"UNIVERSITY REFORM"

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 888, 6 August 1910, Page 13

"UNIVERSITY REFORM"

PROFESSOR LABY'S PAPER. The following is tho paper read by Professor Laby, of Victoria College, before the Wellington Philosophical Society on Wednesday night, to which brief reference was: mado in Thursday's Dominion;— It has been'recently stated by the Chancellor of our University, and many other peoplo believe, that University reform is merely a movement to abolish the external examination. On this subject I shall only say that Mr. Haldane is presiding over a Royal Commission on tho University of London. The recently published evidence, ("Times," June 16, ,1010, p. 9, Blue Book Cd. 5, 166) given before it by Sir W; Ramsay, the Bishop of Exeter, Mr..Sydney Webb, Sir \V. Rucker shows, 'in, my opinion, that the divorce of teaching aria ■ examining has had most undesirable consequences in London. Another State paper shows the samp result in India. We have recently learnt that in South Africa, whose population is the' same ; as that of New Zealand, and whose University system is ' more analogous to ours than any other, they are spending half a million to rectify the effects of external examination. Function of the University. The' true Universities of the world 'are of two main types, whose chief function is either to create new.knowledge of to form oharacter. These types are best represented among the larger Universities,: on the one hand, by Berlin, with its staff of world-famous investigators ; on the other, by the University of Oxford, which has contributed much to maintain tire high standards of English public men and civil servants. We have not, unfortunately, in Australasia a University whose function is either to create new know-ledge or to form character. The University of New Zealand is modelled on another type, that of London ' University—a University system which dispenses degrees on the results of a machine-like examination. This system has been a disappointing failure in London, whore it was developed • in' India, Africa, Wales, and New Zealand where it has been copied. In judging, then, how far our University has attained the purpose of those who founded it, wo must leave the formation of character, the creation of new knowledge out of account,_ and confine- ourselves vto the questions: What standard of excellence has it attained in imparting existing knowledge? Well, a definite and certain . answer to this question may be found by any sincere and dispassionate inquirer. Whether for adequate or inadequate . reasons, the majority ol students, after an ill preparation at school, have merely received when •at our University such an amount of booklearning as can be acquired in a University where a proportion of the professors have little -local or other reputation,,, where half the students are only evening students, while the curriculum is grossly' overcrowded, and the highest ideal of the University is tho passing of examinations. : A minority of the students, either on account ot ■ their inborn ability, the enthusiasm of their'teacher, :or - for other reasons, have done excellent work. Students Colng Abroad. I have no desire that you should a>:. cept my opinions on theso matters., Let us see what is the opinion of : Now Zealand parents when-selecting a University for their sons. When-a parent can afford to do so, even.:when lie. is' , a member of; the Unjversity Senate,- he usually sends Hi's r Sohs : 'to'England,"'and not to. this University, and in doing so he is perfectly!justified he believes our University.'-is - half- as -inefficient as ,'University professors have repeatodly stated it to be. Sincerity and public spirit alike'demand, however, that thoso who send thoir sons abroad should certainly admit why. they do so. South Africans send their sons- to Universities the world over, as their own University is more unsatisfactory, I believe,, than, ours; but; Canadians and Australians ' find for the ordinary boy their own Universities adequate. In view of thisj I consider tho practice of New Zealand parents has a gravo significance. It means - that the poor man's, son only enjoys a University education which tho better-to-do reject; that the University has'no point of attachment to a small, but not unim-. pnrtant,-class in'the community. In medicine there are probably as many New Zealundors studying it abroad as in New Zealand for there are only 81 (1908) students at Dunedin, whilo there are 1 48 at Edinburgh alone (passed examinations there in 1909). That: adequate clinical experience is impossible here is the reason assigned for-medical students going abroad. It is not the whole reason and thero is no doubt that our medical education is unsatisfactory. It might have been expected that the instruction in puro and applied science, including agriculture! would have received special attention in Now Zealand. We find, however, that the University and its colleges havo done little or'nothing for agriculture, while for pure science— physics, chemistry, biology, and geology—there is no college which teaches all these four subjects, in an adequate manner. ,The University's physics curriculum is the most unsound I ever had the misfortune to read ; tho University has, up to the present, refused to alter, it. The teaching science has been and, is weak in the University, and few study science, nor are there many £l;hools- which, teach science, or if * they do I am at a loss to. know where they obtain adequately-trained teachers, it is not from the University. That science should bo so'backward in tho Dominion is a: grave misfortune, and a weakness which will inevitably handicap tho development of its industries. ,

