Quality of Education

These criticisms seem to raise three main points—the first as to the quality of our university education, the second as to the standing of the university with the Government and the third as to the standing of the university with the public.

Upon the first question we might enquire whether, as Professor Dunham says, the prevalent attitude in New Zealand is that university education must be practical, or whether as Sir John Stopford says, very few of the students have any sense of a university as anything but a kind of cramming—establishment where they can take a course that will equip them with a certain skill or make them proficient for a certain profession? What do we think about these matters? My own opinion is that the charge may be more applicable to part-time than to full-time students, but that even many of our full-time students look upon their university course as a means of acquiring qualifications for earning their living. So also, however, do students at British universities, most of whom are, I believe, full-time students.