E.—7 a

14

and the syllabus is a device to maintain a standard among institutions which are not ail of university rank. The effect upon the students and the teachers is disastrous. The students have the ordeal of the. examination hanging over them, and must prepare themselves for it or fail to get the degree. Thus the degree comes first and the education a bad second. They cannot help thinking of what will pay ; they lose theoretic interest in the subjects of study, and with it the freedom, the thought, the reflection, the spirit of inquiry which are the atmosphere of university work. They cannot pursue knowledge both for its own sake and also for the sake of passing the test of an examination. Moreover, the teachers' powers are restricted by the syllabus ; their freedom in dealing with their subject in their own way is limited ; and they must either direct their teaching to preparation for an examination which is for each of them practically external, or else lose the interest and attention of their students, indeed, the best teachers are apt to lose their students' attention either way, for if they teach unreservedly by the syllabus their own interest must flag, and consequently that of their hearers also. We shall make recommendations which will dispense with the necessity of the syllabus, by ensuring the appointment of teachers who can be entrusted with the charge of university education. Teachers who can be trusted with this far more important and responsible duty can also be trusted with the conduct of examinations, in so far as they are accepted as proper and necessary tests for the degrees of the University. But examinations, even when conducted by teachers of the University, and based upon the instruction given by them, ought not to be the only tests for the degree. It is not right that the work of years should be judged by the answers given to examination-papers in a few hours. It cannot be fairly tested in this way. However conducted, such examinations are an insufficient and inconclusive test of the attainment of a university education ; and when account is taken of individual idiosyncrasies and the special qualities which examinations favour, and when allowances are made for the accidents which inevitably attend such limited and occasional tests, it appeal's to us only fair that due weight should be given to the whole record of the students' work in the University. If the academic freedom of the professors and the students is to be maintained—if scope for individual initiative is to be allowed to the professors, and the students are to profit to the full by their instruction —it is absolutely necessary that, subject to proper safeguards, the degrees of the University should practically be the certificates given by the professors themselves, and that the students should have entire confidence that they may trust their academic fate to honest work under their instruction and direction. There is no difficulty whatever in the University providing for such control, regulation, and publicity as will be an adequate guarantee of impartiality, and of such a measure of uniformity as may be considered desirable."* SOME SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING IN NEW ZEALAND. One of the handicaps under which New Zealand labours by rea'son of having four University colleges instead of one central University is the necessity of requiring eacii professor to cover a very large field and to lecture to a great number of classes. When tfie number of students in these classes is large, the strain becomes so heavy as to prejudice tiie quality of the work. The circumstances of the New Zealand University, therefore, demand that every care should be taken to admit only students of well-proven capacity, so that to tlie ordinary difficulty of teaching a large class tfiere snail not be added the task of overcoming the inertia caused by ill-prepared students of insunicient mental ability. We consider that in many cases complaints of understating of departments of University colleges and consequent inability to do effective work nave been amply demonstrated. The position should be met either by tne provision of much more liberal grants for the purpose of adding to the staffs of tne colleges, and thus aflowing more intimate tutorial work to become the rule, or by some restriction upon the number and calibre of students entering. The testimony in favour of substantially raising the standard of matriculation was practically unanimous. True university teaching involves a close and continuous co-operation between the teacher and student in study and investigation, and trains the student to work

Examinations should not be the sole test for a degree.

Necessary limitations under a system of working four University colleges.

Close contact between teacher and student essential for real university beaching.

* London University Commission, 19i3, sec. 85, p. 30.