The Dominion. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1912. HIGHER EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1612, 2 December 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1912. HIGHER EDUCATION.

Having in mind the organised campaign in which the professoriate of the New Zealand University is at present engaged for the purpose of securing certain important alterations in its constitution arid functions, a recent address by Lord Haldane, on the subject of "The Civic University," delivered on the occasion of his installation as Chancellor of Bristol University, presents some ideas which students of the reform movement in this,country should find inspiring and helpful. Tho danger whioh threatens the modern, university; as distinguished from such ancient universities as Cambridge and Oxford, is tho entirely fallacious contention of the democraoy- that these institutions should be open to all. Many of our later universities have been founded by. the munificence of "captains- of industry," and when tho governing body is dominated by men of democratic ideas, there has been shown a tendency to lower the standards of proficiency in a well-meaning effort to provide instruction for a greater number, without sufficient regard being ' paid to tho intellectual fitnees of the students for higher study. 1 On this point Lord Haldane , utters a warning that applies with as much force to educationalists in a democratic country like New Zealand, as it does to a democratic institution like the University of Bristol. "If we had all the universities of the world in England," ho observed, "we' should find that it was only a limited percentage of the that would be fitted by natural aptitude to take full advantage of them. What is really essential is that every one should have a chance, and that there should be the nearest possible approach to equality of educational opportunity. Without this, the Eense of injustice will never be eliminated, and we shall, in addition, fail to secure for our national endeavours the help of our best brains. Democracy is apt in its earlier stages to be unduly jealous, and to try to drag things down to a level whichj because it is the general level, is in danger of being too low to provide the highest talent." Lord Haldane added that the democracy should insist on equality of opportunity in education as something that should be within the reach of every youth and maiden, but, he added, "that more than a comparatively small minority will prove capable of taking advantage of the highest education is unlikely." Tho London Times gives nearly two columns of space to Lord Haldane's address, which it regards, editorially, a-s of more than local importance.

The modern university, remarks the "Times," is the "direct outcome of the two chief characteristics of our age—democracy and the increase of knowledge— and its function ie to lesson the dangers to which both characteristics expose us. ... An ignorant and corrupt aristocracy can quickly ruin «. nation to which popular government is deniod; but in a free oountry an ignorant populace is a far greater peril. ... The civic university, to use Lord Haldane's phrase, must open its doors, not to all-comers, but to carefully-sekcted coiners from all classes. . . . The long controversy between the comparative merits of classics' and science, dead languages aud modern languages,. was ovev as soon as men grasped the truth, that Victor^. lay with neither. There is no mental gymnast of universal potency. The foremost duty of every teacher is to discover natural aptitudes. If ever this truth is firmly grasped, the futility of half our educational controversies will be patent."

It is beyond question that tho policy in New Zealand of attempting to open the doors of the , secondary schools and university colleges as widely as possible without a special and systematic investigation of the natural aptitudes of the students for higher study, involves needless waste of time and is sadly unremunerative to the State. The process of thinning out should begin at the door of the secondary school. An observation by Lord Haldane with regard to the complaint of the Labour leaders that the English Civil Service was closed to the democracy by a "class barrier" furnishes an illustration in point. "While," he said, "I am not without sympathy with the complaint of democracy that the entranco to the higher positions in the Civil Service is ny far too much the monopoly of a class, I reply that a highly educated clerk is essential for the particular kind of work that the State needs. The remedy must not be to displace the class which furnishes the supply. The State will suffer bady if tho level of its Civil Servants is lowered." Professor Sghafer, of the Chair of History at the University of Oregon, also discusses this question of individual fitness for higher intellectual effort in an article in the October American Review of Reviews.

"I'ha iu'oj;iositlon tint you tnunt tat £Lud a boy fitted to receive the higher

education before you can confor tKo eift of higher education on a boy appears axiomatic," ho says, "and yet, in practice, tlie colleges all over Amorica aro denying its validity. An adequate test of fitness is not applied at entrance, tlio natural place for it, because in most States the certification plan of admittiiit? students, already a generation old, lias practically superseded all direct personal dealings between tho applicant and the college authorities. The plan of giving a formal examination on tho subject matter of each preparatory Btudy has worked little better, for tho fitting schools deliberately trained boys for theso examinations, succeeding only too well with mediocre material."

In short, tho benefits of higher education should not be distributed broadcast because tho distribution of benefits "without fear or favour" is in accordance with so-called democratic principles, but should be awarded to those who seem likely to show some return which will be of benefit to the community as well as to themselves. This fundamental, principle was entirely overlooked by tho Seddon Government when it introduced the system of free secondary education, and the appreciable return, experience has proved, is sadly disproportionate to the money which has been spent in the name of democratic education.