UNIVERSITY SENATE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11512, 19 February 1903, Page 3

UNIVERSITY SENATE.

ANNUAL SESSION.

The New Zealand University Senate opened its annual session at the Canterbury College- Hall yesterday. There were present : —Sir James Hector (Wellington), K.C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S. (Chancellor), Rev. J. C. Andrew (Wellington), M.A. (Vice-Chancellor), Professor Sale (Dunedin), M.A., Professor Shand (Dunedin), M.A., LL.D.. Professor Cook (Chrhtohurch), M.A., Hon. C. C. Bowen (Christchurch), M.L.C., Professor A. P. W. Thomas (Auckfand), M.A., F.L.S., Professor F. D. Brown (Auckland), M.A., B oc, the Rev. A. Cameron (Dunedin), M.A., the Roy. Dr. Salmond (Dunedin), M.A., D.D., Dr. Fitchett (Wellington), M.A., JLL.D., and .Professor Madaurin (Wellington), M.A., LL.M. THE CHANOELLOxty REPORT. The Chancellor's report, submitting questions for consideration by the denote, was read by Sir James Hector as follows: — "At last year's meeting the syllabus of mining engineering was partially reconstructed.. The materials, however, at the disposal of tho Senate were not complete enough to enable the work to be eatisfacj torily performed. Owing to this incompleteness, and on its being represented to me that .hardship would be entailed by the immediate adoption oj. the new Statute, I decided that the examinations of 1902 should be 'under the old Statute. It is expected that the subject .will be comprehensively dealt with at the present meeting. In accordance with a direction of the Senate, I submitted to the teachers of chemistry at *he aniiiated colleges a suggestion of Professor Dixon, Examiner in Chemistry, thai, cae branch subject, chemical technology, for honours, should be further subdivided. I lay before the Senate the replies received. I submit a letter received from the Ouairman of the Canterbury College Professorial Hoard, on the subject of practical examinations for medical intermediate and other science courses respectively. Examiners not having been appointed at last meeting of Senate for the newly instituted certificate in education, I appointed examiners for 1902 as follows: — H»tory and Principles of Education, Professor oViackenzie; Practice of Education, Mr R. Lte; Educational Psyohology, Proftesor Salmond. Appoinfanents should be made at this meeting as in other subjects. - Under tne recent University Act, the graduates of tne colony are divided into four District Courts of Convocation, instead of forming one Court of Convocation as hitherto. Each District Court elects two members of Senate. It will be- necessary for tne Senate to take into consideration the ouestaoa of making regulations for the keeping of registers of the District Courts, and for the holding of elections of Fellows by such Courts. In the Act of 1902 it is enacted that tho said Act shall form part of and be read together with' the Act of 1874. Appointments of Examiners in England are required wiis year in the following : —Chemistry, Mental Science, x ßoman and International Law, Music, and Engineering ; also for Mining subjects, for examination in which arrangemente have been made by the Agent in England for the past two years. 1 have to point out an anomaly in the scale of fees for Medical Examiners drawn up at the Senate meeting of 1900. Under that scale Exami&era for Medical Intermediate receive a higher rate as per cand date than Examiners in Arts, Science, Engineering, Law, or Music. There in no reason why this should be. me increased rate of payment per candidate was intended to apply to Examiners in the Medical Professional examinations only. Two irregularities occurred at the recant November examinations. In one case a candidate, having mis-road his time-table, asked to be. allowed to do a. morning's paper in the afternoon. 'He was admitted provisionally by thfc supervisor, and the matter reported. Another candidate handed up his answers and left the room, but returned ("in a minute or less, according to the supervisor) saying that he had not noticed three questions on the tuxn-over page. Tho supervisor allowed him to work the questions, and reported. Neither of wiese pieces of work has been cent in to the Exnminer, and the decision of the Senate is • ewaited respecting them. In the matter of supervisors' fees, I think some modification might be made of the present sca!e in favour of the largo centres. The present scale is:—£l per diem for the finst thirty candidates, and" 5s per diem extra for each subsequent thirty or fraction thereof, but' not to exceed £2 per diem. At this rata"the maximum is reached at 121 candidates. At one centre, at the recent November examinations, there wae a total of 178 candidates. It is clear that after a large number had been reached, the kbour and responsibility attending a fur-1 ther increase are proportionately much greater than at an earlier stage, I would suggest that the limit of £2 be abolished; so that, when an exceptionally large number of candidates have to be dealt with, the supervwor may get the full benefit of the rising scale. A letter has been received from the Otago Students* Association, asking for an alteration in the mode of payment of junior scholarship instalments, whereby such payments would be made half-yearly, instead of quarterly, as at present. The reason alleged is, the large demand on studente in the form of college fees, etc., within the first month or two of the year, towards which a half-year's scholarship payment in April would be of material assistance. Of course the obvious difficulty is that such a mode of payment would deprive the University (for half a year at least) of the control which it at present retains over it& scholars by making payments dependant on satisfactory certificates of progress. Personally,' I doubt, too, whether it wonld be in the best interests of students to have so large a proportion of their scholarship emoluments placed in their hoods at the opening of the year. Clause 7 VII. of the Statute 'Conduct of Examinations' has been a dead letter for some years. The Recess Committee suggests tnat tiis cjrase be repealed, and another inserted, directing that examiners preserve answers for three months from date of eending in report. Aβ neitbex

