STUDENT LOSSES IN FIRST YEAR

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25088, 21 January 1947, Page 7

STUDENT LOSSES IN FIRST YEAR

LIAISON OFFICER’S PROBLEMS REPORT TO UNIVERSITY SENATE “The three main problems with which the liaison officer is concerned at present are: first-year student losses, admission of new students, and the success of former pupils of the accrediting schools in the district. The first two problems are inter-related." said Mr G. S. Troup, liaison officer between Canterbury University College and the post-primary schools, in his report to the Senate of the University of New Zealand yesterday. “The year 1945 was bad for student losses. The war certainly contributed to the problem; but comparatively few students were called up after the college session began. For the purpose of this section, only those who took four units at the beginning of the year are considered. “Far too many first-year students began by taking four units in 1945, and by the end of the year 89 had discontinued their course and did not sit any degree examination, while 68 more sat and failed in all four. There were 450 new students in all admitted in 1945, so that 20 per cent, of the freshmen ‘walked the plank,’ while 15 per cent, more disembarked by choice or compulsion at the first port, as they were debarred from laboratories •nd lectures this year. “The figure of more than one-third first-year losses gives food for serious consideration. In the Air Force, such loss was given the impersonal but grim name of ‘wastage,’ for it implied that the country’s money, the space of training stations, the time and endeavour of instructors, and the human ambition and potential involved were all largely wasted as far as these persons were concerned. The implications for the university in this respect can hardly be less serious. Losses Cut Down “Complete figures for comparative purposes this year are not vet obtainable; but a tentative sampling of the results indicates that losses have been cut down to less than half of last year’s total. Yet we started with 780 new students, or 62 per cent, more than the previous year. Only 261 of these came direct from the schools, and 155 were from accrediting schools in this district But all the 261 were carefully selected from a much larger number, and the probable losses were largely eliminated by that means. “A total of 379 of the new students were returned servicemen, concerning whom dire prognostications of wastage were rife. But the Rehabilitation Department provided funds, and the college provided or discovered tutors, and these men and other returned servicemen of earlier years were given one tutorial class a subject a week for each eight persons, in addition to their ordinary instruction. Once again, figures are not yet complete; but the students receiving such instruction seem to have been uniformly more successful in the recent examinations than those who did not receive it “A third factor in the reduction of first-year losses may have been the better course-guidance and advice available to new and intending students in virtue of the liaison officer’s accumulated experience, facts, and figures. This, however, is unverifiable, and perhaps a fond hope. Selection of ‘Students “The problems just discussed were prominent in the minds of those who, m 1946, for the first time at this college, had to make a selection of students for stage I courses. A total of 839 applicants were new students, 479 being returned servicemen and 380 coming straight from school It was with the latter that the liaison officer was directly, and. at times, deeply, concerned. "The basis of selection of these pupils was the extent and suitability of their school studies. Thug all those who had followed a more or less liberal course in a sixth form for two years were admitted, although in some cases their units were reduced from four to three. A total of 99 pupils whose schooling fell short of this requirement. and who were applying for difficult intermediate or B.Sc, courses, were excluded and advised to go bacx to school for another year. Most of them have done so, and are presenting themselves again this year with enhanced qualifications for entry and prospects of success.

“After long and careful scrutiny. Involving not only a study of school records and examination marks; but also telephone consultations with principals all over the Dominion. 37 students with one year in the sixth form were selected for the above courses. Although these' last were carefully chosen, they have not been particularly successful, and the results give two interesting indications: (a) that they were allowed in general to take more units than thev should have taken: and <b) that those who had been personally interviewed in the course of visit* to Canterbury schools were better chosen than those not so interviewed. The factor of personality is the one likeliest to escape from a written smsotment, yet it is an important ingredient in success.”