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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 16, No. 18. September 18, 1952

N.Z.'s Needs

N.Z.'s Needs

All these theories are answers to the problems facing university authorities in most countries of the world, including, in several respects, those in New Zealand. Their problems include the demand by industry for a more extensive co-ordination of the university courses and industrial needs and practices, and the necessity for a deeper appreciation of the responsibilities of the university in the search for truth; the necessity for State subsidies, and the parallel tightening of State control; and the material difficulties of the students. Even in New Zealand, where rood is comparatively cheap and plentiful, the housing situation is not impossible, and few under-graduates pay fees for lectures, there are frequent cases of absolute hardship, and many cases of undernourishment. Professors of two of our university colleges have pointed out, in the last couple of months, that a high proportion of students are physically unfit; while in certain faculties (arts and law, at Victoria) at least half the students have fuller part-time jobs.

In considering the case for student-salaries in our own circumstances, we should note that while the standard of living in New Zealand is higher than that of most European countries, and our climate is not unduly harsh, and so on, our students generally receive fewer concessions here than on the Continent. In many cases European students enjoy such benefits as very inexpensive meals or reduced travelling rates—whereas the only comparable assistance for New Zealand students is the Right to Hitch-hike.

The question of student-salaries is not, of course, one which can be discussed in vacuo. It is only one of the suggested methods of "democratisation;" and "democratisation," is the sense, not of a descent of the greater problem of the revision of educational method and theory felt today in most countries.

—P.B.