Grants Committee

Some years ago, while discussing the grant necessary to finance six Colleges separately, the Government, through its then Prime Minister, stated that it would prefer to deal with one organisation rather than six separate organisations, so the University established the Grants Committee. Through the block grant system negotiated by the Grants Committee the Colleges retain their autonomy and through the quinquennial grant they are able to have continuity of policy and to budget ahead. Although the College Councils have this autonomy in the use to which they put their block grant, there is still a necessity in the national interest for the Colleges to get approval from the University when new departments or new Chairs are established, since it is clear that from a financial point of view it would be impossible for every College to proliferate in all directions without considering the fact that New Zealand with only two million people is not yet able to finance four separate universities complete with all departments. Of course, all universities do not need to have all departments in order to function as universities, nevertheless, the point I am making is that for any new development it is necessary, in the public interest, that there should be a Dominion body to advise on it so that the Government will not incur undue expense.

The Grants Committee has also been given recently the responsibility for finding out the building needs of the Colleges and presenting to the Government the case for the new buildings needed to carry out their functions adequately. As you know, the Colleges are lamentably behind most British and American universities in the standard and extent of university buildings In one New Zealand College, for instance, no permanent major university building has been erected since 1926 and in others the last so built were in 1939. During those years student numbers have more than doubled. No major permanent building is under construction at any University College at the present time, and the whole system is faced with the need at the moment to catch up with the serious deficiency in building from the past and to prepare for the future increase in student numbers. Although the sum of £5,700,000 is shown on the Government Estimates for 1953-54 for education buildings, there is no provision on them for any single major university building. As you are aware, apart from laboratory and lecture rooms, most Colleges do not have great halls even equivalent to those at good secondary schools and buildings for student amenities are for the most part of very poor quality. The Government has been made urgently aware of the position and it is our hope that a rational, long-range building plan for the University will be accepted shortly and finances provided for its development. At each University centre the buildings given first priority on this plan are: at Auckland and Canterbury, the Engineering Schools; at Victoria, the Science block; and at Otago, the Dental School. The work of the Grants Committee in collecting and collating Information about the financial needs for running costs and buildings for all six Colleges and presenting the case continuously and cogently to the Government, is one of the major activities of the University of New Zealand, but whereas in England the Grants Committee has a permanent staff of some 26 officers, in New Zealand we have to try to manage without a single full-time officer being able to devote all his time to the work. As in other matters, the University tries to manage the Grants Committee with a minimum of financial outlay, while at the same time striving to be effective.

Scholarships.—There is very little to add here about Scholarships beyond what has been said already. The position of Scholarships last year in Science, for instance, was very satisfactory in that, so far as I amaware, all First Class Honours graduates of outstanding ability were successful in getting an opportunity to go overseas for further study. Our policy is to assist graduates of high merit to go as far as possible with their studies in New Zealand and then afterwards to give the specially gifted the opportunity for study abroad under recognised world authorities. On a rough calculation, over fifty opportunities were afforded last year for New Zealand students from all faculties to study abroad with financial aid and even that figure would be increased if wo included all the special opportunities offered by shipping concessions, Fulbright Travel grants, grants from overseas universities and from various Foundations. In all these special and general cases the University of New Zealand plays a major role in the selection of those who will be given such special opportunities.

Special Schools.—There is a general function which the University is expected to perform in relation to Special Schools since the conception of the University is that it should be a complete university for New Zealand, made up of Constituent Colleges, each with some Special Schools, but no one Constituent College in itself being complete with all the Special Schools it is clear that in the present slate of our economic development and the size of our population it is impossible for every College to have all necessary Special Schools attached to them, so it is for the Senate to consider whether new Schools need to be started and if they are started, where they should be located. A second Medical School at Auckland and a possible Veterinary School somewhere in the Dominion are examples of new Special Schools at present under consideration.

Research.—In this field the University manures one research grant from the Government of £15,000 a year and another of $60,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for Social Science Research; this latter fund to be spent at the rate of $12,000 a year. In addition, the University co-operates with D.S.I.R. in allocating funds for research to teachers in the Colleges who are working in fields in which the D.S.I.R. is interested. The sum spent in this way by D.S.I.R. last year was £27.000. Whether the University should have a permanent role of allocating special funds to research workers within the Colleges is, of course, debatable, but in carrying out this function as a development stage in the University, it is very valuable indeed. Every effort is being made to finance the Colleges so that their staffing and maintenance grants will be adequate to provide for research as an ordinary proper activity. It is [unclear: neccsary] at present to find special moneys for research, so the University in distributing these moneys is performing a valuable function in stimulating [unclear: research] and assisting in the training of research workers.