Minister Explains Claim On Passes

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29872, 12 July 1962, Page 12

Minister Explains Claim On Passes

lfrom Uur parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 11. Asked by Mr M. A. Connelly (Opposition, Riccarton) to amplify his statement that only 10 per cent, of students at New Zealand universities completed their courses, the Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) said in the House of Representatives today that the information he had been given might have been open to misinterpretation.

“What I am sure my informant meant was that the number of graduates each year is only about 10 per cent, of the total number of students attending the universities,” said Mr Tennent.

"The impression I intended to convey was that I share the concern which was expressed by the Hughes Parry committee when it wrote in its report: ‘lt is dear that a very high proportion of students who come to the universities either do not graduate at all, or do so only

after an unduly extended period.’ “Mr Parkyn, in his research into success and failure at the university, traced the graduation rate of a group of foil-time students w-ho enrolled in 1955 in arts and science courses. Of 130 men students in arts who started in 1955, 28 per cent graduated at the end of 1957, a further 18 per cent, graduated at the end of 1958, and 54 per cenit. had not graduated by the end of 1959.”

This was five years after beginning the normal threeyear course, said Mr Tennent.

“Of 148 men students in science who started in 1955. 22 per cent, graduated at the end of 1957, a further 22 per cent, graduated at the end of 1958, and 56 per cent, had not graduated by the end of 1959, he said.