University Bursaries.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20178, 5 March 1931, Page 8

University Bursaries.

A telegram received last night by the Hector of Canterbury College contained the information that the Education Department is reducing by 50 per Cent, the bursaries on which a majority of Students depend for the payment of their University fees. At present students who gain Higher Leaving Certificates or pass the Entrance Scholarship examination with credit have their fees paid up to £2Q per annum, The Department's telegram means that this sum will now he reduced to £IQ per annum, m spite! qf the fact that enrolment E&ei already taken place under the old regulation in each of the four University districts. If the decision had been made, and onnouneedt three or four weeks (t>go« it would still have caused some hardship, ftod been open to criticism On the score of its severity. The minimum requirement from a Degree student is a pass in two subjects each year,, and the minimum fee in nearly all cases not less than five guineas a subject. But ffcj? more than half of &U students enrolled take three P* fOIW B«bjects, and as tha fees nan he seven, eight, or even tap guinea* H jubjeet, the Department is a»Wi}£ students to pay a . tax of at least ten pounds each. This may may ijUJt he reasonable in the j country's present circumstances: it is | very feVere, i|) any circumstances WPTtld Impose hardship on two classes j it ought to ha State's policy ■ to encourage to ibo limits of its '{sftpftclty who aro willing to 1 tiaavlffee themselves to givo- their children a higher education, and ypung men and young women who at& willing to forgo ease and pleasure i n taking advantage of thftt sacrifice* But if it is necessary for the Government, to be hard it is not necessary fov'it to be Unjust. Even if the Uepwfaumt did* g{os fiftow until this week liaw much money it would be able' to spend on bursaries, it must have known enough several <weeks ugo to make ft warning advisable. Instead, it has allowed both the students, and the Colleges to undertake obligHtifihs whioh thoy disorganised the, Safesldei/if money Jtad to be utkted oft bursaries—and no one will pretend that it-is not a heavyi drain on the taxpayer to provide free education for at least two thousand students" J every year *-»rthere was a better way of effecting the saving than by merely cutting the grmt in halves, The bursary system is at present too slack and too waatefttf, and if the Department had flntttroiwd in future grants would, bo made td students only who re-, quire them «hd have clear proof of the!* ability to profit by them it j would have been impossible pot to"sup-1 port it. The step ilk has taken ig one that it is impossible not to condemn, even ifl the present desperate eituatiQn, and 4 it would be very. unpleasant to thftt nothing further nan be done, j