THE UNIVERSITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1342, 20 January 1912, Page 10

THE UNIVERSITY.

SENATE NOTES. (Contributed by a Sub-Committee, of tho University Reform Association.) Tho Senate of tho Uaivcreity of New Zoalaml meets in Wellington on Saturday for fts short session of less than two weoks, in which all tho important administrative business of the university is transacted for the year. It is proposed to make use of this column, made available by courtesy of tho editor, for tho purpose of aiding tho public of tho Wellington district to make tho most of this exceptional opportunity of observing our university methods at closo quarters, and arriving at a first-hand opinion upon some of the important questions that have been undor agitation for tho past two years. Tho policy of tho University Reform Association has been a policy of awakening public interest in university affairs. This policy it means to pursue by fair and friendly comment on tho deliberations of the Senate during this session. Tho most important matter by far for this session is the chullsugo made to the Senate by tho report of tho Education Committee of the House of Representatives upon the petition of thirteen members of tho teaching staff of Victoria College. In this roport it waa unequivocally stated that a caso had been made out for reform, especially in the direction of giving a regular share in tho purely academic work of tho university to the professorial staffs of the affiliated colleges. And the'sole reason stated for not endorsing tho plea of the petitioners for a Royal Commission of Inquiry was a belief that the University Senate is itself moving towards tho necessary reform, a belief founded on the fact that the Senate sanctioned the convening of a conference of representatives of tho professorial boards in November, 1910. The conference in question waa constituted of five representatives from each of the four university colleges, and its deliberations were rigidly restricted to the question of revision of the curriculum for the degrees of B.A. and B.Sc. Before tho Parliamentary Committee had reported on the petition, the professorial hoards of Canterbury College and Victoria College had agreed upon a joint statement, protesting against treatment accorded by the Senate tn tho findings of the above-mentioned Professorial Conference of 1910, and affirming tho necessity for another conference, with a better scheme of representation and wider powers. This document will come befora the Senate for consideration.

Ihc porennial question of the examination system will take a more insistent form this year on account of the evidence from abroad, lrhicli has been brought to bear by the lieform Association, and the specific statement in the Parliamentary Committee's report that a change must be mado in tho direction of giving the university teach firs an important share in tho examining work. Beyond those large issues, tho attention of the public would probably be most profitably directed to the vast ran?o of subjects, and tho huge mass of detail, with which the Senate will have to grapple; also to the exceedingly cumbrous methods by which a body so constituted must newssarily conduct academic administration wlien it lias no direct control over tho' real acadcmic work which is the . end and aim of the whole university system. It is a fundamental article of university reform croed that tho toaclung work of the university, whether well or badly done, is the only matter of ultimate importance in the university system, and that in certain phases of tho administration tho university teachcrs are' necessarily the only experts in this country. 1 his may bo readily agreed to, even by those who fcar tyranny of the expert. Tho public might Trith advantage make comparison with the changed conditions that, would prevail were the methods of administration advocated by tho Reform Association brought into use (vide" the associations pamphlet "University Reformin New Zealand"; Wliibcombc and lOIQDS).