English Conclusions

The English conference reached several conclusions. What applied overseas did not necessarily apply to New Zealand, but it was always useful to know what schemes had been successful overseas. First, no one doubted that there was a place for the university graduate in industry. This not only meant those technically qualified in science or engineering, but the demand also included graduates in any subject for management positions. The policy of many of the larger distributive firms, and big city stores, was to secure the best trained minds it could get hold of. It was not so much the knowledge acquired at the university, but the training in the habits of concentration, of clear thinking, and of impartial analysis of situations which was the worthwhile thing. Apart from appointments to technical jobs, the subject of the degree was not considered to be of great importance.

VUCs budding (and blossomed) B.Com's must take to heart a further quote from General Weeks: "It is doubtful whether those who have taken university courses in the field of commerce by part-time study have added to their capacity for holding responsible office, except in purely technical 'expertise.' Employers in England had given little recognition to such men in choosing applicants for higher training or importance.

The well-trained mind with the right sort of personality was more important, even for technical jobs, than crammed examination lore, in Dr. Holme's view. In technical jobs the knowledge gained was important in the first six or seven years, but from that time onwards technical knowledge diminished in importance until twenty years after graduation as many as 75 per cent, were no longer dependent on it. Eventually personal qualities became paramount, and influenced further advancement in a great industrial concern studied in England.

Dr. Hulme went on to quote General Weeks again; we [unclear: rsrlnt] the quote in full:

"The weight of the evidence as to the attitude of the majority of employers today in considering the type of men required for posts of responsibility suggests that the qualities most required are not mere academic brilliance or attainment alone, but rather in addition the powers of leadership, judgment, quickness of decision and the ability to see a job through to its finish, and that the type of man who has been able to benefit fully from a university education is often more likely to possess a combination of these qualities than is the younger entrant to industry or commerce recruited straight from school."

But he adds, "the immature graduate, who has used his university life as a medium for self-indulgence, and who has concentrated solely on social and sporting pursuits to the exclusion of intellectual study and discipline, will soon be found wanting in the performance of those rigorous everyday tasks, involving hard and concentrated thought, which make up much of the life of those who hold responsible positions in progressive industry and commerce today. Equally the over-studious graduate will fall, the one who has merely used the university as a medium for communicating factual Information, and has taken no part in the activities of those multitudinous democratic institutions which play such an important part in true university life."

The British system was summarised by Dr. Hulme thus: "Graduates are going into industry and commerce in considerable numbers, and a university education, besides providing the necessary technical knowledge for certain jobs, should in all cases aim at training its students in clear thinking and concentration, and should give them opportunity to develop in other directions besides the purely academic."