The Dominion. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1909. UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 647, 26 October 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1909. UNIVERSITY REFORM.

>A few articles and some correspondence that moroly. raises side-issues Eeem, so far, to be the result of the; discussion on University reform, but those who are in.terosted in this movement know that the whole question,is now up for discussion ' and setcloment. Within the last few.years our educational ideals have undergone radical changes, but our, methods havo not altered accordingly, and we are thus suffering fronutbc necessary;.evils; of tho transition stage,; There are two possible uangors: one, that what is really a transitional state, with all its weaknesses; may becomo permanent; the other, that there may. be a headlong gallop for reform,-, and the ..last state be worse .'than .the first,, The issuesare far too'important for a decision to ;bo,arrived at hurriedly, land:.far' too momentous : for mere individual opinions, andj worse,, more 'person-' aHtics to matter at.all. Those'wh'o havo. the interest of higher •'education at heart ,wiU endeavour to,eliminate "all personal feeling,' and; to' recognise ihkt. there,, is 'ropmj'or much diversity of opinion as,to' the details of. reform.'which must; bo decidedlby'an impartial tribunal after due considoratioja of expert, opinions in the leading 'educational countries 'of:, the ; 'world;, , The goal is,ah. improved system. -In pointing out the weaknesses >, or. tho present .arrangements "there is -no intention to discount tho efforts. of past and present/workers, or good work that is now. being done within ■ the. University. /Wo simply hold that the .system can be improved, that tho.governing ibodies can work undormuclj, bettor conditions, and that the'efficiency of the Univorsity as a national instrument can bo.tremendously increased, ,' The defects ,in our present system have' been' traced : to' two sources: ; ; (a) Methods of .management.; (b) Methods of. examination. Wo shall confine our attention the prssent;. to tho : latter point...: Professqji :tm appears to: have given a rathbrinap'propriate name to.our mothod of examination when he calls it external. Tha.grbund of complaint really is— and this presumably is Professor Lady's point--that 'certain :meh"tea'cli|'other men examine.; 1 The evils' arising ore ho doubt accentuated; wfyen. tho examiner is, thousands .of miles distant, but only because he is thuß confined to the answers : of : a certain number < ofl. questions. If 'teaching and examining are divorced the principle. ;is just, as' vicious when 'a teacher and N cxaminor live on adjoining sections. Examinations .are, a, necessary -part ..of any .system that, involves the teaching of large numbers byT one man. Undcr.such circumstances every: teacher supplements his personal knowledgo of his,students by tosfe; What is objected to in our system is that examination ;.has been separated from .teaching, and become'thc "be all" and; "end air of the system. Examination has supplanted^training; cram,edu ; cation;:chance, merit.' It;may of course 'be urged that the-system is not faulty. The appeal:hero seems to bo twofold: (1) To.the experience of others. (2) To the results of. the system.'. Those who havo considered the 1 system of advanced educational, countries ; unreservedly con-tend-that .the examination system as known.' in Nc,y Zealand is antagonistic to the fundamental principles 'of modern .systems.. .President, Starr Jor■can has' left his opinion ;6n record. The Commission,on the Melbourne University, insumming up the evidence of experts from America, Germany, and England, doscribed such a system as unthinkable. It is indeed a striking example of what Professor/James directs attention 1 towheri he-says; "Most human institutions by the.purely_technical and professional manner in which they came'to be administered end by being obstacles to. the very jiufposcs that' .their founders had; in view," Examining, instead of being the handmaiden of teaching and training, has set itself'up, or been set up. as a fetish and. instead of giving an impetus to educational progress, it tends to cramp tho teachers, to diminish, if it does not extinguish, the, enthusiasm oi students (graduate or undergraduate), to lead-to oram and to the pernicious practice of gambling 'on the nature of the questions to be set.

