Students' university entrance down under NCEA

NZQA chief executive Karen Van Rooyen appearing before MPs yesterday. She today conceded university entrance numbers are down. Picture / Mark Mitchell

UPDATE - Universities are turning away students, with an estimated 600 fewer achieving university entrance last year under NCEA than in 2003.

Lincoln University vice-chancellor Roger Field this morning said entry to university appeared to be down. "As of last week our understanding is six per cent fewer students achieved university entrance in 2004 compared to 2003."

Professor Field told National Radio it was a shame students were having to be "guinea pigs" for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

It was announced today that former senior public servant Doug Martin will lead a review into NCEA scholarship exams and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) performance.


Deputy State Services Commissioner Tony Hartevelt said he appointed Mr Martin, a Wellington-based director, to lead the review.


The review of the scholarships will have to be reported back by April 29, and the review of NZQA's performance by July 31.


Mr Hartevelt said the different dates aimed to allow findings and recommendations concerning the scholarship exams to be taken account of before this year's exams.


Yesterday, NZQA chief executive Karen Van Rooyen faced a grilling from Parliament's education and science committee.

The pressure was today showing no signs of abating and she conceded university entrance (UE) numbers were down.

"At this stage there's 600 students less this year from last year that haven't gained UE on our data but our data is interim data and it is changing quite rapidly in this area," she told National Radio.

She said the literacy and numeracy standards were about ensuring students at university could pass and had been set in conjunction with the universities.

In Wellington, Victoria University deputy vice-chancellor David Mackay said students could miss out because they had failed to gain the minimum literacy and numeracy requirements.

"They could apply for special admission and we look at their results and other factors and in some cases let them through," Prof Mackay said.

"The people processing that have been overwhelmed with applications."

Canterbury University pro-vice-chancellor Jan Cameron said many students had not achieved enough credits in courses needed for university entrance.

"In some cases there are quite genuine mistakes that are being made in that the schools have perhaps not understood that some of the subjects they are making available for these students are not subjects which will qualify them for entrance," she said.

Other problems included incomplete learning record documents.

"The achievements that they have have not been reproduced on the records that they are sending us when they come to enrol.

"Our staff can dig in behind that sometimes and get further information.

"Sometimes we're having to go back to schools to get school principals to confirm that students have done additional credits which are not on their records."

Ms Van Rooyen said the numbers of students missing out were within expectations following the numeracy and literacy requirements. "It is not fair to let students go to university, take out student loans etc, and for them not to be able to achieve."

She acknowledged she hadn't given Education Minister Trevor Mallard full analysis of data provided to him on NCEA.

Mr Mallard today said information on NCEA scholarships had been sent to his office in January but he did not have his attention drawn to any problems.

He had put through a programme to increase the number of scholarships because it was clear from the information there weren't as many of them as there should have been.

It had been apparent there weren't enough scholarships but it wasn't clear there was a difference between subjects or that the problems were broader.

- NZPA