EDUCATION IN GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 20081, 19 January 1927, Page 3

EDUCATION IN GERMANY

THE ANCIENT UNIVERSITIES.

SYSTEM OF SELF-RELIANCE.

FEW EXAMINATIONS.

An interesting description of the conditions under which the youth of Germany receives its higher education was given to a Dominion reporter by Dr. Walter Geisler, Professor of Geography at the University of Halle, which is one of the oldest, institutions of its kind in Germany. The professor stated that to obtain a chair in a German university a candidate must hold a doctor’s degree in one of the various faculties. This, however, was not the case in the mining and engineering colleges, which were separate from the main universities.

The Universities of Germany, he continued, were of considerable antiquity. In al least one respect this was a disadvantage, owing to the fact that centralisation in the various faculties was rendered very difficult. When the great German universities were founded it was not necessary for them to be of great size. As the centuries rolled by, however, the need for expansion became insistent, but there was then no room for the universities to be extended without adding new buildings at some distance from the original structures. This did away with the possibility of centralisation, which the professor had very much admired in-the universities of Melbourne and Sydney. The German system of university education, continued the professor, was different from that of England, for the educational authorities of Germany had ideas concerning the education of young people which differed considerably from those current in Great Britain. The mdst characteristic feature of German university education was the comparative lack of examinations. Students were not required to sit for any examinations until the end of their course, which extended over a period of five years. At the end of that time, however, there was a final examination, the passing of which was a responsibility which lay entirely in the hands of the student himself. A certain amount of work had to be done in this period, for which a certificate was issued. Under this system the student could work whenever he pleased, and at whatever he liked. It was only in medicine that there was an examination at the end of each year. Examinations at intervals of about one month, such as are held in many faculties "f the University of New Zealand, were quite unheard of in Germany.

SELF-RELIANCE INGRAINED.

The German system, said the professor, had its advantages and its disadvantages, one of the latter being that students were sometimes liable to fall hopelessly behind in their work. The educational authorities of Germany, however, wanted to educate their young people, so as to enable them to think and to plan for themselves. “If they do not do the work,” he explained, “they get lost, and it can’t be helped.” Engineering, said Professor Geisler, was a faculty which was quite separate from the universities. In universities themselves there were five faculties—geology, law, medicine, philosophy and natural history—the lastnamed including such sciences as mathema-

tics, physics and chemistry. The fifth faculty—that of natural history—was quite a new one, as only a few years ago it belonged to the faculty of philosophy. “As a geographer,” he said, “I belong to the faculty of natural history.”

NO COLLEGES OR. HOSTELS.

1116 professor went on to say that in the German universities there were no colleges or hostels. Every student could live with his parents, while those who lived awaj r from home were able to board somewhere in the city in which was the university they were attending. Information was given them as to where good rooms were to be obtained, for they were compelled to live in the city of their university.

Asked as to whether this lack of hostels did not lessen the fullness of university life, the professor admitted that to a certain extent it did. He was interested to learn

that it was the aim of Victoria University College to obtain a hostel as soon as possible, remarking that college life was very interesting, and provided opportunities for the formation of friendships and the develop of comradeship. Nevertheless, there was a certain atmosphere in the universities of Germany. Sport, for instance, was very much developed, and the students were practically compelled to take part in some sport during at least two years. They were not. actually compelled to do so, however, for that would interfere with the spirit of academic freedom. ACADEMIC FREEDOM. TTiis academic freedom, continuted Professor Geisler, was the very lifeblood of university life in Germany. It was a world-wide demand that professors should have freedom to teach what they thought fit, combined with a freedom of academic life altogether. This principle of university life was carried as far as it possibly could be carried in Germany, where the student.? had their own representatives, who could, if they so desired, express the wishes and the thoughts of the body of students to the university authorities. There were numer-

ous societies and clubs at all the universities, membership of which was entirely optional, and open to all the students. Each of these clubs and societies had its own belief and its own policy, and the student was at liberty to join that whose creed appealed to him the most.

There were clubs formed to foster sport, as well as intellectual societies. Questioned a sto wether in the latter there was noticeable what is termed a “socialistic” tendency, the professor replied that to a certain extent there was. Socialism, however, did not find favour with the majority of the students, although no efforts were made to stop the currency of any revolutionary opinions. The authorities did not regard such tendencies as any other than those which one so often found among young people, and the freedom of thought and action which was encouraged in their universities was not interfered with in any way.

FACILITATING STUDY

Professor Geisler went on to say that it was not a very expensive matter to obtain a university education in Germany. The actual fees charged ranged from £lO to £2O yearly, to which had to be added, of course, the outlay necessary to provide for the material wants of the student himself. There were numerous scholarships which could be obtained, thus enabling an able student to receive his higher education without having to pay fees at all.

A student at a German university was allowed to attend several seats of learning during the five years which he was required to devote to study. He himself, said the professor, had studied at five different universities, thus having been enabled not only to see something of his country, but also to learn more of the different schools of thought, and of the infinite variety of scientific opinions. This was only one of the methods in which higher education was facilitated in the German universities, although, remarked the professor, it was a very useful one.