MANY FACTORS CAUSE UNIVERSITY FAILURES

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28619, 23 June 1958, Page 7

MANY FACTORS CAUSE UNIVERSITY FAILURES

Unsatisfactory performance by first-year university students was not. in general, the result of inadequate post-primary schooling, poor scholastic attainments before entrance, insufficient intellectual capacity or lax and variable methods of accrediting, but rather the result of factors operating at the university level itself. This is the conclusion of the director of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (Mr G. W. Parkyn), whose study of the relationship between the standard required for entrance to the university and the performance of students taking stage one subjects is referred to in the annual report of the council. The report said that the factors at university level appeared to be of two kinds. First, there were general factors, such as the difficulties inherent in part-time s + udy, inadequate provision for giving guidance and individual attention tn first-year students, and the difficulties of adjustment to the new and complex life of the university. There were also Individual factors which included the unwise choice of subjects; personal problems: changes in Interests and motives, and many other circumstances which could Influence the academic success of students in quite unpredictable wavs.

In March last year, a progress report on the study was circulated to all members of the professorial boards of the universities and to the executive -committees of teachers’ associations. Report to Senate

In July, a tentative report was prepared for the Senate of the University of New Zealand. The reason for this procedure was that, with the imminent increase of potential university entrants from post-primary schools the Senate has been giving careful consideration to its entrance policy. As the findings of the investigation had important implications concerning the standard of the entrance qualification, it was desirable that the university should have the earliest op-

portunity to study these findings, said the report. The process of preparing and discussing interim reports had delayed the writing of the final report, but it had been the means of getting the findings critically examined at an early stage. The final report which should be completed by the end of the year will be published in two parts. The first will deal with the question of whether the standard of the university’s entrance qualification is a significant factor in stage one failures. Since the answer, in general, was “no.” the second part will deal with the factors that influence academic success and failure at the university level.