UNIVERSITY REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1529, 27 August 1912, Page 4

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

One cannot fail to admire the persistence of the local advocates of University Reform, nor can the growth of the movement bo ignored. Viewed at first with some suspicion as a step designed to unduly increase the influence and powers of the professorial staffs of tho different colleges the domaud for reform has now come to bp very widely recognised as essential to the proper fulfilment of the true functions of the University. The. deputation which waited upon the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education yesterday on v 'the subject was representative of wide interests and must command respect and attention not only on 1 account of those constituting it, but also for the reasons- advanced in support of the demand that our system of higher education shall be placed on a morft satisfactory footing. Professor Picken,_ who was very outspoken and emphatic concerning the "antiquated and inefficient" nature of the machinery which is hampering the worthy objective of the founders of the New Zealand University, summed up the position very clearly from the point of view of the Reformers in the following passage:

Their one desire was to see everv penny invested in university work productive of tho greatest possible benefit to the wholo community. They maintained that a university must bo conceived as a fountainhead of clear thinking and honest thinking for the nation; a national institution for producing high-thinking, high-souled men and women; for turning out good citizens of the greatest possible efficiency (in the highest sense of tho term). And they asked for complete reorganisation of the university towards accomplishing this high object on the soundest methods. As a beginning, or perhaps 'it should bo put as tho foundation on which to build this complete scheme of reorganisation of the university, the deputation asked that a Royal Commission should be appointed to thoroughly investigate the existing state of things, and to make recommendations for effecting the improvement so urgently needed. Incidentally, of course, the question of strengthening the financial position of Victoria College was raised. Professor Picken. while he did not fail to stress the necessity for relieving the college of the hampering effects of straitened financial resources, very wisely took care to make clear the. point that the question at issue is not one wholy dependent on finance. "This country," he emphasised, "is receiving an utterly inadequate return for the public money which is being spent on university education . . ." And he added later: "The financial embarrassments of the college represented only one aspect of that lack of statesmanlike policy which characterised the whole university system, and they maintained that if the main problem were capably solved it would be found that a good national university could be financed without the expenditure of more money than was at present appropriated to that purpose." This view is important as affording distinct encouragement to the Government to embark at once on the inquiry urged by the deputation. Finance is always a troublesome question, even to Reform Governments, and there_ can be little doubt that the possibility of being able to do a great deal of good at a comparatively small cost will not be without its influence in assisting the Ministry to make .up its mind as to how far it can afford to go in the direction of meeting tho wishes of the University Reformers. The Pkijie _ Minister, who received the deputation sympathetically, did not commit himself in any way as to the particular course the Government was likely to pursue,' but he made it fairly plain that the question of University Reform is likely to receive more active attention from the present Ministry than it did from its predecessors. The proposal to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry certainly appears to be the most satisfactory method of dealing with the subject, provided of course that the right men are chosen as commissioners. Unless men are appointed who will command the highest respect and confidence amongst those who concern themselves with higher education, it would bo sheer waste of 'money to set up a Commission at all. Should the services of the right type of man be secured the benefits likely to follow cannot be measured by pounds, shillings, and pence—they arc incalculable ; but, it is certain they must have an enormous influence for good on _tho iuiinc oi the nation.