the Bowen Prize Fund nor the MacmillanBrown Prize Fund pays sufficient interest to cover the cost of the prize, I should like the Senate definitely to authorise the practice which has been adopted in recent years, of making up the deficiency from the funde of the University, or lay down some other method of dealing with the situation. The financial position of each fund is submitted. A portion of a letter from the Presbyterian Students' Iheological Association, asking the Senate to take steps to have theology included as a branch of learning in which it may hare power to grant degrees, was not dealt with at the last meeting. It is now submitted for the consideration of the Senate. Tho question of fehe mode of marking those medical preliminary papers, which contain questions additional to the matriculation paper, arises every year, and it would ba well to have the matter settled. In caeee where a candidate. Jails for the medical preliminary on one of those papers, the examiner should give a second mark showing the proportion of tho candidate's answers to the matriculation portion of the paper, with a view to determining his; pass of failure for matriculation. The | adoption of this method would simplify I matters considerably, and would appear to J meet all the requirements of the case. 11 request authority to apply for certain con- ] cessions from the Institute of Chemistry and the Institution of Civil Engineers, in favour of New Zealand students. With reference to the former, a New Zealand graduate with first-class honours in chemistry recently applied for exemption from the Intermediate examination of the Institute, but was refused on the ground that the New Zealand examination was not on the list officially recognised for exemption, though it was admitted to be equally difficult. Tho syllabus of the examination for Associate Membership Inst. C.E., is almost identical with that for the New Zealand degree, and it might be of use to have our examination recognised pro tanto. From the recent examinations in German for fnatriculation and junior scholarship it is clear that some candidates are under the impression that they are required to write in German character. This impression entails loss of timo and an unnecessary expenditure of labour. I eubinit for the consideration of the Senate the question whether drawing and music should bo allowed to count as two subjects out of six for matriculation. It seems a large proportion for subjects of this character. It would appear reasonable to enact that candidates may take both, but shall only count one. It would also appear worthy of consideration, whether ihe timp has come for placing some restriction on the number of matriculation subjects that may be taken by a candidate. I lay before the Senate a letter urging that Maori be placed on the list of subjects for matriculation." The Chancellor reported that the income for the year had amounted to £7642 6s 9d X including £3000 statutory grant, £3618 13s ffees, and £964 8a interest. The expen- ! diture totalled £6693 19s 4d, which sum comprised £1976 0s 4d paid to examiners, £1212 15e 8d examination expenses, and £1796 Is 3d scholarships. The Vice-Chancellor moved without notice: * 1. "That the consideration of the matters in the Chancellor's report be made an order for the next sitting day." 2. "That the consideration of the report of the Recess Committee on the December examinations be made an order for next sitting day." 3. "itiat the Chancellor take the chair each day at 10 a.m., leave it at 12.30 p.m., and resume at 2.30 p.m., unless otherwise ordered." The motions were carried. NOTICE OF MOTION. The following notice of motion was given: For Thursday: "This Senate place on record its sense of the loss sustained by the death of the Most Rev. Bishop Cowie." (Profetsor Thomas). The Senate then adjourned.