E.—7 A.

20

Professional schools demand and secure full-time work;

Suggestion by a Students' Association.

State as employer should lead the way.

Opinions of external examiners.

into different parts of the year, keeping the university session exclusively for study and throwing the wage-earning into the vacations. In most cases witnesses, when pressed with this comparison, admitted that it was not so much positive inability tha£ kept students from pursuing whole-time study as unwillingness to face the gather more stringent conditions of living which such a course would involve. And this seems confirmed by the fact that the Special Schools insist on whole-time day-work, and have no shortage of students. If the New Zealand student can give whole-time study to the Medical, Dental, Engineering, or Home Science degree, it appears that the reason for his refusing it to the Arts degree course must be sought in the admission of the Rector of Canterbury College, Professor Chilton, that students think full-time study " worth while " for a special school which gives a valuable professional qualification, but do not think it worth while for an ordinary B.A. or B.Sc. degree. It is no doubt the more exacting conditions under which the work of the special schools is carried on that is in large measure responsible for the much higher regard in which they are held. A Special School whose degree involves four or five years of whole-time study and training naturally turns out a superior product to that which can be expected from the part-time Arts course. Ultimately it is the quality of the product that determines the reputation of the school. The higher estimation of the Special School was very evident all through the inquiry. It was not confined to any class of witness. Where not definitely expressed, it always seemed to be assumed, often unconsciously, that the Special School was the university school par excellence, in which the university spirit found its truest expression, and the possession of which gave the university college to which it belonged not merely an added sphere of usefulness, but higher rank as a university institution. The most helpful suggestion we received on this subject throughout the inquiry came from the President of the Students' Association at Auckland, and its value is enhanced by the fact that it represents the point of view of a body of students the great bulk of whom are working on the part-time system : — " With respect to the lack of full-time students, we feel that, while giving due credit to those who are studying and working at the same time, any system which encouraged students to give all their time to college work would be an improvement from the point of view of our college. This applies especially to the Arts students, who are numerically the strongest faculty. Science and Engineering students are almost necessarily full-timers : Law and Commerce require practical experience. "We should like to see inaugurated a scheme whereby a student could secure employment, preferably out-of-doors, at a good wage through the summer vacation. His savings would then carry him through part, at any rate, of the academic year. The Students' Association would readily assist the Council in organizing a scheme of this kind." We may add that a very large number of part-time students are teachers and public servants. If the recommendations we make elsewhere are adopted and students in the training colleges are given opportunities for full-time attendance in the university, the number of teachers taking evening classes should be greatly diminished. A recommendation is also made that selected public servants should be given opportunity to attend evening classes under better conditions than at present. We feel strongly that the Government and quasi-governmental bodies should set a good example in affording to their young employees adequate facilities to obtain university qualifications regarded as necessary or very desirable in their occupation. STANDARD AND SCOPE OF DEGREE EXAMINATIONS. The papers of candidates in degree examinations have hitherto been marked by distinguished scholars in Great Britain, who report to the University on the quality of the work sent in. From the reports on the Advanced and Honours papers for the degrees of M.A. and M.Sc. submitted in the years 1922-24 it appears that, so far as written external examination can test the quality of candidate's work, which, as has already been pointed out, it can do only partially, the standard of