 22 September 1931, Page 8

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

MODERN TRENDS AN INTERESTING REVIEW (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, September 21. Modern trends in university education methods were reviewed brieiiy to-day by Dr James Hight, rector of Canterbury College, who, with Professor T. A. Hunter, of Victoria College, returned by the Makura from a visit to Great Britain and the United States. _ They were delegates to the _ quinquennial conference of the universities of the Empire held at London and Aberdeen. They also attended as Government representatives at the Cpnference of the New Education Fellowship held at Bedford College. One of the most important sessions of the University Congress, said Dr Hight, was a business meeting at which the constitution of the Bureau of Universities of the Empire was considerably modified. As a result of the chief change made members of the bureau were' now the universities and university colleges of the Empire instead of as before individual members connected with the universities. The function of the bureau was to act mainly as a clearing house for information and ideas as to matters of common interest to the universities of the Empire, and to_ act as agents for different universities in London. The bureau was now being recognised by the universities in foreign countries as the body through which they might communicate with the British universities.

. One of the most urgent problems considered at the Congress was the question of entrance into the university and the conditions and mode of entry. The balance of opinion in respect of accrediting from the secondary schools to the university was now very definitely against that systeni both in Great Britain and in the United States. At the same time there was universal agreement that the entrance examinations urgently required modification in various directions, and important recommendations would bo made in that respect. Very great attention was paid to devising methods whereby entrance examinations should provide to a greater degree than they had in the past for a variation of the attainments and bents, and better technique was being worked out to deal with cases of students who were on the borderline or who failed in the examination in one subject while doing perhaps brilliantly in another subject or group of subjects.

Another important matter,” said Dr Hight, “ was the question of the present position of specialisation of studies and the Ph.D. degree. There is a fairly general opinion that the tendency in past years has been to attract too many students to research and into narrow specialised studies who are really unfit for it and would bo much better qualified for their work in life by taking a more general course. A very interesting discussion was that on the proposal to institute more general courses for a master’s degree. It is interesting to note that the trend of the discussion in this particular subject was such as to justify to a large' extent the structure of many of the honours courses in the University of New Zealand. Greater care must be taken in future, however, in guiding students into an appropriate course, general or specialised. It is felt that while the narrow and highly specialised vocations, which are provided by many of the American universities, are thoroughly mistaken, British universities should give more attention to that particular form of training than they have hitherto. The present crisis intensifies the feeling that we must study much more closely the general structure of society factors that underlie the working of human nature and the experience of man in the past, The universities will thus be faced with the task of deepening and extending their provision for social sciences and not merely for vocational studies in any particular trade or profession.” Professor Hunter, who is also vicechancellor of the university, spoke similarly of the work of the congress.