University examinations

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 8

University examinations

Sir, —Half the 1972 annual examinations of the University of Canterbury have now been attempted by candidates granted terms. It is a stress period of some magnitude, and I would like to ask the university authorities, through your columns, why only some faculties give credit in final results for assignments and tests carried out during the year. While acknowledging the need for examinations, I think they should be seen in the perspective of a whole year’s work. A three-hour examination is far from a fair test of the total involvement or knowledge of any student in a subject area. Where examinations are the only guide, I think it most unfair and unreasonable that any mid-sessiona] examination should not be marked. Such a state of affairs deprives a student of any knowledge of the standard of answer required by an examiner for an A, B, C, D, or E classification and, indeed, of a halfyear assessment. —Yours, etc., PERHAPS A FAILURE.

October 26, 1972. [Professor N. C. Phillips, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury, replies: “Your correspondent is misinformed if he believes that any academic department leaves, out* of account the work done by a student during the year in assessing his final result. It is true, however, that some departments do, and a few do not, formally allocate a given proportion of the final marks to performance during the year. The decision whether or not to do so, and to what extent, depends on the judgment of departments on the academic suitability of the practice to the subjects they teach. If it is true that mid-sessional examinations have not been marked, and if the correspondent will provide me with specific details, I shall make inquiries.”]