Oxford’s Advantages

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31084, 13 June 1966, Page 2

Oxford’s Advantages

Oxford University had survived so long as a major university not because it was a monument to the past, but because it had retained the ability to adapt itself to meet new needs, Dr. Vivienne Benzie told a luncheon of the Federation of University Women yesterday.

Dr. Zenzie, a lecturer in zoology at the University of Canterbury, spent three years at Oxford doing post-graduate work on animal and fish behaviour. Wherever she went. Dr. Benzie said she met with two main opinions about Oxford. The first was that Oxford carried snob value and that graduates were “gold plated” and “set apart.” The other was that Oxford was decadent. Dr. Benzie disagreed with both. Oxford no longer had the public school image about it, she said. It catered for about 10,000 students of every nationality and background including a wide variety of British students. As far as she knew, student selection at Oxford was fair. If there were not as many students from British mining and similar areas as there were from white-collar areas that was because the British educational system did not yet provide equal opportunities for all, said Dr. Benzie. AU students, no matter what their background or nationality, observed the academic traditions and pomp and ceremony with great attention and affection. Traditions were maintained not because they were considered to be part of a system that was better than any other, but because students and staff were fond of them, she said. Before going to Oxford, Dr. Benzie thought halls of residence for students were good. Her experiences at Oxford confirmed this view. Her last two years there she spent at Lady Margaret

Hall College, where she was able to meet and mix with members of different faculties and to broaden her outlook. The college took a personal interest in their students, an interest which was retained long after they had completed their studies, said Dr. Benzie.