Universities require new literacy and numeracy standards

By Karen Van Rooyen Chief Executive

New Zealand Qualifications Authority 

For the first time, students going to university next year will have to meet certain literacy and numeracy standards. This new University Entrance standard has come about because of the whole new secondary school qualification system. It has one aim – to make sure students going to university have a high chance of success.

Parents, employers and some academics all know the anecdotes about sliding standards of English language and poor levels of grammar and comprehension. Questions are raised about the quality of our education system and the ability of our students to take on higher education.

The University of Canterbury recently publicised some of its own findings, raising concerns about the educational calibre of some of its incoming students. It uncovered a low level of basic literacy and academic skills amongst first-year physics, computer science and engineering students.

The talk is not new. The problem is that, until now, there have been few facts and figures to confirm the anecdotes. We have lacked the research to prove whether it is simply a generational view of the young or evidence of a disturbing trend. We have not had a qualifications system in secondary schools that has enabled us to directly track the literacy levels of students either as individuals or across a group.

However that is about to change.

New Zealand students leaving school are able to attend university if they reach the university entrance standard that is set in partnership by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

In the past, any student with a C pass in three bursary subjects was assumed to be sufficiently literate to have the potential to cope with a degree study programme. The universities have been telling us that this is not the case. In fact, an increasing number of young students have been falling by the wayside. But there has been no hard data on which to act.

It was good enough for a student to have passed any three subjects in the Universities Entrance, Bursaries and Scholarship (UEBS) examinations. There was no requirement that any of the subjects should be English, or any other language-rich subject. (The majority of students involved in the University of Canterbury study would have gained entrance in this way).

But this is no longer the case. As well as success in three subjects, a certain standard of literacy will be an explicit requirement to gain entrance to a university in 2005.

In 2004 there was a significant and what will be far-reaching change to the University Entrance award. We are in the final year of implementing the new National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in secondary schools. This allows us to both set specific standards in literacy and to measure our students against those standards. It also gives us information about the literacy levels of the entire senior secondary school population.

There is a range of standards on the NQF, which count towards NCEA certificates and also for the award of University Entrance. Students are now specifically required to gain credits in reading and writing as well as in mathematics. If they do not achieve these credits we believe that they will be unlikely to succeed at university.

Schools and students have been aware of this range for well over a year. In fact, a working party of secondary and tertiary education representatives, chaired by NZQA, has worked intensively over the last three years to set the standards at appropriate levels.

This is the first year of the new standard. As students of the class of 2004 leave our secondary schools and move into university study their achievements will be monitored. We want to know whether the standards we have set will prove to be a good indicator of a student's likely success or failure.

It is a significant step for us, as a country, to begin to gather evidence about the literacy levels of those senior secondary students moving on to university. The research already done by the University of Canterbury is a useful input to the discussion about an appropriate standard for literacy for degree level study. But it is also important to investigate how literacy levels relate to the success of students once they are at university. Other factors that impact on success rates include academic skills, numeracy, social maturity, motivation and selection of appropriate courses.

We all, in every part of the education sector, wish to ensure that students intending to study at university have all the skills they need to succeed. That is the purpose of the University Entrance award. It is an indication of probable success at university. We set it so that students do not get unrealistic expectations. We need to be clear and upfront about this. It is not fair to tell students that they have a good chance of succeeding at university if they do not.

We have recently announced the timelines for our planned review of the University Entrance award.  We need to be sure that the standard is correctly set and that it stands up against international comparison. If it can be shown that the standard is a good indicator of success it may require only minimal alteration. If it is too easy or too difficult then adjustments may be needed. But the changes will be based on hard evidence, not on the anecdotes and coffee table chatter.

The credibility of our qualifications is a key priority for NZQA. We also hope that by setting explicit standards we stress the importance of literacy for the young people of New Zealand.

Karen Van Rooyen

Chief Executive

New Zealand Qualifications Authority