MORE CENTRALISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 229, 27 September 1928, Page 6

MORE CENTRALISATION.

The Xew Zealand Universities Amendment Bill which is now before Parliament provides yet another proof of the tendency toward administrative centralisation which we have so often condemned. The most objectionable features in the Bill are clauses which extend and amplify the authority of the Minister of Education, and correspondingly limit the rights

and powers of the University Council. It provides that no new professorial chairs shall be established at any of the University Colleges without the consent of the Minister. And it also propo.ses to abolish the statutory grant to the University, substituting for it animal appropriations, the amount depending on the Minister's decision. In our opinion, the University Colleges and the Council will be justified in protesting most strongly against these proposals. It is reasonable to suggest that the governing body of the University should have a voice in the establishment of new chairs or faculties. But why should the Minister of Education be consulted about a purely academic question on which his opinion is not likely to have any value? As to the abolition of the statutory grant, this would make the University and its administration directly dependent upon the goodwill of the Minister, and it would deprive it very largely of its freedom and independence.