MODERN UNIVERSITIES.

Putaruru Press, 5 January 1928, Page 4

MODERN UNIVERSITIES.

THE WORK AHEAD. New Era of Knowledge. “Few developments in this country are more full of hope than the devclhave passed the first regular examinaopment of modern universities. Mr Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, expressed the view at Birmingham University, where he opened a new biological block which has .cost £120,000, and where lie received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was accompanied by Mrs Baldwin, and was given a boisterous reception by the students. The guard’ of honour of cadets was supplemented by a much larger bodyguard, and great enthusiasm accompanied the presentation i a the Premier of a huge pipe carried into the great hall on the shoulders of four students. Mr Baldwin afterwards shouldered it. He smilingly entered a burlesque Roman chariot, in which he was drawn down the central aisle. In .declaring the new block open the Prime Minister said he was glad Birmingham had an army of eager students prepared to go forward in what, among the sciences, was comparatively a new one where the fields to wm knowledge and renown were boundless. Eager Students. Mr Baldwin was chief guest at the luncheon which followed, and proposing the toast of the university, he said:— “I rejoice to know that in a modern university you find many eager students prepared to devote themselves to the humaner studies. It is of first importance that a university should hold aloof and never by a fraction, whatever the popular clamour, lower the standards of knowledge and education. “I believe a fatal thing in universities is a lop-sided education, however good: it may be. You will get the best both from th e humaner and scientific studies if both flourish in rivalry to bring out the best in them. *‘\t this moment we are probably standing at one of those periods of increasing knowledge which will mark more than ever the modern renaissance. The transformation of the world is proceeding apace. Proofoms cf time and space, the atom and the electron, are being attacked with more vigour and hope of success than in Iho

oast, and this work is being <donc by co-operative effort of men in a thousand colleges all over the world. "