UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18410, 17 June 1925, Page 10

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

«EFFETE AND SNOBBISH ISOLATION." . The announcement that the Government has appointed a Royal Commission to investigate and report upon the present condition of University e'duca tion Ln New Zealand has been received with much interest in educational circles. "National Education," the official journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute,'observes that "if the primary school is the foundation of our educational system, the University is. the keystone of the arch. It is highly necessary, therefore, that the latter institution should not only be elhcient as a unit, but that in its gen era! policy and methods it should harmonise with the other units of the system to the extent that there should be complete agreement as to the real ob jective of education and the best means of reaching that objective. "To suggest that this is the caso at present is merely to trifle with fact, :; continues the article. "Under the in fluence of a group of venerable reactionaries who for years have dominated the Senate, the University has remained to all intents and purposes a thing apart from the general scheme of State education. If the Commission can accomplish the removal of the University from its ancient pedestal of effete and snobbish isolation that achievement alone will be worth while. Eeform must begin with the Senate itself—with its constitution and representation. The policy and actions of the Senate should in effect be an expression of the will of the community in regard to higher education, which implies, of course, that its representation should have a more democratic character. Only by such means will it be possible-' to remove the barnacles of tradition and accomplish the efi'acement of the reactionaries. "The much-debated question of the external examination will, of course, be presented pro and con. There is a general feeling that this absurd and most unfair system has had its day. The difficulty' is to evolve such a system of local examination as will qualify for a hallmark of equal standing to that of the great' universities at Home, but rather than face the problem as one calling for . urgent consideration and solution, the Senate has, practically speaking, slammed the door in the face of the reformers. How, on our own responsibility, to sustain the academic standard and prestige.abroad of a New Zealand, degree is the question. It has to be answered sooner or later, for th© idea of a student's career being exposed to the blighting results of a spasm of irritation on the part of an examiner nursing a bad liver thirteen thousand miLs away is ridiculous. One need not be an educational expert to perceive that. ■" • "If we do get rid of the external examiners our university will bo judged abroad by the personnel and standing of its own professoriate. The practice of education has two personal factors, the teachers and the taught. The efficiency of a 'university teacher i$ determined noly only by his academic standing, but by-his ability to teach. The University Commission might with advantage look into the conditions under which appointments to . the teaching staffs of the university colleges are mads, and whether it would not desirable to reserve the right at any time to determine any .appointment where it could be shown thai; the teacher concerned was unable; to pass his learning on to his students. Such cases are known. In a democratised' institution oracular inemcietits—textbook gramophones—would not be tolerated. After all it is the student that matters. If we agree to that then we should also strive for some means o* changing the university from a glorified night-school to an institution where, by a process of real education, th© product of the university will have culture as well as a degree."