Canterbury University gets tough on failures

BY REBECCA TODD

Canterbury University is cracking down on failing students, with more than 800 "shown the door".

Vice-chancellor Rod Carr is taking a "firmer stance" against failing students.

Enrolments soared during the recession last year, but were not matched by extra government funding.

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

Canterbury University excluded 827 underperforming students last year, compared with 203 in 2008 and only 29 in 2002.

The university's Academic Quality Assurance Unit manager, Heather Dickie, said a strict exclusion policy was necessary to keep standards high.

Failing students were identified and sent a letter warning them that if they did not improve their performance they would be kicked out of their course, faculty or the university.

She said more than 1500 warning letters were sent last year.

Some students "got the hint" and left of their own accord. Others improved, but those who did not were "shown the door".

Over the past year, 49 students were excluded from their course, 713 from their faculty and 65 from the university.

Dickie said follow-ups had shown most students who were excluded from a faculty, such as arts or science, also left the university.

About 20 per cent of students appealed against their exclusion, she said.

"Students know what's expected and if they don't come up to that there's a process of helping them come up to that standard and, if they still can't manage, exiting them," Dickie said.

Allowing continually failing students to return to university year after year was bad for them and for the institution, Dickie said.

Scrutiny of students is 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.

New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee deputy chairman Roger Field, of Lincoln University, said Lincoln had been using academic progression standards for some time, but excluded fewer than 100 students a year.

He was happy with the system and was not looking to tighten standards, despite funding pressures.

Rather than kicking students out of university, his preference was to let in only those who were likely to succeed.

A "major overhaul" of university entrance standards was needed.

"I don't think, in the capped environment, we have got open entry anyway," Field said. "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."

He was particularly concerned about the law allowing anyone aged over 20 access to university, saying it was unfair in the capped-funding environment when students were competing for places.

New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) qualifications deputy chief executive Bali Haque said access for over-20s was written into legislation and therefore not the NZQA's responsibility.

New Zealand Union of Students' Associations co-president David Do said universities had a responsibility to offer support to failing students before excluding them.

"We would be concerned if universities were using current policies purely as a punitive tool just to clear students off their books," he said.

Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey said: "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 would 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," Maharey said.

"We will be very careful about who we let come here. I expect all universities will be in the same position."

Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley has told the sector it cannot expect funding to cover the increase in student numbers.

In the Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015, released last month, she revealed that tertiary funding would be linked to performance, initially focusing on students' results.

- © Fairfax NZ News