SESSION OPENS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26709, 2 March 1948, Page 4

SESSION OPENS

UNIVERSITY YEAR MESSAGE TO STUDENTS THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH The 1948 session of the University of Otago was opened yesterday, when classes were commenced and students gathered in the Town Hall Concert Chamber to hear the inaugural address given this year by the professor of history, Dr W. P. Morrell. The vicechairman of the Professorial Board, Dr V. E. Galway, presided, and congratulated the chancellor, the Very Rev. D. C. Herron, on the honour conferred upon him by the University of St. Andrews. He also congratulated Sir Bernard Dawson on his knighthood, and referred to the great loss_ suffered through the death of Sir Lindo Ferguson. The appointment of Dr Robert Aitken as vice-chancellor was noted with great satisfaction, he said, and he would be warmly, welcomed to his alma mater. . The origins and purposes of the University and the meaning of academic life formed the basis of Dr Morrell’s address. New Zealand, and Otago in particular, were proud of their University, be said, and an unusual proportion of their population passed through the University. There were many reasons why they did so. Enjoyment, social intercourse, and fashion were partly responsible. In fact, varying social and intellectual fashions in various countries had played no mean part in the evolution of universities. Swing of the Pendulum »Social intercourse must always be an important element in university education,” Dr Morrell said, “ and one of the strongest arguments for residential colleges is that they help students to realise that the university is a society. Whilst social intercourse may be an important intellectual stimulus, it may be a mere idle pastime. Raspdall in his work declared that amusement was a thing of which the mediaeval ideal of student life hardly admitted at all. , “Has the pendulum swung too far in the other direction? ” Dr Morrell asked. “Do too many students regard iheir university life as a sort of playtime, diversified by the minimum of study necessary for passing their examinations, rather than as a serious beginning of adult life” ” Perhaps the most common motive unattending a university was to receive a professional training, Dr Morrell stated. At the early universities such as Salerno and Bologna, the whole emphasis was on theory. The practical, experimental side of a subject played a much more important part in the professional schools of modern universities. but the tradition that the principle of a subject should be studied at a university was one of the most Important legacies of the mediaeval universities to the modern world. “If the objects of professional schools were merely to train technicians their place would not be in the university at all,” Dr Morrell stated. “If the objects of professional men were merely to make money by the practise of their profession, by the tricks of their trade, then the education of which they were the products must be misguided and the civilisation in which they flourished would be intellectually sterile and doomed to decay.”

Advancement of Knowledge

Dr Morrell went on to explain why the principles of a subject were best studied at a university. It had been found, he said, that these principles could be most deeply and fruitfully studied in a place where different branches of knowledge were brought into contact and harmonious combination with one another and where edu-

cation and research advanced side by side. The advancement of knowledge was the original inspiration of universities, but in some times and places this ideal had been lost sight of. Only in the universities where original work was carried on could the student hope to catch anything of the excitement which belonged to the strenuous pursuit of truth and which was the greatest of the pleasures of the mind. “It might be asked whether the whole man was not more important than his intellectual part and character more important than intellect,” Dr Morrell said. “ This common complaint against the intellectual life is really beside the point, for it is surely Dart of the duty of every man and woman to develop their intellectual capacities, and the development of the mind entails patience, industry, selfdiscipline and integrity which are by general agreement some of the most important elements in character. Indeed, original intellectual work is one of the best teachers of humility. “ The best reason for coming to the university is to study, to taste for a few years the pleasure of the studious life,” Dr Morrell said. “ Honest, intelligent. well-directed study will give a reward which is far more important than the result of any examination and which lasts throughout life. At some time in the course of your university career,” Dr Morrell told the students, “each and every one of you should feel called upon to ask yourself, ‘ What is truth? ’ and. unlike jesting Pilate, should stay for an answer.”