MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 13, 22 April 1871, Page 2

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY.

The Dunedin " Star " says :-^Just• at the moment we are about to start a University in Otago we have laid before us the results of twelve years* experience of a similar institution in Victoria. The first advances of these institutions we all know to be slow ; but when once, however, they have become, as it were, firmly rooted, they grow with a rapidity that distances all expectation. When the Melbourne University was first established it was for some years the fashion to laugh at it as a costly toy, and to indulge in small witticisms about the fraction of a student that fell to each professor. Then, as its numbers increased people said its establishment was premature. Now it has become not only fully organised, but has outgrown "its present building, nor does there appear any sign that it has approached the limit of its youth. In 1858 the number of students who matriculated was two ; and from these small beginnings there was a steady though not very great increase up to 1865, when the number had risen to 81. In the three years following the increase remained stationary at the rate of about 40 in each year. During the last three years, however, the advance has been surprisingly great, the numbers matriculated being—in 1869, 62; in 1870, 86 ;in 1871, 91; so that in 1871 the number was three times what it was in 1865 ; and in 1865 the increase more than double that of ] 862. The 91 matriculated students of the present year represent those who have passed the examination, but the total number of candidates at these examinations is 230. In other respects the University hcs done good work. The number of degrees that it has conferred since its commencement upon its regular students is 136,-while 164 graduates of other Universities have shown their sympathy with it by taking ad eundkm degrees. The number of degrees thus obtained by regular students exceeds the number obtained from 1842 to 1850 by students of at least five colleges in Cambridge, and is very nearly equal to those obtained by three other colleges, viz., Magdalene/Jesus, and Clarehall, Besides these student who desire to proceed to degrees, the University has given instruction to 486 non-matricu-lated students. The total number of students, including matriculated and non-matriculated, from its opening, is 1059. Apropos of Universities, the authorities of the Sydney one announce their intention to admit female candidates to the junior and senior examinations for degrees under the usual rules.