"A GLORIFIED NIGHT-SCHOOL."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1301, 2 December 1911, Page 7

"A GLORIFIED NIGHT-SCHOOL."

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.

Referring to tho disabilities placed upon Training College students who • attempted to take tho degree courses at the university, Mr. Wm. Gray, principal of tho college, remarked at tho breakingup ceremony yesterday that under present conditions Victoria College was nothing more or less than a "glorified" night-school. He was uot criticising the quality of the teaching or the character of tho work, but tho system which imposed upon Training College students ovening lectures at the university from which they did not reach their homes till from' 9 tiil 10 o'clock at night, plus the usual work required of them during tho day-time. This was not treating the students fairly, and, it should be pointed out, the Training College students numbered one-fourth of tho number attending lectures. He recognised that this was a condition imposed by the two-term system nt tlve university, which, again, was a condition of tho external examination system. Personally, he would prefer tho three-term system, adopted with gratifying results at other universities, with two-week vacations between. _ Under existing conditions, it was impossible, ho contended, for the student at the Training College to approach the 7-hour Bcienco course at Victoria College with any degreo of satisfaction, and this difficulty was reflected in the smaller number of Training College students who took science. The institution of a complete science, course, with laboratory equipment, at tho Training College itself was tho present solution of that difficulty. Ho hoped that they would get that science course recogniscd as tho equivalent to tho University College courso m that subject. Replying subsequently to Mr. Gray, Professor T. A. Hunter indicated that tho obvious and simplest solution of tho difficulties imposed _by the two-term system was to permit tho to cover their degree work in three sections, instead of in two, as at present. This courso would allow of more deliberate and Wsured study, and a more thorough grasp of tho subjects taken.