Standard Of University Entrants Being Assessed

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27656, 12 May 1955, Page 8

Standard Of University Entrants Being Assessed

“The Press’ 1 Special Service

WELLINGTON, May 11. The University of New Zealand has launched a full-scale investigation to find whether it sets a high enough intellectual standard for entrants judged on world standards. The Vice-Chancellor (Dr. G. A. Currie) mentioned this at the Victoria University College capping ceremony when he discussed arguments suggesting that too many students were being admitted to university colleges in New Zealand. Dr. Currie said that a scientific investigation had been started by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, at the instigation of the Senate, to discover the relationship, if any, between first-year failure rates and the standard of entrants. “Many teachers believe that many of the entrants are poorly prepared or inadequately endowed intellectually for university work, but on the other hand many headmasters are convinced

that in many subjects today the entrants are better prepared at school than they have ever been,” said Dr. Currie. “For myself I make no secret of the fact that I would prefer that university entrance be attained through examination in five subjects, one of them being English, another mathematics, and a foreign language, and that school reports and an objective list be used in addition,” said Dr. Currie. “It is fair to say, however, that our present method of accrediting for entrance has not resulted in a deterioration in quality of entrants so far as our present evidence on first year results is concerned. “I think we need to get more evidence before changing our method or standard of admission, but one thing is certain: that whatever the standard of admission is, the standard at graduation must conform to world standards, as indeed it does at present,” he said.