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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

With regard to the methods of university entrance examinations, after World War various reforms were attempted with the aim of selecting, through reasonable and objective methods, those qualified students who have the proper abilities and aptitudes to be given a university education. In 1945 a Scholastic Aptitude Test was introduced, and during the 1960's standardized tests developed by a government-supported Educational Test Research Institute were introduced. However both of these tests were later abolished because of the limited number of universities using these tests and because of various other reasons.

During the years from the abolition of the Educational Test Research Institute's tests to 1979 when the First-stage Joint Achievement Test was introduced, university entrants were apt to be selected by a single scholastic achievement test given by each university. As individual universities developed their own entrance examinations in their own way, they very often tended to give too difficult and peculiar questions which were beyond the level and scope of the upper secondary school curriculum. This trend had adverse effects upon educational programs in upper secondary schools.

Behind this phenomenon, there were various factors interrelated with each other, such as: excessive emphasis placed by the general public on the educational background of individuals; the strong wish of a great many upper secondary school students to enter a small number of prestigious universities; the differences among individual universities in the qualitative levels of educational programs which are the results of their different histories; and the social climate where predominant emphasis is placed on the students' level of scholastic achievement. In order to solve these, it was considered necessary to improve the procedures for the selection of university entrants, as well as to formulate more comprehensive measures. To this end, on the basis of both the results of studies conducted by the Association of National Universities, and the recommendations submitted in 1971 by the Consultative Committee on the Improvement of University Entrance Examinations, new procedures for the selection of university entrants were put into effect for national and local public universities for the 1979 academic year. The new procedures include a nation-wide Joint Achievement Test as the first-stage selection.

The Joint First-stage Achievement Test was introduced with the aim of putting into effect a very cautious and elaborate selection process by means of securing high-quality test questions intended to assess students' general and basic achievements acquired in upper secondary schools, and by means of helping each university carry out diverse and comprehensive assessments of applicants' abilities, making the best use of the results of both the Joint First-stage Achievement Test and its own second-stage examination Along with the introduction of the Joint Achievement Test, the classification of national universities into two groups - universities giving their entrance examinations in the first period and those giving their entrance examinations in the second period - was abolished with the aim of preventing the difference among national universities in social esteem from being explicit.

As a result of the introduction of the Joint First-stage Achievement Test, it became possible to assess the basic scholastic achievement which each applicant had acquired during his or her upper secondary school life. In addition, many universities have introduced various innovations with regard to their own second-stage entrance examinations. The average number of subjects to be tested has been reduced from five to two. Selection procedures have been diversified and individualized among different universities. Many universities have added inter-views, easy tests, practical skills tests and listening comprehension tests in English language in addition to traditional achievement tests many universities have introduced special selection procedures whereby a certain number of entrants are selected only on the recommendation of upper secondary school principals; and an increasing number of universities have reserved a certain number of student places for students who have returned from a long stay abroad, as well as for working adults.

Specially, in 1978, one year before the introduction of the Joint Achievement Test, only 35% of all national and local public universities had interviews with applicants as part of the selection process. By 1990 the number of such universities had increased to 88.6%. During the same 12 years, the proportion of universities offering essay tests increased from 33.3% to 84.1%, and that of universities offering listening comprehension tests in English language substantially increased from 7.5% to 29.5%. The percentage of universities which select a certain number of entrants on the basis of the recommendation of school principals increased from 32.5 to 75.0. The number of universities reserving special places for students who have returned from overseas rapidly increased from only one (or 0.8% of all universities) to more than a half of all universities (52.3%). Special places for working adults were introduced in two universities in 1983. By 1990, 21.2% of all universities had introduced these places. (See Chart -2-26.) In these ways the diversification of selection procedures, which was one of the main aims of the Joint Achievement Test, has been progressing year by year.

Chart -2-26 Improvements in the Entrance Examination Given by Individual National and Local Public Universities

New problems, however, were exposed. Firstly, the "ranking order" of universities became more explicit because it was made a general rule for each university to require their applicants to take the joint First-stage Achievement Test in all five subject areas. Secondly, it was criticized that the Joint Achievement Test was used merely by national and local public universities, not by private universities. Thirdly, since the classification of national universities into two groups according to the date of entrance examination had been abolished, demands were disclosed for allowing students to apply to two or more national or local public universities.