THE UNIVERSITY AND THE PEOPLE

Cue (NZERS), Issue 11, 15 November 1944, Page 19

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE PEOPLE

EVERY Kiwi has an interest in that curious institution, the University of New Zealand with its four constituent colleges. Perhaps he has at one time or another been a member, but even if he has not, as a taxpayer in peacetime, he is contributing to its funds. Unfortunately it is not now generally possible to run a University without State financial aid. • In the year ended 31st March, 1943 the State paid out on University education the sum of Liyß,ooo odd, not enough in the opinion of many, but nevertheless a fairly tidy sum. What are we paying for, what are we getting for our money and what ought we to be getting? A University is a place where teachers and students gather together for their mutual benefit in the field of learning. We have a tendency to think, and to think rightly as things are at present, that the University is mainly a continuation of secondary school, a place where we pass a few more examinations which fit us for a better job or a higher grade in the Civil Service. ; That is how the NZ University has, by pressure of events, developed. But we are quite wrong if we think it should be only a teaching institution^ in . the direct sense, and if we only finance it as such, we shall never have a real university in New Zealand at all. Certainly any university must function as a teaching body and we nave a right to expect that its degrees indicate a certain standard of technical proficiency in whatever subject they are given. There should be more to a university than that. ' A university, as has been said, should be an association of teachers and students, all with the common aim of increasing the world’s fund of knowledge and benefiting themselves mentally as well as financially from their association together. We should have an assembly of mental talent capable, by discussion of sifting the pros and cons, of any prob-

lem. They should have time and opportunity to consider any matter of importance to the country and should be able to work out, if possible, the most satis* factory answer. The duties of a university, as I see them in order of importance, are firstly free interchange of views between experts (an essential, basis for democracy), secondly, research work into technical subjects and thirdly and lastly, teaching—-not teaching in the; narrow sense of preparing students for exams only, but teaching in the sense of spreading the available fund of knowledge among the community. Before this present war, the Colleges in NZ were largely teaching bodies in the narrow sense, with research as a sideline. The teachers in many cases had little time to devote to research on account of their heavy teaching duties. This resulted in the best brains of the country going overseas and being lost to NZ. It was argued, and is still argued; that there is no room in a small country for its talent. This is not true. A country should be able to support its own brains and provide them with the necessary inducements (which are not very

big) to remain in the country. Certainly they must be given the opportunity to go overseas from time to time to mix with other experts, but there is no reason why their base of operations should not be their own country and no reason why their own country should not benefit directly by their labours. " - < ’ Further,, before the war, the Colleges were concerned in what was known as adult education a very good term. The citizen wants information about all sorts of subjects from A to Z and very rightly so. We never become so dead above the ears that we don't sometimes want to know a bit more about something or other. The University should be able and willing to provide this information.

What we want, then, is a University that is an active part of the community, that comes into contact with the people closely and continuously and can help with air their technical problems. We want a University which can provide good facilities for research as well as a University which issues -degrees on the basis of examination. It should be a centre of the discussion life of a democratic community in the centre of freedom of speech. This can be achieved in New Zealand if teachers and students will co-operate and the people are prepared to finance it. The expansion of university activity would, in time, pay to the country financial dividends as well as less tangible ones.