135

The number of students on the roll at present (February 1931) is 92. Encouraging as this may be it is necessary to sound a note of warning. With the present shortage of staff and equip- ment it is very doubtful indeed whether we can possibly give thorough courses of instruction to the large classes which we may shortly expect in the third and fourth years. This is a matter which requires close and serious investigation. It is no exaggera- tion to say that the ultimate success or failure of the Faculty will very largely depend on what support it receives during the next few years.

These words have been written only after very carc- ful deliberation.

F. A. REDMOND,

Dean (1930).

REPORT ON THE FACULTY OF ARTS

FOR THE YEAR 1930.

The courses in the Faculty of Arts are at present divided The numbers of the under-

into seven Groups of Studies.

graduates and external students in the various Groups in the Second Term of 1930 were as follows:

Internal External

Group 1 (Letters and Philosophy)

13

I

Group 2 (Experimental Science)

5

I

Group 3 (Social Science)

17

I

Group 4a (For Teachers of Science and Mathematics) 14

Group 4b (for Teachers of Science and Biology)

21

2

18

7

88

12

Group 4c (For Teachers of General Subjects) Group 5 (Commerce)

Total

Of the eighty eight undergraduates twenty-four were women. The work of the Faculty is divided among ten Departments viz. English, Education, Social Science, Commerce, History, Chinese, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

14

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH.

Staff:—R. K. M. Simpson, M.C., M.A. (Professor of English).

B. G. Birch, B.A. (Lecturer and Tutor).

A. C, Braine-Hartnell, B.A. (Lecturer and Tutor). C. E. R. Clarabut, B.A. (Lecturer and Tutor). The numbers of students taking English in the Faculty of Arts during 1930 were :—

Ist Year

2nd Year

3rd Year

4th Year

44

31

13 8

At the beginning of the session, the post of Lecturer and Tutor which had been vacated by Mr. F. H. J. Trayes, B.A. (Cantab.), was filled by the appointment of Mr. C. E. R. Clarabut, B.A. (Cantab.). Mr. Clarabut, after taking the English Tripos at Cambridge, had valuable experience as a teacher of English Language and Literature in England and Canada.

In addition to providing instruction for undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts, the Department of English provides classes and tutorials for students in the School of Chinese Studies who have passed their first year examination, for students in the first year of the Faculty of Engineering, and for external students who are not reading for a degree. External students who are not reading for a degree, are admitted to the ordinary degree classes, but are required to make private arrangements for tutorials.

Much of the work is directed towards developing fluency in every-day speech and accuracy in grammatical construction. This is burdensome work when it has to be combined with that instruction in literary culture which is the usual object of Univer- sity classes in English; but the combination is necessary where the mother tongue of the majority of the students is not English. It is burdensome for students as well as for Staff. Frequent corrections in pronunciation, which are acceptable to pupils in schools, are trying in later years to the good nature of ambitious University students, even when given through the medium of dramatic productions. The preparation of frequent exercises in composition, which are the essential material for improve- ment in grammar, makes big inroads on the hours which

15

136

Share This Page