Disease and Remedy

There were two main reasons why graduates were not given all-round training. First, there was an attempt to combine the university with a higher technological college, and secondly, the budget was hopelessly inadequate for either part of this double job. Dr. Hulme distinguished the task of a higher technological college as turning out men competent and highly trained in a particular field, such as refrigeration engineering. The university, on the other hand should give engineers a broad view of their profession and its relation to other professions, and develop their ability to think for themselves rather than teach them "know-how."

Dr. Hulme thought there was a need for at least one college of higher technological training in New Zealand, to avoid this combination of courses at present taught in the university. The smallness of the budget was the most cramping disability of all New Zealand's expenditure per student was only one third of that in Great Britain. The quality of young men and women was second to none; Professor [unclear: Condiffe] (ex C.U.C. now with the University of California) said it was a scandal that in a rich country like New Zealand tile university salaries should be the lowest in the Commonwealth.

Finally, Dr. Hulme discussed the possibility of establishing a school of business administration on American lines. It should be a graduate school—the university should not teach secretarial courses, but should teach from the broadest possible view, in order to comply with Professor Whitehead's test "If the subject lends itself to disinterested thinking; if generalisations can be extracted from it, if it can be advanced by research; if, in brief, it breeds ideas in the mind, then the subject is appropriate for a university." Because only one school could be afforded, it should be set up at Victoria alongside the School of Public Administration.