JOINT UNIVERSITY EXAMINING BOARD. 657 



regards degnees, it may be roughly stated that they represent a 

 hall-mark of proficiency which, with few exceptions, passes current 

 throughout Australia. I know that in one university certain 

 branches of study are more thoroughly taught, and presumably 

 learned, than in another. It would be invidious for me to par- 

 ticularise further than this; but let me say, for argument's sake, 

 that Sydney is strong in science, it may be ; Melbourne, in classical 

 culture ; Adelaide, in mathematics. (I do not say this is the 

 case, but 1 put it thus by way of illustration.) Various causes may 

 contribute to this, as, e.y., the encouragement of a certain line of 

 study at the secondary schools, the ability or enthusiasm of an 

 individiial professor, or the rewards or inducements held out with 

 the view of encouraging the pursuit of knowledge in a particular 

 direction. But whatever may be the differentia in the courses of 

 the various universities, and to whatever extent they may be 

 followed, it does seem to me to be pre-eminently desirable that the 

 degree in any given school should connote, as far as possible, equal 

 attainments throughout all Australia. 



Again, on the ground of saving of labor, I advocate the appoint- 

 ment of a joint board of examiners. At about the same time of 

 the year, in every year, some twenty gentlemen of high education, 

 whose time is therefore highly precious, are seated at their twenty 

 respective tables, holding in their respective hands their twenty 

 respective pens, and prejiaring their twenty respective papers — all 

 of which might be just as well, possibly better, done by some half 

 a dozen of them; and then, when the candidates have handed in 



their papers, these same twenty gentlemen will But there, I 



throw a veil over the rest of the performance, for no one who has 

 experienced the tedium of looking over a large number of papers, 

 loves to have it recalled, even to memory. Now, why could not 

 the papers in, say, the subject of mathematics be prepared by the 

 three professors of mathematics acting together, or by one in one 

 year or one in another ? There would then be no need for calling 

 in an outside examiner for the purpose of checking the work of 

 the professor, a covirse to which so often so much exception is 

 taken. The papers of the candidates would be reviewed by each 

 of the three jjrofessors and marked by all, and the mean marks 

 might be taken as a final result. 



It is not held to be right that a judge should adjudicate on his 

 own case, or that a man should audit his own accounts, and yet the 

 examinations in question are largely conducted by the actual 

 teachers of the scholars ; the test made by them may be a fair one 

 — it may not; at any rate, a body of gentlemen like the professors 

 should be placed above suspicion, and this would be done by the 

 plan I have suggested. Again, it would be foolish to expect that 

 all those who occupy positions on the professoriate should be 

 equally enthusiastic, painstaking, energetic, and I will add, if I 

 may, equally conscientious ; they are but men, and they differ as do 

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