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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31 Number 2. March 12, 1968

Exams

page 5

Exams

home-grown, and consequently inbred, they are usually both bored and boring on their own subjects. My own experience with them suggests that very few know anything about teaching, and they react defensively or evasively to honest criticism of teaching methods or course content.

There are naturally many exceptions — individuals who, by their competence and enthusiasm, stimulate thought and make a university education worthwhile — despite low salaries, overburdened courseloads, and the general intellectual smog that chokes the place.

And most university lecturers are, I believe, basically able and open-minded, distant more by tradition than by inclination, inept more by provincialism than by innate limitation.

Perhaps, when all is said and done, we need fewer academics and more educators, fewer examiners and more teachers, fewer lecturers and more tutors. Perhaps, indeed, university teachers should spend half their time studying their students as individuals, and the other half doing what that study shows to be desirable and necessary. The first question they might ask is, "Are we evaluating ourselves and our students adequately?" — since the answer may well determine the future of higher education in New Zealand.

References:

Brook, G. L. The Modern University (London: Andre Deutsch, 1965).

Marris, Peter. The Experience of Higher Education (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964).

Parkyn, G. W. Success and Failure at the University, Vol. II, "The Problem of Failure" (Wellington: N.Z.C.E.R., 1967).

A photo of the Rashbrookes taken by Michael Silver at a demonstration last year. They have married since the demonstration.

A photo of the Rashbrookes taken by Michael Silver at a demonstration last year. They have married since the demonstration.