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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 1. 1964.

Varsity Buildings Keep One Step Ahead

page 8

Varsity Buildings Keep One Step Ahead

In New Zealand this year about two and a half million pounds is going to be spent on University building. This rate of expenditure will have to be increased to about five million pounds per year during the next five years if the country's demands for higher education are to be satisfied, be satisfied.

That expenditure of this magnitude can be undertaken and administered is due to the activity of the four-year-old University Grants Committee. Prior to 1960 responsibility for University development lay with the University of New Zealand, a body that allocated such money as was made available by the Government to the four University Colleges and the two Agricultural Colleges.

The University of New Zealand did not deal directly with the Government, but acted instead through the Department of Education which, like all Government departments, planned its expenditure on an annual basis. It became increasingly apparent that such limited planning for the future was totally inadequate for the purposes of higher education.

In 1959 the Government established the Hughes-Parry Commission, an expert group of overseas University personnel, to examine thoroughly what should be done to streamline the administration of the large amounts of money that would have to be spent on University education in the future. A recommendation of the commission was the establishment of a University Grants Committee. This was adopted.

The Committee, headed by full-time chairman F. J. Llewellyn, consists of seven members chosen from the University and business worlds, backed up by a permanent administrative staff whose job it is to work with the chairman in administering the decisions of the Committee.

Shortly after the University Grants Committee was established, another major recommendation of the Hughes-Parry Commission was adopted, namely that the four University Colleges were made autonomous, so that they grant degrees in their own right and not in the name of the University of New Zealand. Later Massey College too became autonomous.

The function of the University Grants Committee is to plan and co-ordinate the whole of university development in the country. It does this by receiving submissions from the individual universities as to their requirements for such things as buildings, teaching staff, and land acquisition. These submissions are scrutinised closely by the administrative staff, whose job it is to examine the proposals, suggest modifications, estimate their cost, and give all kinds of advice that may be asked for by the universities.

The submissions are then passed on to the Committee as a whole, which examines them critically to ensure, amongst other things, that they are on a scale large enough for present needs and capable of future expansion. When the Committee has satisfied that it has a water-tight proposal, it takes it to the Government and is responsible for obtaining from the Government the requisite amount of money.

That this system is an effective one, and in the interests of the universities and thus the students and the country, is shown by the fact that the University Grants Committee has obtained authority from the Government for a fiveyear capital works expansion programme costing twenty-eight million pounds.

The University Grants Committee emphasises, however, that despite the apparent brightness of this picture, a considerable portion of this expenditure should have been carried out before. The University of Auckland is filled to capacity. Victoria is just keeping pace with demand, and Canterbury is badly overcrowded in some departments. All the universities are using make-shift accommodation such as old houses. Thus many of the new buildings will serve only to cope with increased student numbers and will not significantly relieve present overcrowding.

The enormity of this problem and the necessity for planning, are both very great. Last year (1963 the total University roll for New Zealand was 17.000. The projected roll for 1969 is nearly 26.000. The reason for this startling increase is a two-fold one. Firstly, the post war increase in babies, which has: for so long been felt in the schools is now starting to hit the universities. Secondly, and just as important the proportion of students who go on for higher learing after they have reached school leaving age is increasing, and a large number of these students are finding their way into the universities. Since education for all who can reach the standard has long been a New Zealand educational philosophy (which state, incidentally, Britain hopes to reach in sixteen years' time), it is evident that future planning has to be based on projected rolls a number of years ahead.

Otago Arts Library Building which many Students will remember from tournament. Situated near the Student Union Building, it is to be completed soon.

Otago Arts Library Building which many Students will remember from tournament. Situated near the Student Union Building, it is to be completed soon.

The other need for intelligent planning stems from the fact that a building costing around one million pounds may take six or seven years to build from the time its need is first considered by the university. This figure is comprised of one year for preparing space schedules and sketch plans, one year for preparing the working drawings, and about four years for the actual building. This last figure of four years is based on the experience that in New Zealand the maximum rate of construction of buildings of this sort is around a quarter of a million pounds per year.

This figure, however, has been exceeded significantly in the victoria Arts/Library building which costs £800,000 and should be finished at the end of this year, about two years from the start of construction.

Altogether about seven million pounds of university building is under construction around the country at the moment. In addition to this, sketch plans are being drawn for another nine million pounds of building, and yet another five million pounds of building is in the early planning stage. Details of new buildings, costs of which are approximate only, are:

Auckland:

The £700,000 Stage A of the £3m. science block is under construction. Drawings for Stage B are nearing completion and the third stage is in the early planning stage.

Tenders will be called later this year for the £lm. Engineering School, and to facilitate as early an opening as possible of this building, tenders for the foundations and site development have already been called.

Working drawings are being prepared for an Arts/Library building costing more than £lm., and sketch plans are finished for a biology extension block costing £800,000.

A Student Union building has been planned, for which the Government has agreed to pay a £220,000 subsidy.

A £160,000 Fine Arts building has just been completed and is now occupied.

£1½m. of land in Princes Street area has been purchased.

Hamilton:

The first stage of this new University, the £180,000 Hillcrest Arts teaching building, has just been completed.

The University Grants Committee has made provision for rapid development of this University once the newly-formed Council formulates its plans.

Massey:

Plans are being prepared for a £350.000 Arts/Library building, a £800,000 Science building.

Interim accommodation for students in the first and second professional years of the veterinary course has been completed. Plans are well advanced for an £800,000 building which will provide facilities for the clinical years of the course and will ultimately absorb students in the first two years.

Victoria:

The £800,000 Arts Library building should be finished late this year.

Auckland £3m. Science Building under construction.

Auckland £3m. Science Building under construction.

A proposal is under consideration for the expansion of the Victoria site which involves setting aside six areas of land costing a total of about £1m.

Plans are being prepared for a Biology building costing £900,000 and the University Grants Committee has under consideration area schedules for an Earth Sciences building.

Properties in Clermont Terrace are being purchased and designated for halls of residence.

Canterbury:

Science buildings costing over £3m. are being constructed on the new Ham site. They may be finished in 1967.

The Engineering School is being extended to give it a capacity of 700 students.

Working drawings are nearly complete for a Church of England hall of residence on the Ham site, for which a £144.000 Government subsidy has been obtainted.

Working drawings are nearly complete for a Student Union building, for which a £121,500 Government subsidy has been obtained.

Preliminary plans are being drawn for an Arts/Library biulding and two or three other Arts buildings.

Lincoln:

Working drawings have just been completed for a £550,000 teaching and research block.

Otago:

A £520,000 Arts/Library building is under construction.

Early planning is in progress for the first stage of the Arts and Physical Science buildings.

Properties adjacent to the University site are continually being purchased.

The total area of space available for University teaching at present is two million square feet. The buildings which have been planned in the last four years and which will be completed by 1969 will add a further two million square feet. Thus the decade 1960 to 1969 will produce as much new space as the University system managed to acquire in the first eighty years of its existence.

That nearly all the work asssociated with this multi-million pound exercise has been undertaken in the last four years is a measure of the vigour and enterprise of New Zealand's new university system, the co-operation of the Government departments involved, and the recognition by the Government of the vital role which the Universities and their graduates will play in the economic and cultural development of New Zealand.

The Colombo Plan hostel at Palmerston North was nearing completion when our photographer took this picture. It has since been finished and will be ready for students this year.

The Colombo Plan hostel at Palmerston North was nearing completion when our photographer took this picture. It has since been finished and will be ready for students this year.