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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPAMESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1990 > PART1 Chapter2 3 2

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PART 1 Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education
Chapter 2 Current Status of Higher Education and Issues Involved
3 Improvement of Procedures for the Selection of Entrants
2 Introduction of the NCUEE Examination


With the above background in view and in the light of the recommendations presented in the first report (published on 20 June 1985) of the National Council on Educational Reform. a Consultative Committee on Reforms of University Entrance Examinations began in July 1985 to consider what kind of test should replace the Joint First-stage Achievement Test. On 15 February 1988 the Committee published its final report. On the basis of this report, the new NCUEE (National Center for University Entrance Examination) examination began to be administered for the selection of university entrants for the 1990 academic year. This new examination is designed mainly to assess the basic scholastic achievement which applicants have gained in their upper secondary school. The examination is administered jointly by individual universities and the National Center for University Entrance Examination. The number and kinds of testing subjects required of applicants are to be determined by individual universities with their own free judgment and creative concepts.

The new examination scheme was developed with the expectation that each university would adopt a distinctive selection process, taking full advantage of the results of the nation-wide examination, with a view to facilitating students' advancement to an appropriate university suited to their own abilities and aptitudes. It was also expected that the diverse and distinctive ways of using the nation-wide examination by individual universities would contribute to preventing the classification of students according to the "deviation value" of their scores on standardized tests or the ranking of universities according to the level of academic achievement of incoming students.

In the spring of 1990, the new nation-wide examination was utilized by all national and local public universities (444 faculties at 132 universities) and 19 faculties at 16 private universities. The number of applicants who took this nation-wide examination was 430,542. More than 80% of all faculties of national and local public universities (or 379 faculties at 114 universities) required their applicants to take the nation-wide examination in five subject areas. On the other hand, 115 faculties (or 26% of all faculties) at 62 universities (or 47% of all national and local public universities) required their applicants to take the examination in not more than four subject areas. Many universities adopted "weighted allotment of points" to different subject areas in accordance with the characteristics and speciality of each faculty or department.

Most private universities used this nation-wide examination for selecting a part of their entrants. There were diverse ways of using the NCUEE examination by private universities. They included: 1) combining the NCUEE examination with their own interviews and easy tests; 2) combining the NCUEE examination with their own scholastic achievement tests; and 3) exempting applicants who have taken the NCUEE examination from taking their own entrance examination.

Positive appraisals of the new selection procedures have been heard from many private universities which used the nation-wide examination in 1990. According to these universities, under the new selection procedures; 1) more students with all-round abilities applied to private universities and entered them; 2) students were in general in favor of the increase in the number of universities they could apply to; and 3) the use of the new nation-wide examination enabled private universities to introduce interviews and essay tests, and thus to diversify the procedures for selecting entrants.

For the selection of entrants in April 1991, additional five faculties at five private universities are planning to use the NCUEE examination which will be administered for the second time in February 1991.


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