UNIVERSITY SENATE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 126, 21 February 1919, Page 4

UNIVERSITY SENATE

-4 ( THE SIX-SUBJECTS DEGREE' BOARD OF STUDIES UNDER CRITICISM 1 Br Telcgr&Dh.'-Pre&o. Association. Christchurch, February 20. The University S«uate to-day decided that the adoption of the new B.A. and B.Sc. syllabus should not involve any lowering of the standard for the pass degree. Seven subjects should be required. Professor Wall dealt at length with the present six-subjects degree, stating that under the present system a student was tempted to take his degree in the easiest possible manner. Under the present system our pass degree was the easiest obtainable in any university in the world. The six-subjects degree had been introduced into New Zealand because the Scottish University had' adopted that system.. After a trial, however, the Scottish University had abandoned the system. ■. The Chancellor asked why the Board of Studies had not recommended the abolition of the six-subjects degree. , Professor Wall said.that it was a matter of practical politics. The* relations \ existing between-, the Board o f St/ouic-s and the Senate were such thit it w.ij 'necessary to adflpt political means sometimes. \ Mr. H. P. von Haast said that the proposal was tho most extraordinary that 1 had come before the Senate. The Board ' of Studies had complained about the number' of courses i student had to take; holding that they got only"' a "smattering" of knowledge. Yet now . they were proposing to, increase the number of courses.

. The Chancellor said it seemed to him ■that the Board of Studies 6pent half its time in dealing with the external examiners and the other half in amend* ing the decisions it had arrived at the previous year. The Board of Studies wus an advisory body. He suggested that the board wa9 going round 1 ths' corner in'the matter. The honest course for the board to have taken would have been to say that it did not approve of. tlie sixsubjects degree. The matter was not the of practical politics. Professor Segiir opposad any change being made in the matter till the pre>6ent system had'been given k fair trial. Professor MacMillaa Brown 6aid he always had 'been in favour, of helping the average student. Two-thirds of the students were not fit to specialise in any subject. must remember that there we many' students in the backblocks, and the 'passing of the motion would penalise these. An amendment by Professor T. A, Hunter that the matter be referred to tho Arts and Commerce Committee was carried by 11 votes to 7. The Board of Studies- recommended that there should be some-stdtute of limitations for students completing under the old statutes!*" It was recommended ' that a period of five years 6hould be allowed for the completion of. the pass degrees. Recommendations from • the Board of Studies that the keeping of terms be required in all.iiubjects for the LL.B. degree, and that a section for the LL.B. degree might be taken at the end of the first year provided terms had been kept, were referred to the Law Committee. Recommendations that a travelling scholarship in law be instituted on the same terms as those in arts, science, and medicine, and that candidates whohad been on active 6ervice during tho present War might be admitted .to the university under similar conditions to those adopted by the Joint Matriculation Board of the' Universities.of Manchester, Leeds, - Sheffield, and Birmingham, were referred'to the Financf Committee. ' v