ACCREDITING PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 10

ACCREDITING PLAN.

'VARSITY ENTRANCE. EDUCATION POLICY CHANGE. SENATE GIVES APPROVAL, (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. An im porta nt change in education policy was approved to-day by the Senate of the University of New Zealand when it affirmed the principle that entrance to the university should, in general, be by way of accrediting instead of by the university entrance examination now held. This decision followed the submission of a report by the committee on entrance, which, having considered a summary of the report by the Council for Educational Research, recommended ' that entrance to the university should, in general, be by way of accrediting by any school list of approved schools. The committee also suggested that a properly devised cumulative school record card should form the basis of the accrediting. The committee recommended that the Education Department should increase its staff of secondary school inspectors; that further provision for specialised training of post-primary teachers should immediately be made; and that a liaison officer should be appointed by each constituent college and given such status and functions in the college and in the schools as would enable him to report and advise on accrediting as it affected the university and the schools. Three Yean' Study.

The Senate agreed, on the committee's suggestion, that at least three years of satisfactory post-primary study should be demanded before a school certificate was granted by accrediting, and that for pupils who wished afterward to be accredited for matriculation a further year of school work should be required.

The final recommendation in the report was that the present examination should still be held for those who did not qualify for entrance by accrediting and who were over 10 years of age on December 1 of the year of examination. This scheme, the report explained, was to apply only to geurm! entrance, and was not to affect the professional courses, for which special entrance examinations were now provided. These examinations would be continued as at present. The Senate approved the principle of the scheme outlined by the committee and decided to submit it to the Academio Board, the Entrance Board and the professorial boards of the colleges for a report to tho next mcetiag of the Senate. A suggestion by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor T. A. Hunter, that the Executive Committee should discuss the financial considerations of the scheme with the Minister of Education, was also approved. "Enlightened Procedure." During discussions of the committee's recommendations Mr. L. J. Wild suggested that all schools should have the right of accrediting. He said the schools had consistently advocated the right of accrediting for a considerable number •of years, and he hoped that the teaching profession would be reasonably assured that from the beginning of 1940 "this enlightened procedure" would be adopted. Professor Hunter naid it would not be .possible to draft and approve a statute embodying the scheme until next year. Mr. G. J. Smith said the finances of the university would be seriously affected.

this led to Professor Hunter's suggestion that the Executive Committee be authorised to discuss with the Minister of Education the financial considerations involved if such a scheme were put into effect. The Chancellor, the Hon. J. A. Hunan: I take it that this scheme would not be put into effect unless our funds were restored in some way.