.'./ Under the head of "results" are ■.appended some of the absurdities of our A University dogrco should precept a certain amount of .education and training, and floally the degree is judged by the man: who holds it, and not the man by the degree, Hero, rs eke. where, "you can't fool all' thq people all the time*" But let usseo what'conies of judging the system on ircsiilts. Students have studied a subject for four years, and thon owing to accident or illness at the time ■■ of, the .November examination they havo been unable to sit. Result-Tit becomes impossible, for them to obtain the M,A. degree with Students havo'won the blue riband of the University, i.e., the senior scholarship, after threo years' wofk, and yet failed to pass tho M.A. dogree the following year. The host student, in a subject one year sinks in. the following year below the poorest successful' candidate for M.A. pass. A student studies such a subject as psychology or-ethics:(including the history of ctmca from Ahjstotle to the present day), and then his ability and training aro judged by hia answers. to, not more than threo questions in each subject. The preceding point shows tho reason for the gambling element—what is technically :kn.9wp-;as questions.'' .Since the .£tudarii'JjMWß.ihafcbit:.a : jni.ci:Q.Jragment.

an irresistible tendency to devote oneself to likely questions, tho examiner's text book, etc.—in fact, to do anything but get! a "real grasp of the subject, for this may avail him nothing in his houVof trial. Judgment by mere examination marks is no real criterion. In somo subjects it may be possible to declare results correct to three places of decimals, but in'most subjects an cxaminor who keeps within five per cent, of error is doing good work. Take any examination papers in which the results arc numerous and close. After a few months have elapsed return them to the examiner for re-marking and note tho difference in tho order of merit. Yet what do wo find! Three percent,, or even (ess, makes .tho difference between a firstclass and a second-class, a pass and fail, ft senior, scholarship and no senior scholarship, Tho height of absurdity is reached, in our Junior University Scholarships, in which, with a maximum of some thousands of .marks, one solitary r mark differentiates a junior scholarship winner from an ordinary mortal. Of such vain tinsel are honours made I' Surely any. system . perpetrating tho above is solf-condemned. No .system can be described other than unthinkable that neglects to take account of the wholo work of the student,.and this implies that his teacher Bhall bo his examinor, or at least one of his examiners. : It has been urged that'thore are two objections to such a proposal. Firstly, that the authorities are not prepared to trust tho professors. The same projudicc existed in the primary and secondary schools. It has now ceased to carry weight with thinking people, who have, readily seen that if the teacher is not competent'to examine he is far less' competent to teach. If tho University authorities :do find themselves, in. that unenviable position they have an obvious duty to,perform. The second objection is a'moro popular and more specious form of the argument; that is, that n> one should judge his own work.: .This is based on quite an erroneous view of life and University, training, It is of the nature of social lifo that someone must be accepted as honest, arid hence the solution is to bo found in Mn. Gray's ■ words': "Get your . man. and, then emancipate him." Further, a mere .examination no more tests the tcachor'swork than it does tho pupil's. _ - Somo, students do well in spite of their teachers, and .vice versa.. Ihe teacher cannot-make gold out of baser metal, but ho can give an onthusi : aßm arid ardour that will. , enable tho student to carry on his own cducation--a life-long process. No mere examination can evaluate this mere examination is an adequate test of training; and it must bo remembered that a man well trained, in. any department; is a national assot,; while a .-man: badly trained (whatever his degrees) represents so much time, j;apital, and good material wasted.;" So ■ long 1 as the University identifies oducatiori with the getting /of do-, greos,-eo long will this idea,dominate tho student, so 10ng..,:wi11.. tho secondary schools uso the matriculation', in an illegitimate way, viz., as an 'advertisement,' so long will tjie standard of tho matriculation bo low, and; tho work of the Univorsity bo crippled. Fools,- it is said, learn'; by .-their own; experience, wise men by' tho experience of others. What we;want is a commission that will take expert advice within and wjthout.tho Dominion,' arid then mako recommendations in accordance with tho weight of the evidence..' : ■ .-■,'-. ■/<■' ■•'■•'■■'