SENATE FAVOURS ACCREDITING

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 8

SENATE FAVOURS ACCREDITING

Entrance Test For University

IMPORTANT POLICY CHANGE APPROVED

CUMULATIVE SCHOOL CARDS AS BASIS

(United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, February 6.

An important change in education policy was approved today by the Senate of the University of New Zealand when it affirmed the principle that entrance to the university should in general be by way of accrediting instead of by the university entrance examination now held. This decision followed the submission of a report by the committee on entrance, which, having considered a summary of a report by the Council for Educational Research, recommended that entrance to the university should in general be by way of accrediting by any school on the list of approved schools drawn up by the university. The committee also suggested that a properly-devised cumulative school record card should form the basis of accrediting. The committee recommended that the Education Department should increase its staff of secondary school inspectors, that further provision for the specialized training of post-primary teachers should immediately be made and that a liaison officer should be appointed by each constituent college and should be given such status and functions in the college and in the schools as would enable him to report and advise in accrediting as it affected both the university and the schools. The Senate agreed on the committee’s suggestion that at least three years of satisfactory post-primary study should be demanded before a school certificate was granted by accrediting and that for pupils who wished afterwards to be accredited for matriculation a further year of school work should be required. The final recommendation in the report was that the present examination should still be held for those who did not qualify for entrance by accrediting and who were over 16 years of age on December 1 of the year of the examination. This scheme, the report explained, was to apply only to the general entrance and was not to affect the professional courses for which special entrance examinations were provided. These examinations would be continued as at present. _ The senate approved the principle of the scheme outlined by the committee and decided to submit it to the Academic Board, the Entrance Board and the Professorial Boards of the Colleges for a report to the next meeting of the senate. Professor T. A. Hunter’s suggestion that the executive committee should discuss the financial considerations of the scheme with the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) was also approved.