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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 17, No. 1. March 4, 1953

The University of Wellington

The University of Wellington

If my answer to the question an independent university for Wellington is a bit more [unclear: equvocal] than it was in 1946. it is only because I am interested in what things are and not what things are called. Let me quote what I wrote in 1946: "What, after all, is a university? A university is not a piece of administrative mechanism. A university is essentially a home of scholarship, fostered by the two-fold activity of teaching and research. It is a community of scholars." If Victoria can be that, I do not really mind what you call it. It wilt, in fact, be a university. Meantime—for how long depends on its ability to act quickly and adapt readily—the University of New Zealand is a useful framework. It provides an easy mechanism for getting colleges together. It has powers, through the University Grants Committee, to negotiate for funds on behalf of all the constituent parts. So long as those directing the policy of the University of New Zealand regard it as a kind of super-service-station for the colleges, where the real university work in done. It has a valuable part to play. But if at any time it becomes thought of as a separate organisation with a life of its own independent of its parts. It is inevitable that the real universities must take over the name as well as the function.