THE UNIVERSITY SENATE AND THE B.A. DECREE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2686, 4 February 1916, Page 6

THE UNIVERSITY SENATE AND THE B.A. DECREE.

Sir,—Now that a fourth attempt to reform the degree system of the University of New Zealand on something like logical lines, appears for the moment to have failed owing to the consistent refusal of tho Senate to take a wide view of university questions and its preference for niggling details, it may be profitable to review briefly the story of the Senate's action during the last twelve years. Such a review will, I think, convince serious-minded persons of tho incompetence of that body to deal with academic questions in a broad-minded way, as well as of its hopeless inconsistency. Some twelve years ago, on my motion, the Senate set up a recess committee to consider tho B.A. and B.Sc. degrees. Regarding tho B.A. degree as a degree indicative of general culture, tho committee drew up a scheme to secure that each graduate should be compelled to select four out of six subjects from four groups of subjects, linguistic, mathematical, scientific, philosophical, ono subject at least being taken from each group. This scheme was thrown out mainly on the ground that the exempted student, who could not do practical work in science would bo ineligible for a degree, the suggested concession in his case to allow him to take applied mathematics as his i scieuco subject being regarded as unsatisfactory. All that was saved from tile wreck was the permission to repeat a subject.

Three years afterwards, a second recess committee was appointed to deal with the same question. This committee submitted a scheme based on that in "operation in all the English provincial universities, of an intermediate examination with certain restrictions as to subjects, followed by a final examination involving a certain amount of specialisation- This carefully considered scheme was thrown out, partly owing to divergencies in the views of the four colleges, which had been consulted on the matter separately. _In order to secure a joint exsression of opinion on the part of the colleges, a professorial conference was summoned. Mainly oil account of the nature of the reference, this conference was unable to come to a very definite decision, but it did lay down some general linos which it considered reform should follow. A second conference met in 1912 and submitted to the Senate a carefully considered degree scheme, based on the principle of having one pass decree (as at Oxford aud Cambridge), which could be taken on arts or science lines, and which embraced, with certain modifications the restrictions and exemptions of '.lie present 33.A. and B.Sc. degrees. This proposal was thrown out at the Auckland meeting of the Senate in 1913, chiefly on the ground that it was advisable to retain two pass degrees.

The Board of Studies was then instituted to act as an advisory body to the Senate on. academic questions. A.t tlie first meeting of this body, held in Wellington in November, 1915, there was considered a fourth scheme, based, like the second scheme outlined above, on tho univeisal practice of tho modern English provincial colleges, for two distinct pass degrees. It will be noted that the Senate at Auckland had declared in favour of two pass degrees for arts and science, and thisS tho Board of Studies to some extent considered itself bound by this expressed preference of tho Senate. This fact robs the Chancellor's gibe about the inconsistency of academic bodies of most of its point. There was nothing revolutionary about the Board of Studies scheme, which was based on a careful comparison of the degree systems, not of archaic Oxford and Cambridge, but of the modern universities -If London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, and Wales. There are certain features common to all these systems, and experience has shown "that thoy work admirably.

Whether the Senate this year seriously considered this scheme as a whole or liot, the newspaper reports do not show, but iu its usual way it refused to face the question of a serious reform, and proceeded to amend the B.A. degree in detail. The results arrived at are striking, and if carried into effect will differentiate our arts degree from every arts degree known to mo in the Empire. I Latin was to be 110 longer compulsory ; it is quite true that it is not com-1 pulsory in all the arts degrees of the Empire, but it is compulsory 'up to ■ a certain stage in all English universi-! ties. Further, a motion was carried to mako the subject optional for matriculation in arts. In all British universities, except perhaps some Canadian universities, Latin is compulsory in matriculation, for the arts degree. This is so even in the Australian universities of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, where it is not compulsory for tho degree itself. In Melbourno and Adelaido Greek is compulsory as well. Does the Senate think that an arts degree, which may not include Latin in any . shape or form, will retain tlie xespect of the academic world, and will receive any recognition or privileges from tlie English and Continental universities, to v.iiicli many of our best students proceed to continue their studios ?

Having freed tho arts degree from the shackles of Latin, tho Senate in its wisdom proceeded to, substitute other fetters of a more galling kind, by insisting that all arts students mu6t take 0110 science. Can it point to a single British university in which such a compulsion exists —except Sydney—and there pure mathematics is included in the science group? To a teacher of Latin liko myself, the main objection to compulsory Latin is that it compels me to have in my classes several unwilling students, who tako.the subjcct merely because the university statutes compol them. Are the attractions of scienco such that there will bo no unwilling students of science, and aro tho professors of scienco prepared to welcomo such into their classes?

In introducing compulsory science into tho arts degree, what lias become of tlie solicitude of the Senate for the claims of tlie exempted 6tudent which was manifested at Auckland when the first scliemc for reform was thrown out? I do not desire to poso as a champion of exempted* students, for I regard them as an excrescence which the TJnivcrsity might well lop off now that there are four teaching colleges, and the State is prepared to pay the fees of all deserving students, but as long as they exist I think they ought to be treated fairly. If one member of the science group is made compulsory, exempted students will lie compelled to take applied mathematics, which will almost force them to take pure mathematics as well—two of the hardest subjects in the arts degree, and certainly those which are most repugnant to students who have no taste for them. After having thus "run amuck" I through the arts degree, the Senate seems to have come to its senses and agreed to submit these questions to the Board of Studies, the only body in New Zealand which is competent to givo a seasoned verdict on such matters. Whatever may be the defects of the Now Zealand professors, it is undeniable that their knowledge of academio questions is greater than that of the average member of Senate, for in them they may lie said to "live and move and have their being," and I for one might be prepared to fall in with their, joint verdict, ev,cn though it went counter to my deeply-rooted convictions. I do not desire to discuss the more debatable subject of the conduct of University examinations, except to express a regret that the Senate is still obstinate in its refusal to listen t<i reason Von this majter, in epite of a resolution

carried on the Board of Studios by a majority of two to one in favour of a change. Yon have yourself implied that 1 am not viva vocc. Like "Student," I fail to understand how anyone who has gone through Oxford has so entirely misconceived its examination system. When I was examined for Moderations my paper work occupied rather more than a week, my viva less than five minutes, when I was asked only two questions and these I failed to answer. Yet I got a first-class none the less. I know nothing to lead me to think that the relative importance of written and oral eaxmination lias changed since my day. I think that an oral examination is an admirable appendage to a written examination ; to regard it is a substitute is absurd. To suggest, as "Viva Voce" does, that the written papers are or may be revised by "squads of examiners" is to cast a slur on the honesty of the University of Oxford, where, as elsewhere, the examinations are conducted by the examiners appointed by the University for the purpose.— I ani, etc., J. RANKING BROWN.