UNIVERSITY METHODS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1931, Page 7

UNIVERSITY METHODS

SOME MODERN TRENDS. ACCREDITING NOT FAVOURED. Modern trends in university education methods were reviewed on • Monday by Dr. James Hight, Rector of Canterbury College, who, with Professor T. A. Hunter, of Victoria College, returned from a visit to Great Britain and the United States of America. They were delegates to the quinquennial conference of the Universities of the British Empire, held at London and Aberdeen. One of the most important sessions of the congress, said Dr. Hight, was the business meeting, at which the constitution of the Bureau of the 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 formerly, individual members connected with 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 in London for the different universities. The bureau was now being recognised, by universities in foreign countries as a body through which they might communicate with British universities. “One of the most urgent problems considered at the congress was the question of entrance into the university,” said Dr. Hight. “The balance of opinion in respect of accrediting from secondary schools to the university is now very definitely against that system, both in Great Britain and the United States. At the same time, there is universal agreement that entrance examinations urgently require modification in various directions, and we have important recommendations to make in that respect. “Very great attention'was paid to devising methods whereby entrance examinations shall provide, to a greater degree than they have in the past, for variation of attainments and bents, and a better technique is being worked out to deal with cases of students. who are on the borderline, or who fail in the examination in one subject while doing, perhaps, brilliantly in another subject or group of subjects. “Another important matter was the question of the present position of specialisation of studies and the PhD. degree. There is a fairly general opinion that the tendency in past years has been to attract to research and into narrow specialised studies too many students who are really unfit for them and who would be 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 narrow and highlyspecialised courses, which are provided by nianv of the American universities, are thoroughly mistaken, the 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. 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 vice-Chancel-lor of the University of New Zealand, spoke similarly of the work of the congress.