TRANSMISSION OF UNIVERSITY RESULTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 11

TRANSMISSION OF UNIVERSITY RESULTS.

; STEPS TO ENSURE ACCURACY. ! COMMENTS ON HOME EXAMINERS. Of lata years students have occasionally experienced inaccuracies and delays in the transmission of the results of their examinations from England, and at Wednesday's meeting of the Senate of the University of New Zealand prominence was given to the subject by the receipt, through the channel of the respective Professorial Boards with their commsr.dation and approval, of complaints on this head from the Students' Associations of both Otago University and Victoria College, Wellington. The complaint of the Ota go students was that inaccuracies sometimes crept into the cabled results; that delay was at times experienced in the diffusion of the detailed particulars after their .arrival in Wellington ; and that the results of the examinations were sometimes not known till after the commencement of classes and lectures in a new year, thus occasioning much vexation and inconvenience to the students. The main complaint of the Vic-t'Oa-ia College students was in respect to the delay caused by the non-receipt of results till after the commencement of the new lectures. After reading these communications the Registrar (Mr J. W. Joynt) made a statement which indicated that careful steps were being taken to ensure accuracy this year. He said that the practice up to the present had been for the passes in the higher 'examinations to bo cabled and in. the leaser examinations for the failures to be cabled—the object, of course, being to reduce the expense of cabling. This arrangement placed at a disadvantage those students who took more than was absolutely neoessarv to ensure a pa.ss, this applying to the first course of the arts degree and to engineering candidates who might take five subjects and get credit foir two. This year, to obviate error, he had asked the Home agent to cable passes, and not failures, in everything, while, in the particular case of the students _ about, whom the slight difficulty occasionally happened before, the 'agent was to name the subject of the failure immediately after the code name of the candidate. This course, if correctly followed, won'.-' absolutely relieve all candidates of all inconvenience which they had been suffering: under up to the present. " In reference to the further subieet of complaint—the delay in Wellington"— continued the Registrar, " my experience, after many years, is that the results cannot be got out with move exnsdition than they are now. On receipt of the cabled news it is necr>=sary to call a. meeting of the senate. This cannot always be done immediately, and perhaps a week might r»o by. When the results have been duly before tfoa senate there is an immense i amount of de-fad work to be' attended to before the results can go to the candidate. and it may haopen it will he a fortnight before everything is cleared un." At a later stag", when Mr Von Hnio.-t sugested the possibility of socurinar additional help to exnedite matters-. Mr Jovivf replied that the time token up in explaining t,hi°' detailed work to a neweomev would altogether destroy any possible- gainin time. Sneaking after the Registrar. Mr Allen said he would like to see appointed -''■n examiners' committee, to go into "KbA matter, for he thought, there was quite room enouoh for an investigation. He cited an instance wlwro 1a teacher _tn Otajro stated, in connection with the award of an examiner at Home, that he was ctuite sure the names of the candidates had s;ot mixed, and as a consequence a scholarship awarded to the wrong person. He would sugewst that this exa.minat.'jon committee should take into consideration the possibility of reducing the number of Home examiners. He thought we bad too ma.nv of them, but at the same time he admitted that, all could not. be dome away with. This (rouble in connection with the results would always last whil« the existence of Home examiners necessitated the cabling of results. The B'P'V. A. Cameron remarked that i-h-Q trouble seemed to him to be more in the office than in the examiners. H> understood that there bad been stuoVnte who /had been advised tbn.t they fogd passed examinations for which they never sat. Mr Joynt interjected: That ha.s never '

occurred in my experience—at least, so far as I can recall just now. Mr Cameron, resuming, said he could not, of course, cite any definite instance. Ho had been told so. He would like to see the matter referred to a committee. Mr Von Haast added that there was room for an improved system of examiners. It was the errors which occurred which gave rise to the demand for New Zealand examiners. A few remarks of a private nature were made, after which the matter was referred to the November Examinations Committee for consideration.