THE UNIVERSITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 680, 3 December 1909, Page 3

THE UNIVERSITY.

:; ; ■■'"<■;• MODES; SCHOLARSHIP.- i': <.' .-'Suitable arraiigenionts having been mado with .his Excellency tho Governor, chairman of the Rhode's Scholar Selection Committee, it has been decided that the, candidates ,nomin-ated-by' the affiliated colleges shall bo assembled at Wellington on, March 1. next;'.when the ..committee"- will meet. to select the New Zealand- Rhodes scholar for 1910.

' ' MATMCULATION,EXAMINATION: ■",■:■■■ . For tho annual matriculation examination oil tho New Zealand University, -now-being' con-' ducted 1 at the 'various examination , ' centres throughout Now Zealand, there- aro, somq. 1400 candidates, an increase'of GO on'tho Vnumber cxaniined ' last' year.' At" , the-, four principal centres, the numbers are as fdllow:—Auckland 203; Wellington, 174;/ ■ Christchurch. 169: Dunedin, ; 2ol. . ■..■■'. ■•• - - : ■.!■■ There is'a drop of r sixteen in! tho number of, candidates .presenting; themselves; this year lor the junior- scholarship and : senior national' scholarship, examinations—last year-.there wore 142; 'there .are -only. 12G > this yearl .Those, , with' tho matriculation examination, aro-now generally, referred to ;as the eutrancoexaminations of; the .university. , The'ro \ is- every* ireason -for believing.. that, in response v to' r an : . :e'xpressod concensus of expert opinion, the whole question, of the : matriculation, standards ■ 'will, bo threshed out at'the next!meeting of tho'University, Senate. -The Subject is set down for discussion at tho District Court of Convocation,- which is to be held . at; Victoria College on.- Monday., ovoning : next.,;::,Tho.-UcomT>laint everywhere j is that : the- uowly-matricu-laied : students, ; are;,,- ill-fitted--.\for.- the intelligent, efforts , demanded . : pf ,'th'em, -wh'en entering upon their courses? at'tho- colleges But, as Mr.-.Joynf obson-.ed' 'to ' a Dominion reporter yesterday during the course! of a ?J lef i I s^ s i 10n °, nt,le subject, it is not. to be thoughtthat a.change can be accomplished bv the simple: processof making'the examination more difficult, _Thp raising of-the' matriculation standards involved n thoughtful consideration of the'subject frorii" every point of view, and at the present moment it was diffieult to say exactly in what would bo- made. . Tho fact, that" the matriculation examination was made*-To""servo'." so many purposes was tending to obscure ;the real purpose of the , examination, the..study for which' was to prepare the , student,,for. nniversity work. Matriculation was made the .basis of. qualifying certificates for various '.thirigs-rleaving certificates in'tho high schools, part of the snrveyors' courso of examinations, eritrarice'qualifications for certain professions; and so -'on.- Education authorities wore alive to-the nccessiry for.a radical change in the:;examination; and the wholo question would, no' 'doubt, , bo'roviowed by the Senate at its'next'congress. ' ■

In connection with tlin November degree examinations of tbo university, which terminated on tho 9th of that month, , all tho answers papers which had been received at tho office of the Registrar (Mr. J. W Jovnt) by November 18 ncre dispatched to England of that date. Tho balanco is being sent away by tho lonic, which loaves for England to-day Tim anangoment of dispatching tho pjpors in sections was adopted, for the purposo of easing tho work of tho 6~\aniinors in England,