Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 4, No. 10. September 18, 1941

Science Faculty

Science Faculty

It is inevitable that a great deal which concerns the Science Faculty also concerns the other faculties. Thus a large amount of following may seem needless repetition of previous articles. But, nevertheless, it is necessary.

In Science, research should be the main object. Here we find a deplorable condition. There is Complete Lack of research, except by Honours students, who have also to study theory for examinations. This could be only successfully got over by the establishment of the Long Overdue B.Sc. Honours Degree, with M.Sc. being purely research, with perhaps an oral examination.

To enable such work to be carried on needs the establishment of good scholarships, with good emolument. With bursaries and entrance scholarships, these should be fewer in number and greater in amount, and on a purely competitive basis.

To print the results of research we need a University Press. Why should National Research, Jacob Joseph and other scholarship theses be lost in the professional cupboards?

As a general fact which is quite obvious, is that we need a proper Science room where all periodicals are kept, and will be readily accessible without climbing up stairs. The Science classification of the Library needs overhauling, books on Protoplasm and its structure in, with the Theory of Equations.

More co-ordination is required between the various departments. Certain aspects of Geology are best taken with Biology, etc. There should be a course of Advanced Mathematics for the benefit of those doing Chemistry and Physics, but who do not require a full Maths course.

The staffing of the Science Faculty as a whole is terrible. There should be full-time assistants to keep each department in order, issue apparatus, etc., instead of some poor overworked lab, boy.

Practical work could well be overhauled. Practical examinations are tests of manipulation, not theoretical knowledge, and text-books and notes should be allowed.

With Advanced stages of a subject an historical knowledge should be compulsory; no grasp of the subject can be attained without studying its development. These one-hour exams, should be abolished, and three or four three-hour exams, on special days during the year, set aside for that purpose.

In summing up, there are several matters which merit special attention.

I.Part Time System. Part-timers do not do justice to themselves or to the practical subject they are taking.
II.Lecture system. This is satisfactory for Stages I. and II., but with Stage III. and M.Sc., seminars and discussion classes should be the aim.
III.The need for a General Arts unit in place of the farcical Reading Test.
IV.Mixed standard of Stage I., ranging from ordinary Entrance Examination standard to that of Entrance Scholarship. Some division should be made, or raise the standard of Entrance.
V.Lack of facilities to attend lectures in which one may be interested, without taking it for degree.
VI.Need of a broad degree, one composed of purely Physics and Mathematics, is Not a Science degree.

M.S.