Why Do They?

The answer is either (a) that they have to have something to live on, and their parents cannot make an allowance, or (b) that practical experience is needed in some form or another for the particular course they are pursuing.

If as Sir David Smith is quoted as saying, "there is an obligation upon the university to explore ways ... of ensuring that students are free to devote their whole time during college terms to university work," by all means let the university try it. What is needed is a monetary allowance for students, and that which cannot be gained by means of a gift: practical experience.

Again, what does a student attend university for? Does he (or she) come to "make a valuable contribution to scholarship" or does he, as has been noted, come to acquire knowledge that can be used in later years for the earning of a living? Perhaps a university is a place where one can, after several years, add a few letters to one's name, and say amugly "I have a university degree." One of the curious types of student is the one who obtains a degree and decides after he has obtained it what he is going to do with it.

With the part-timer, the use of a degree rather than the idea of getting it comes first. What is the use of a student who obtains an M.Sc and then decides that the career for [unclear: hir] is accountancy?

Part-time students are now more than ever an essential part of university life in New Zealand. Without them the university tends to become self-centred, and outside people regard it as beyond the aura of the urban community.

Were it not for part-time students the university colleges would have far leas financial support. It may further be claimed that as many students, both full and part-time enter university with bursaries and scholarships the resultant financial loss if part-timers ceased to attend would probably be disastrous. Part-timers can mix freely with the town's various strata and avoid regarding the town as something to be looked not from a distance.

Part-time study is not the most satisfactory way of acquiring a university education, admittedly, but for many people it is the only way possible. As for university education being "literally free"—well! Add the cost of a small library of books to the £1/12/6 Student Association fee-to protect the "rights" of students—and it becomes quite a sum for the students who fall into class (a).

Footnote: A qualified staff can and has become a machinery for the distribution of notes. Consultations and conversations can be snatched in odd half-hours by part-timers as well as full-timers, but beyond that—what?

—R.G. and D.R.