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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 8, No. 2. March, 14, 1945
[Introduction]
Under the impetus of war, Australian universities have undergone a minor revolution. Faced with the need for an adequate supply of trained scientific and professional personnel the Federal Government realistically faced up to the problem of universities in wartime. In February, 1943, the Universities Commission was set up under the Federal Minister for War Organisation of Industry to assist and advise the universities in the fulfilling of their wartime tasks. The main activities of the Commission have been to arrange financial assistance for students in "reserved" faculties and to act as a liaison between the universities and the Manpower Directorate.
Students accepted by the universities and approved by the Manpower authorities for entry into "reserved" faculties—medicine, dentistry, science, engineering, agriculture, veterinary science—are exempt from direction to any other form of national service including conscription into the armed forces. The occupation of the "reserved" undergraduate is that of "student." It is his form of national service.
The number of "reserved" first year students is arrived at after consultation between the scientific and professional advisory committees of the Manpower Directorate and the universities concerned. Reservation after the first year continues if the student's work is satisfactory. In addition to the "reserved" faculties some students are reserved in all stages in the "unreserved" faculties of arts, law, commerce and architecture.