It should be said cm the other side that. the teaching in engineering is quite efficient, remembering jocal conditions. And Professor Ulrich founded a mining school which lias, trained many successful mining engineers. But nevertheless the University is not performing. its limited, task of merely teaching existing knowledge in the least satisfactory manner. A Cumbersome System. What are the causes of the existing conditions? Our University proper (the Senate) is a more examining body, and does nothing to impart or create knowledge, llio Senate, the only university body of which in public esteem it is any honour to be a member —is the embodiment of the ideal that the testing of knowledge is the only chief and most important function of University work. This ideal, in its effects, taken all over the Empire, has had more disastrous consequences in University education than it is easy to estimate. London instead of being the centre of a fine University comparable to that of Berlin is now gradually making a clean sweep of the old organisation of a purely examining _ University. This ideal applied in India made its University a laughing-stock. South • Africa, to rectify the effects of external examination and decentralisation is to spend half a million. Our examining system —the divorce of teaching and examination —will soon bo unique. In New Zealand external exahiinf;tion combined with unprecedont decentralisation has been equally potent in its effects. The external examination being very combersome in its working, continues to exist only because the professors are regarded as incompetent to examine. The four colleges found themselves, with a total income inade-

quate to pay a single staff of competent professors, but with actually four staffs to pay. As the ideal of tho University in effect said, "examining and not teaching is of primary importance in University work.' 1 The colleges saw tho solution and teaching, and the teachers were sacrificed. The University, in its wisdom, has men of high standing as oxaminers, and I leave it to you to say what the standing in New Zealand is of the University tea.chers. Extravagance and Inefficlenoy, The other causo of tho present state of higher education is our extravagantly inefficient decentralisation. A single University is as much as a million of people can afford to maintain in a state of efficiency, for an annual expenditure of £50,000 and capital expenditure of half a million is customary ana necessary. But if ever provincialism and false democraoy wore disastrous it has been so in University affairs in Now Zealand. Four colleges have been established by the Legislature, but while it indulged in the appearance of taking the University to the people it has never faced the logical corollary of that act, and provided those colleges with either the capital or annual expenditure to enable them to fulfil their functions in the most modest manner. The University has been taken to the doors of tlio people, but it is a University which no one will attend who can go elsewhere. Tne intellectual intercourse, the rubbing of mind against mind, which after all is the invaluable training a University offers has been altogether attenuated by the creation of four miniature "universities," which do nothing well. There are many of you possibly a little tired of hearing of tho University's shortcomings, so I shall hnster to point out what remedies are possible. I Undoubtedly the best solution would be the South African solution of their entirely analogous problem—the establishment of a central University. To advocate such, an heroio remedy here were foolishness when the press, the University and the Legislature liavi; yet to recognise there is even anything smiss with our higher education. Instead of suggesting how New Zealand might be given an efficient, University, one which performed its teaching and researoh funotion well without extravagant expenditure, 1 shall point out changes, which. I believe would strengthen the University without, however, 'making it a very much less costly institution for the work.it does.

1 mako the following suggestions merely in order that attention may be focussed on the fundamental weakness of the present organisation of the University. Various writers in the press have wanted to know.'what constructive reforms .it' is proposed to make. I am' alone responsible for the proposals made below. To my mind there is only one possible way of arriving at a satisfactory reform of the University, and that is by inquiry hore and abroad by the best Royal Commission that can bo set up. After thorough inquiry, such a body could take. into account fully and properly all the factors involved: I venture to say that such a commission would find the University so far behind all other Universities as would surprise the complacent and itisular New Zealander. The College Counolls. Each of-the colleges has at present a board of from 12 to 19 governors who are individually elected by anyone' from primary sohool teachers to his Excellency the Governor. The function. in actual practice of this board whfch I shall,call the oounoil, is. to, administer their ..college and any endowments it possesses, that is to fix salaries and fees to erect and equip lecture-rooms, laboratories, and museums and libraries; to make appointments. One of ■the'-college' acts and ; its schedules is 20 pages long; nearly ' three-quarters of it is devoted, to how the council it> to be elected. That, I. ,think, is an example of politics run 'mad. Now, what type of man is suited to such a council is well described by President Eliot, who . speaks from . wide experience:

, "The kind of man needed in the governing board of a university is the highly-educated public-spirited business or professional man, who takes a strong interest in educational and social problems, and belioves in higher education as the source of enlightenment and progress. He should also be a man who has been successful in his own calling, and commands tho confidence of all who know him. Tho faculty he will most need is good judgment."

Obviously, so long as we require some 60 men as College Councillors, it will be impassible to find sufficient men ol the above type in New Zealand, To obtain men such as President Eliot describes we must greatly reduce the number of councillors required, broaden the franchise by wliich they are electeu, and so increase the honour of the position. To decrease the . number of the councillors to eight, and make thcii' deliberations private (but their minutes open to the press) would very ' greatly increase tho efficiency of the councils. Four of them might be' elected by school 'teachers ana University graduates, one by the Government, one by the Municipal Council of the town in which the college is domiciled, and two professors . by the Professorial Board. In defence of the last proposal I shall only say that it was found necessary to represent the , professors in Australia, and if the colleges are to work harmoniously and with expert advice it will be found necessary here.' In the four colleges there would be 24 councillors who were not profesBors. These I would constitute into the Senate of the University, but of that I: shall speak in a moment. Ultimately the four colleges will no doubt become separate universities, .vb«» they aie financially and intellec-tually-very much stronger than now. Any refonn must always keep that development in view and pave the way for it. . The Ideal Senate. At present the Senate of the University is ah examining body, consisting of 24 fellows, six of whom happen to be professors. Their function in •practice is to draw up courses of study for the degrees they grant, to prescribe the work in individual subjects, to appoint examiners, to award scholarships and degrees. The compositions of the Senate obviously makes it unfit f-o do much of this work, which in the main is of a purely academic nature. And as a matter of fact lecently the Senate in much of its purely acadomic work has oonsulted the four separate professorial boards of tho individual colleges. But, as anyono with common sense would expect, it gets conflicting recommendations, which it either refers back to them, or attempts itself to . reconoile. /i,i ihe Senate meets only yearly, many of the older members of the Senate found it an easy matter to prevent the introduction of modern educational methods. It seems to me that the more the Senate approximates to President Eliot's ideal, tho less competent it is to do such technical work as drawing up the details of (say) a course for a degree in mining, or tho syllabus of the work for an honours degree in mathematics. Nothing could be clearer than that a body of men (who should be men of affairs) waste their time over dotails which they don't, understand, which in every other; university is left to the professors, who should be appointed on account of their fitness to do such work. It is as though the Admiralty designed their own Dreadnoughts, and in doing So forgot to be tlie supreme controlling body of the Navy. University Control. The examining and all tho detailed academic work at present done by the Senate should be the work of tho board.

