THE UNIVERSITY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 351, 15 March 1946, Page 5

THE UNIVERSITY

Sir,-It is indeed time that the community became aware and took stock of its University. The Chancellor says that ,it is third-rate, meaning presumably that its degrees are of easy acquisition and its graduates, mostly mediocrities. That is probably quite true, whether one’s standard is absolute or relative to other universities, Professor Gordon puts the, blame on lack of finance resulting in understaffing and overcrowding. Suppose we rectify this? Would we really inject a new vitality or would we merelv make the "secondary school" more efficient? I agree with you that the cause of our dissatisfaction lies much deeper, I am a graduate of the New Zealand University and so are my four children, from three different colleges. We agree that nowhere in our courses has there been a hint of any need or desirability of probing into the question of what are the ultimate values of life, Such things might be discussed between students in their leisure hours; in my memory these discussions remain the most stimulating part of my university education. But so they will be discussed among ardent

young spirits anywhere. Nowadays the time, apparently, is so much more thoroughly taken up with exercises and examinations that such leisure hours are few indeed.,. The fact is that, from whatever causes, the accepted idea in New Zealand of a satisfactory life consists of professional and social success and plenty of money; on the "working man" level, high wages and short hours; and for both, above all, untroubled physical comfort. I have long cherished a plan for giving an opportunity at any rate to those -there must be some-who desire to find truth not only for its own sake, but for the sake of humanity. Already in the honours classes in the various sciences and perhaps Philosophy and Political Science (we have no Social Science) there are students inspired by this idea, but they work at a great disadvantage. I should like to see such disinterested work separated altogether from the professional schools which constitute the great bulk of our University, I would have it called the University, and the schools would remain schools; but names do not much signify. It would be devoted solely to research, scientific and philosophic (in the grandest sense of the word) and to literature, (active not passive). Only the pick of our graduates would be admitted, and they would be offered only plain living and high thinking, "blood, sweat, toil, and tears." I hardly think that any professors would be needed, only a first-class librarian; "for the true university is a collection of books," and an intelligent and eager spirit is best left to the influence of ideas free from personal influence. So it would be cheap as far as buildings and salaries are concerned, and expensive equipment, apart from the library, would be confined to the laboratories. In such a way we might produce the ideas and the men who could re-vitalise our conditions and put us on a dynamic path of progress. "Conflict" is the keyword to humanity’s dissatisfactions, conflict of opposing interests within the individual, within the nation, between the nations, Yet the everyday notions of us all betray a faith in the ultimate goodness of life. On the dialectic principle this contradiction is soluble on a higher plane of thought and consequent action, What is that plane and how are we to reach it? That is what we need to know, both as individuals and as citizens, and that knowledge will constitute progress.

BERTHA

BOGLE

(Heretaunga).