AMERICANISATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 149, 18 March 1908, Page 6

AMERICANISATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

' . INTERESTING' SUGGESTIONS;

(BT COBBESPONIiEJJT.I / ' ; Clirlstchurch, March 17?

In discussing before the;. Canterbury' College Dialectic Society "The; Americanisation of the the retiring president (Mr. A. S. Taylbr, ;B.A;) askM' it waa that :in.America';.the business man ; !welcomed the. University graduate.; and .'regarded liim as a valuable inational.'asset; while 'in New Zealand as a rule,, shunned '.him.?,. • i .Why ~Tvas, it \ thatin'.' men , loved | ,to'. bequeathi. rich legacies to" Universities,' and; semom thought of doing so here? Why was ,it ';that .so;,few. ,of !o\ir 'graduates, found their /way into "public' lifeP ' Itwas true, that' they ."were,, well,'[ represented on ; of Education, " but ton" the' whole it ;must "that the graduates had failed to make 1 their, mark in public , life.' ' Lord Milner had said that. Balliol College governed : ,the Enjpire.. They lvpre yet a long'way from the timewhen . they' could say bhat ; the New Zealand University : governed ! the Dominion. The'fault lay, not in the quality or quantity of,the.raw. mental'material at hand, but in the way it -was ; developed.. Professor Starr Jordan had sent' to' the Chancellor of the University a memorandum dealing with the defects in ' our system. In that report there,,' were recommendations of which he could not approve, but lie did think, that we should adopt the American system of college presidents.,; ,The'. college president would'.-be a "registrar professor,'" a : man "thoroughly in, touch . with the . best, in the ."educational and business world. Hp need not be on the teaching staff, but lie would be the guiding and controlling spirit of•,the college." - Under the present system ' the college drifted.'. It steered - no.' 1 certain'; course. There were as many captains as there were professors,'and , each was.'of equal:authority. ..At',present a' student " drifted'i' into- college 1 full of hope, and "drifted" v ,out: again with, a degree, •often findiug himself, after years of 'laborious study,'.ignorant of;the position for which ha was best: fitted. Under the proposed system'the. student .on. entering . college would have a career mapped out for him by a body expert on such matters. He would then be placed in charge of the professor Most .closely connected with the education he would require. To. this man, the students'' major, professor, all* the other professors would bo subordinate. If these reforms were adopted we 'should soon have, a University loved by the. people, one whose graduates ; would bo eagerly: sought, after-by. business men, and one in regard to '.which' men would vie:with each other in leaving generous; bequests.