Failing university students to get the boot

Thousands of students could be booted out of university this year for underperforming in a crackdown on those with poor marks.

Financially stressed universities have revealed they will significantly increase the number of students who are shown the door, saying they only want "motivated students".

The automatic right of people aged over 20 to university courses could also be under threat, as universities warn their budgets are at breaking point. Massey University Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey said universities had been left with no choice.

"We will be excluding students who underperform. There will be a significant number, there's no doubt about that. We want to create space for motivated students."

Prospective students will also face a grilling, with universities making no apologies for the tough stance.

"We have thousands who want to come here, but we will be carefully sifting through the applications and some tough calls will be made. We will be very careful about who we let come here. I expect all universities will be in the same position."

Canterbury University is also cracking down. It excluded 827 underperforming students last year, compared with 203 in 2008.

The university's academic quality assurance unit manager, Heather Dickie, said a strict exclusion policy was necessary to keep standards high and scrutiny of students was set to intensify this year.

The university has introduced a policy in which any student whose grade point average is less than 1.5, or who has not passed half or more of their courses will have their progress automatically reviewed. Grade point averages are ranked up to nine.

Union of Students Associations' co-president David Do said student groups were already seeing an increase in exclusions for poor academic performance.

"They're using the policy as a punitive tool to clear students off their books due to constrained funding."

Student associations were concerned that toughening up admission requirements went against New Zealanders' sense of fairness and their sentiment that people should be given a "fair go".

"Open entry is a very important feature of the education system. It's a cornerstone of our public tertiary education system."

Mr Do said the Government needed to increase university funding.

Each university has a specific number of students funded by the Government. They are allowed to take in more, but they are not funded.

Vice-chancellors' concerns about underperforming students while funding is capped has triggered a review of university entrance standards that will be completed this year.

However, Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley has told the sector it cannot expect funding to cover the increase in students.

In the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-15, released last month, she revealed that tertiary funding would be linked to performance, initially focusing on students' results.

Victoria University vice-chancellor Pat Walsh has also warned that underfunding means the university will have more unfunded students this year.

Last year the university had 650 unfunded students, which equated to a loss of about $5 million.

New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee deputy chairman Roger Field, of Lincoln University, said rather than kicking students out of university, his preference was to let in only those who were likely to succeed. A "major overhaul" of entrance standards was needed.

"University entrance standards don't exactly assist us at this point, so if we want to limit entry we have to apply particular standards for particular programmes."

- By NATHAN BEAUMONT, KIRAN CHUG and REBECCA TODD

- © Fairfax NZ News