UNIVERSITY TEACHERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 18

UNIVERSITY TEACHERS.

SPECIALISATION IN INSTRUCTION SUGGESTION BY PROFESSOR CONDLIFFE. CHRISTCHURCH, March 1. A pica for greater freedom among the University teachers in New Zealand, so that they can concentrate on one particular branch* of a subject instead of covering the whole range of a subject, as the system in vogue at present decrees, was made by Dr J. B. Condliffe, research secretary to the Institute of Pacific Relations, in the course c an interview with a Sun reporter to-day. This, he contended. would assist the Dominion’s system of academic instruction to keep abreast of that in other parts of che world.

“ I believe that one of the great weaknesses in New Zealand’s university tea"ch ing is the fact that each of the colleges tries to cover practically the whole range of knowledge, instead of specialising,” said Dr Condliffe. “The professors at each of the four colleges have to -do so to meet a rigid examination syllabus. This means that they cannot specialise in any branch of their subject and train their students along that particular branch. It reduces their capacity for research and a great deal of the vitality of their teaching, and they have to choose between coaching students for examinations and training men who ultimately become university graduates. This weakness comes from the externa] examination system. My task with the institute is to make arrangements with research men in the universities who are interested in furthering the investigations that relate to the economic and social problems of the Pacific. I find it almost impossible to make such arrangements in the universities of New Zealand, because the men who are interested and keenest to do research work are in the grip of the examination system. A Japanese professor can accept a subsidy from the institute and arrange his teaching so that his students co-operate with him and receive their training by helping him to work on some important problem. A professor here is not able to -do this, because, though he may be a specialist in banking and currency he has also to teach labour problems, agricultural economics, and every other branch of his subjects If he neglects these other branches his students fail to pass their examinations. There seems no reason to me why a perfectly sound system of general instruction could not be given in the early years of the university course, the examinations fo*- which would be held locally, as now. In this way considerably greater freedom could be given to university teachers and their assistants in their advanced work. The money that is being spent on the external examinations of the universify at present would be much more profitably spent in bringing out to New Zealand a first-grade man in each of the principal subjects every two or three years. Such a step would stimulate teachers and students, and would assist them to keep abreast of the most recent work in the subjects. Also, the staff of junior -lecturers and assistants should be increased, and some sent abroad so as to free the professors and enable both professors and assistants to keep in touch with the latest work that is going on. This country is far from the centres of academic education, and it needs some such stimulus as this.”