UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22326, 28 July 1934, Page 10

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

COURT OF CONVOCATION ELECTION OF OFFICERS A meeting of the Court of Convocation of the Otago University was held last night, the president (Mr J. M. Paterson) occupying the chair. REPORT OF COMMITTEE, The committee reported that since 1920 a committee of the court had kept a careful note of university matters, that it had from time to time sent deputations to the University Council, called meetings of the court, and done other business. Its efforts had, in fact, met with considerable success. The committee had been delighted to find that there had been a growing interest in the university manifested by younger graduates, and there was every sign that new men were coming forward to help to make the convocation exercise the useful influence in the community and in the university that it should be. Since the last general meeting two deputations had waited on the University Council to make recommendations concerning the Memorial Walk and the state of the grounds at the university. The committee had prepared during the past year a report on the university library, but the council had taken action in the matter, so that in the meantime no action by the committee was deemed to be necessary. The committee was pleased to report that the interest of the graduates in the university gave every sign of increasing and felt that the time was ripe to inaugurate a campaign with a view to making convocation in Otago as live a body as it was in other districts. If organised properly convocation should be able to fulfil a useful purpose and exercise a marked influence on education in the Dominion. The committee recommended that a subscription of 2s 6d per member or 10s 6d for five years be instituted by the meeting, and that the incoming committee should formulate an effective method of summoning meetings. The committee also recommended that the general policy of convocation should be;—To organise the graduates into a coherent body that will conduce to discussion of university interests and the formation of sound public opinion in such matters. This should result in matters of university interest being referred by other university courts to convocation for consideration. The support by convocation of university interests should prove a useful political support to the real interests of university education, those of the community and the real interest of professions and of students. They should aim at any reform of University Acts that might be deemed advisable.

The following subjects were referred by the retiring body to the incoming committee as affording possible questions for discussion at future meetings. How far does the syllabus in each faculty afford that basis for general culture tnat men with degrees should have? (Dr Hunter’s address at the graduation ceremony raised this question.) The place of lectures as contrasted with the use of the library in university learning and teaching. Danger of State control of the universities. How should this danger be met? (By expressing the opinion of Convocation publicly and perhaps also by attacking the direct centralised Stats control of secondary education.) The needs of the university as regards scholarships, library, lecturers, professors in new subjects or better establishment of existing appointments in the interests of education and as a guide to possible benefactors. That graduates who have been abroad holding posts in foreign universities and who have had special opportunities of seeing university education abroad should be asked to speak either to convocation or elsewhere. The report was adopted, the suggestions to be referred to the incoming committee for consideration. Dr Moore moved a vote of thanks to the Graduates’ Association for handing over its funds to the Court of Convocation, the motion being carried by acclamation. OFFICE-BEARERS. Office-bearers were appointed as follows:—President, Dr Newlands; vicepresidents, Miss Allen, Mr J. M. Butler, and Dr Stuart Moore; clerk and treasurer, Mr M. Joel; committee —Miss N. V. Morton, Miss M. S. Fleming, Mr L. M. Sattertbwaite and Mr C. B, Barrowclough. EXTRA-MURALISIV: ADDRESS BY MR N. S. WOODS. Mr Woods, in a closely reasoned and lengthy address, stated inter alia that last year there were 268 extra-mural examinees in Otago alone. There were 63 in History, 58 in English, 34 in French, 28 in Economics, 25 in Education, 23 in Latin, and 37 in other subjects. Of these, a very large number — a majority he should think—were high school pupils. Now, high schools were not intended to be universities either in the qualifications of their teachers as professors, or in the methods of their teaching, or in their library equipment. If high schools were to function as university colleges, and their teachers as university professors and lecturers, there was at once a wastage in their system. If the functions of the two over-lapped so that there was a reduplication then those functions needed redefining to avoid that. There could be no defence of a system which paid a professor a high salary to perform a certain work, and then left the larger part of that work in the hands of less qualified people whose real job was to do a different work, and who were being paid to do that different work. Mr Woods said that would summarise the points ho had covered as follows: (1) There is the ideal of true university culture to keep in mind, though that idea] will not secure a fruitful hearing at the hands of the Philistines. (2) A degree which represents one standard of attainment cannot represent at the same time another and an inferior standard of attainment. The reward should be equal only where the attainment is equal. (3) In the interests of efficiency and economy the wastage resulting from the over-lapping of the functions of high tchool and university staffs should be eliminated. (4) That persons paying boarding fees at high schools should be allowed to study extramurally at the same time is a shocking abuse of the system, and an imposture by those well able to pay university class fees on the students and the taxpayers who maintain the university lectures. (5) That continual attendance at a high school is not essential in extra-mural studying. (6) There is the grave danger that through dependence on a majority the university will become tied down to the level demanded by that majority. He would close his address with four suggestions:' —(1) An extra-mural lending library of text-books and reference books should be an essential corollary to our extra-mural system. (2) Students should not be discriminated against on ' a geographical basis. 0 (3) Secondary I schools and university colleges should ■ not over-lap in functions. (4) Some system of examination, preferably oral, should bo adopted which is capable of revealing the amount of reading done by the extra-mural student, and his comprehension of that reading. After a general discussion on the points raised the lecturer was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address. After Mr Woods had concluded his

address an animated discussion followed, and a large number of graduates voiced general approval of Mr Woods’s remarks. Among these speakers were Dr 6. E. Thompson (dean of the Arts Faculty), Mr J. M. Paterson (speaking as a law lecturer), Messrs J. Robertson and J. A. Dunning, Dr Gregory and Dr Stuart Moore.

Following this discussion a motion was moved by Mr R. S. M. Sinclair and seconded by Mr J. Robertson and carried unanimously as follows: “That the committee use the address given by Mr Woods as the basis for representations to the Senate of the University of New Zealand and the Minister of Education on the subject of extra-murality.” A second motion was also put and carried as follows: “ That the other District Courts of Convocation be informed of the action this court is taking and that they be urged to take similar action.”

The meeting then concluded with a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Woods for his address.