K.—7 A.

Canterbury : Of all the students-—7O per cent had four or more years ; 40 per cent, had five or more years ; 12 per cent, had six or more years ; 2 per cent, had seven or more years, Sixty-six per. cent, of the men, 85 per cent, of the women, had at least four years. Of the fulltime students, 92 per cent, and 59 per cent, respectively had four and five years ; the corresponding percentages of training-college students are 69 (four years) and 40 (five years), and of other evening students 53 (four years) and 26 (five years). Qtago: Of all the students —79 per cent, had four or more years ; 40 per cent, had five or more years ; 13 per cent, had six or more years ; 3 per cent, had seven or more years. Seventy-eight per cent, of the men, 83 per cent, of the women, had at least four years. Of the full-time students, 88 per cent, had four years and 52 per cent, had five years ; of the training-college students the percentages were 69 (four years) and 24 (five years), and of the other evening students the percentages were 61 and 16 respectively. (b.) Post-matriculation Period (New Zealand Totals). —Forty-eight per cent, of the students had at least one year at a secondary school after passing the Matriculation Examination, and L 5 per cent, had a post-matriculation course of two or more years. These figures clearly reflect the influence of the conditions governing the award of University bursaries which require, inter alia, a postmatriculation secondary course of at least one year. The percentage of men students who had at least one year is 44, and of women students 57 ; the percentage having at least two years are 17 (men) and 14 (women). Here, too, the full-time students compare more than favourably with the evening students ; of the former 66 per cent, had one post-matriculation year, and 26 had two such years, the corresponding figures for evening students being 37 and 9 respectively. A considerable proportion of the students had an interval between the termination of their secondary course and the commencement of their university career. Thus 29 per cent, of the students had a " gap " of at least two years between the Matriculation Examination and their enrolment at a University college, while, as stated above, only 15 per cent, of the students had a twoyears post-matriculation course at a secondary school. Auckland: Forty-two per cent, of the students had at least one year at a secondary school after passing the Matriculation Examination, and 8 per cent, had two years. Victoria: Fifty-four per cent, of the students had at least one post-matriculation year at a secondary school, and 12 per cent, had two years. Canterbury: The percentage of students having at least one post-matriculation year was 40, having two or more years 18. Otaqo: The corresponding figures are 52 per cent, (at least one year) and 17 per cent, (two or more years). 3. Age of Students. (a.) Freshmen. —The following classifies all 1925 entrants in percentages according to their age at last birthday : —• Age last Percentage Birthday. of Students. 16 years .. .. .. . . .. .. 4* 17 years .. .. .. .. .. 17 18 years .. .. .. .. .. 32 19 years .. .. .. .. .. 21 20 years .. .. .. .. .. .. 9 21 years and over .. .. .. .. 17 100 * Excluding non-matriculated entrants the percentage is less than 3. Comparing men and women it is found that in both cases 53 per cent, of the students are under the age, of nineteen years, but while 20 per cent, of the men are over the age of twenty-one years only 10 per cent, of the women freshers are over that age. The median age is a little under 18J years ; the strict average is 19 years 7 months for men and 19 years 3 months for women. To a marked extent the full-time extrants are younger than the part-time students, the percentage in each group over the age of twenty-one years being: Day-students, 11 per cent. ; training-college students, 13 per cent; other evening students, 25 per cent. (b.) Students in Second and Subsequent Years. —Excluding freshmen, the students may be classified in age-groups as under:— Age last Percentage Birthday. of Students. 18 years .. . . .. .. .. 10 19 years .. .. .. .. .. 20 20 years .. .. .. .. .. 22 21 years .. .. .. .. .. 16 22 years .. .. .. .. .. 10 23 years .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 24 years .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 25 years and over .. .. .. .. 11 100

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