“Irritating Conditions”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 997, 13 June 1930, Page 8

“Irritating Conditions”

UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS ACCORDING to Mr. J. N. Wilson, president of the Auckland University College Students’ Association, the New Zealand University has been guilty of most unbusinesslike methods in the conduct of examinations. Congratulating graduates who secured their degrees at the capping ceremony yesterday afternoon, Mr. Wilson said that they who had been through the mill knew the trials and troubles students bad to undergo in order to gain the university stamp of success.

“It is the University of New Zealand which is to blame for the unfair conditions under which students sit for their degrees,” declared Mr. Wilson. The university was purely an examining body and since its aim was simple and its purpose single, the manner in which it exercised its function could hardly be described as efficient. It was no unusual thing for a student to lose a whole year’s work through misinterpretation of the university calendar, parts of which would puzzle a full bench of judges. Many of the textbooks required were obsolete. Some of those for the honours course in English were so out-of-date as to be almost unprocurable. Coming to a frequent cause of complaint in the correspondence columns of the Press, Mr. "Wilson said that not uncommonly examination rooms which should be quiet and orderly seemed to be designed to hinder and irritate the candidate and to prevent him doing his best work. He was provided with a wholly inadequate book in which to write his answers. By the rules, if he wanted extra paper, he was allowed to obtain one sheet at a time, and no more. This caused much interruption and delay when a candidate was working against time at the close. It was no uncommon thing ior students to be interrupted by the peremptory clang of the supervisor’s bell for some formal announcement that everyone knew by heart already. No paper was allowed for scribbling or rough drafts of answers. Every

stroke written by the candidate had to be submitted to the examiner, and even blotting-paper had been known to be collected. Sometimes, for good measure, the wrong paper was issued, or the right one was found to have been wrongly printed. Sometimes, even, a candidate might present himself and find that no paper had been set in that subject. “Many of the conditions are neither fair nor just, nor in accordance with ordinary business principles,” said Mr. Wilson. “A student who paj’s his fees is entitled to ordinary efficiency.” It was nothing short of disgraceful, said Mr. Wilson, that candidates had to sit under conditions which had obtained. Some sat for purely academic reasons, but fully 90 per cent, of those in the Auckland University College had their very livelihood dependent oil the result. Led to comment on Mr. Wilson’s remarks, the president of the college. Sir George Fowlds, said this: “Seeing that I am representing the chancellor on this occasion, I should not indulge in too close criticism of the university. Nevertheless, I feel bound to say that the university is trying to c»*ry out an impossible task and is not doing it particularly well. The time is coming when we will either have four separate universities, or—a step which I personally favour—a university incorporating the Auckland and Victoria University Colleges and the Massey Agricultural College as the University of North New Zealand. I hope that time is not very far distant.”