consisting of all the professors and uidepbndenc lecturers m the University. This work would be subject to the approval of a second body, a lay Senate, consisting of the twenty-four councillors of the Colleges sitting together. This Senate would administer scholarships, and generally have the same functions as the present Senate. I would, howover, add a most important one, tlin right to bestow the title ot professor. Eecently a College Council appointed a professor at a salary of £300, and gave him the right to coach. Such an action degrades the whole University. Further, as under the scheme 1 am outlining a professor is ex-officio an examiner, and a member of the conjoint Professorial Board, the interests of the University as a whole arc concerned ill every appointment of a professor. '

While the councils, since tiiey pay the piper, must call the tune, must have the entiro right to . appoint to their own staffs, it would bo the Senate which recognised a University teacher and conferred the title and privileges of professor.

The dominant factor in University affairs, as iu many other things, is the question of finance. Wo have seen that though the Legislature established four colleges, and thus created in a small community an extravagantly expensive University system, it has never been prepared to meet the logical corollary of that action and provide an adequate incomo and capital outlay for those Colleges. The outlay required on the four Colleges is at the very least twice that necessary for one University doing the same work.

.Our University is remarkable for the poorness of its private endowments. There has only been one bequest which reached £10,000., The well-to-do men of Now Zealand naturally take little interest in colleges to which they do not send their sons, and possibly neither the councillors, professors, nor buildings inspire these men to give to University education. And certainly an examining. University arouses little enthusiasm in anyone. For my own part, I think tho beiter-to-do men would promote their own interests more if they did concern themselves with tho University, which, bad as it is, will have much to do with how the next generation thinks. University Finance It is when we consider the finaneeo of the University and its Colleges as a whole, aud compare them with other Universities similar to ours, that wo realise what an overwhelming case there is for the co-ordination ana improvement in University teaching in New Zealand. Tho expenditure in 1908 of' tho four Colleges was, in round numbers, as follows University, £11,000; Auckland University College, £7000; Victoria College, £10,000; Canterbury College, £15,000; Otago University, £15,000; total University expenditure, £58,000. The total per head was 14d. In passing, it may be remarked that the Senate make a profit out of examining (ultimately spent on. scholarships), and are the only body not in a straightened position. The mere testing of knowledge which the Senate carries out yearly costs nearly as much as either Auckland University or Victoria Collego, which do what should be tho very much more expensive work-of teaching. Now, although £60,000 a year is spent in New Zealand on University education, only a poor return is obtained for it, and for a simple reason —the Legislature determined that the University should go to the people, and that consequently it 1 should inevitably be at once inefficient in'its teaching and extravagant in its cost. The subjects of the arts and science courses are taught nt all four centre#, law lit three, and mining engineering at two. That means that instead of having one set of professors'and lecturers, class rooms, laboratories,libraries,,,. nmseums, administrative offices,' there" are from two to four sets. It is difficult to estimate exactly, at what extra ..cost all this multiplication ' has been obtained, but I behove I am . well within the truth, and my figures, have not been questioned, whon T say that tho Dominion, while it spends" £60,000 a year, only gets tho value of £38,000 if it wero spent on one University. - How does that expenditure compare with that of other countries? The value obtained per head for" expenditure per head on University education:— Now Zealand, 9d.; Ontario, Canada, 15d.; California, 17d. The two last expenditures may be more than stated, in the case of California twice 'as much. The above figures show how far we are behind other countries , in the value we obtain for University annual expenditure. Estimated Capital Expenditure of Buildings, Eto. New- Zealand £169,000 Per head, New Zealand 3s. sd. University of Sydney £360,000 Per head, New South Wales 4s. 3d. Cost per head in New Zealand ' to obtain same efficiency as Now South Wales . Bs. 6d. Tho above is a rough estimate of the capital expenditure in New Zealand 1 ; it may not-be quite. correct, as there are no.official figures. I have assumed that with four colleges double tho capital of central University, such as that-of Sydney, is required here to obtain the samo efficiency.