THE UNIVERSTTY EXAMINATIONS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14976, 25 May 1914, Page 2

THE UNIVERSTTY EXAMINATIONS.

to thk -cnrroß or "the rnrsa."

Sir,—My attention, as a member of the University Senate, has been called t** a "local" paragraph in your Saturday's issue purporting to give a summary of the examiners' reports on the work of certain candidates at the 1913 examination for University degrees. Tho paragraph in question greatly surprised mc, firstly, because tho reports of the Homo examiners, which are made to tho University Senate, aro required for a special purpose, arid framed accordingly, and are treated as strictly confidential; secondly, because those for 1913 havo not yet reached tho hands of tho only persons to whom the Senato communicates them, always in full confidence, viz., the professorial staffs of the four University colleges; and, thirdly, because the summary remarks in the paragraph were in many respects grossly misleading. My mam purpose is to draw your attention to this breach of confidence and distortion of facts. I do, not feel called upon to go into the matter here beyond stating one or two proofs of the unreliable character of the paragraph. The only reference made by the writer to the examiners' report an French is calculated to make a most unfavourable impression on your readers whereas the examiner, who in 1911 stated: "I think the B.A. standard (in New Zealand) rather abovo that which rules in our* local universities." Arid in 1912: "The papers were quite equal in standard to those presented for scrutiny at a.British University," affirms that the papers of some of the candidates il _ pass do S reo "are as good as could be found in any British University," ami that the papers of the senior scholarship candidates "wore most satisfactory and are proofs that tho candidates have read extonsively and digested the information gained." The only reference to Economics in the paragraph is tho statement that the report of the examiner "is of an unfavourable nature." Yet the examiner himself says: "It was evident that the candidates had been prepared' on the lines of the more modern economic work"; and he sums up the impressions made by his experience as examiner during the last five years in the. concluding paragraph of his report, thus: "Speaking from a long experience as an examiner. I would like to say that the preparation of tho New Zealand candidates and . tho general capacity shown by them would both compare favourably with those of candidates for similar examinations in the United Kingdom." . Of the work in History your paragraph goes on to say: "And even more unfavourable is the report of the - examiner for the B:A. degree in History." In fact, the examiner, after referring to tho new syllabus of work int-jpdiiced last year, says: "I think the new system has r-uite justified itself,"" and refers to "several admirable papers which require mention for praise and would do honour to something higher than a pass examination." Moreover, it happens that the percentage of failures in History is 8 lower than in a subject, viz., Latin, concerning which tho paragraph makes, and very properly, a distinctly favourable impression. Anyone intending to give an impartial summary of the actual reports would not only* have taken the statements quoted above into account, but would also have referred to other passages in which the work in other subjects is highly praised by the respective examiners.-—Yours, etc J. HIGHT. [The local in question was reprinted from the Wellington "Evening Post."—Ed. "The Press."]