UE standard may be raised

Derek McCormack. Photo / Richard Robinson

University vice-chancellors have been speaking to the qualifications authority about whether University Entrance standards are too low.

At least one says the bar should be lifted for high school graduates and others have questions over the policy allowing anyone over 20 automatic entry to university.

Derek McCormack, the vice-chancellor of AUT University, said there were concerns over whether it was appropriate to set the special admissions scheme at the age of 20, just two or three years older than a school leaver who needs University Entrance (UE), especially when there was already competition between students for scarce resources.

While Mr McCormack did not believe the UE standard itself needed to be tougher, he agreed there were some issues with it that needed to be reviewed. Hypothetically, it would not be appropriate to have a standard that allowed students into university when they were not ready for it, he said.

But he said the connection between a UE standards review and a surge of enrolments was a coincidence.

On the other hand, Dugald Scott, pro vice-chancellor of Victoria University and chair of the University Vice Chancellors' sub-committee on university entrance, said the mood for change was driven by universities' difficulties in dealing with more demand from students than they were funded for by the Government, the New Zealand Education Review reported yesterday.

It made little sense to place blanket restrictions on courses if it resulted in an entrance standard different to UE, he said.

The University of Auckland's vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon was not available for comment last night but he has previously spoken about the university's decision to cap numbers which allows it to pick top students for its courses.

Jordan King, a co-president of the New Zealand Union of Students Association, did not agree there was a need to raise standards for UE. "We absolutely support the status quo."

Mr King conceded there was overwhelming demand for university places but said this was not surprising given the economic circumstances.

He pointed out that other countries had invested heavily in universities in light of the recession, while New Zealand's overall university funding was on the decline.

Bali Haque, the deputy chief executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, said informal discussions about a potential review of University Entrance standards had been held over the past few months.

NZQA is working with the Ministry of Education to review literacy and numeracy standards at primary school and in the national secondary school qualification NCEA. "It seemed sensible to discuss UE literacy and numeracy as well," he said.