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Recommendation — That to meet the needs of those who in the interim period will still be sitting external examinations, instruction be provided through the Technical Correspondence School and that arrangements be made for laboratory work in those subjects requiring it. 200. The evidence of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers suggested that greater facilities should be made available "for candidates for the examinations of the British Institutions of Engineers. The Committee feels certain that the New Zealand Institution will agree that the steps being taken to establish diploma courses will obviate the need for any extension of the facilities for Institution membership examination candidates. There will have to be development of the facilities in the technical schools to provide adequately for the new diploma courses. These extended facilities will in most cases be available for those candidates who elect to continue with external examinations, but the Committee is of the opinion that the technical schools should not be required to do any more than keep faith with those who have already begun courses under the old conditions. It hopes that the technical schools will be able to organize themselves in such a way as to handle the new diploma courses at the earliest possible date. There will be certain practical difficulties arising during the transition period. For example, the provision of full-time bursaries for Institution membership students will entail some problems as these students would not necessarily wish to take the full-time part of the course for the diploma which is taken in the third year. This difficulty can perhaps be largely overcome by concentrating such students in one school which might be selected as one which could be usefully developed to senior status at an early date. 201. These are matters which depend to a large extent on factors over which the Committee has little control. It would seem proper that the administrative adjustments which may become necessary should be decided on by the Education Department as they arise, bearing in mind the general policy to be followed. The Committee's view of this policy is expressed in the following recommendation : Recommendation — That while having due regard to the necessity of keeping faith with students who have begun courses for other examinations, the technical schools be organized as soon as possible to provide exclusively for the courses for the diplomas in professional engineering as set out in Section 12 of this report. 12. ESTABLISHMENT OF A SYSTEM OF DIPLOMAS IN PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING (1) NEED FOR COURSES RATHER THAN SUBJECTS 202. Submissions made to the Committee by the New Zealand Institution of Engineers, the Engineers Registration Board, and other witnesses stressed the value of the establishment in New Zealand of a system of Diplomas in Professional Engineering on lines similar to those operating in Great Britain. Arrangements in the United Kingdom between the various professional bodies and the Ministry of Education provide for the award both of National Certificates and of National Diplomas in various branches of professional engineering, the National Certificates being awarded in respect of approved part-time courses of two or three years' duration and the National Diplomas in respect of approved full-time courses of a minimum of two years' duration. 203. With the general principle of establishing courses leading to some nationally recognized qualification the Committee is in complete agreement. It considers that such a system would have marked advantages over the present method of meeting the examination requirements of the professional Institutions. Some of the weaknesses of the present examinations have already been mentioned. Here it may be noted that too

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