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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

Procedures for university admission vary among the five countries. These countries may be classified into two groups according to whether there is a selection process for university admission: the first group comprises France and West Germany, where all qualified students are in principle admitted to universities without a selection process, and the second group includes the United Kingdom, United States and the U.S.S.R., where university entrants are selected on the basis of the results of certain examinations or other criteria. The United Kingdom has a system similar to that existing in France and West Germany: all university applicants sit for a certain external examination before they are selected by universities.

In France and West Germany qualifications for university admission (called baccauureat and Abitur, respectively) are granted to all students who have passed an examination conducted at the end of a university-bound course at secondary school. It is a general principle that all students who have obtained these qualifications are allowed to enter the university of their choice.

On the other hand, in the United Kingdom each university selects its entrants from among those students who have demonstrated such performances in GCE (General Certificate of Education) examinations as are required by the university. Students are selected on the basis of their GCE performances, reports from secondary school principals, the results of interviews, and other elements. In the United States, individual institutions select their entrants on the basis of applicants' high school records, their scores on nation-wide scholastic aptitude tests, the results of interviews and other data. Criteria for assessing student abilities, as well as the degree of difficulty for admission, vary among colleges. Those colleges whose social prestige is very high usually require a high academic standard for applicants. It is very hard to get admission to these colleges. It should be added that these colleges select entrants not only on the basis of the applicants' academic performance. They assess the students' abilities in terms

of diverse criteria including the applicants' high school activities other than academic studies and the results of interviews. Some colleges spend much time, even one year, on screening applicants with scrupulous care.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the level of the applicants' academic performance is a major element in the selection process. College applicants are required to work hard during their high school years, like university applicants in Japan. In France and West Germany, where all qualified secondary school graduates can enter universities, only a limited number of students remain to be university-bound students at the higher grades of secondary school, on the basis of the level of their academic achievement. This fact means that university admission requires students to maintain a high standard of academic performance in these countries as well.

However, while students are required to work hard at school, student competition for university admission is not necessarily severe in these Western countries. A number of background factors may be pointed out. For example, in these societies value is placed on what students have studied in universities and how well. No particular emphasis is placed on the name of the university they have graduated from. There is no conspicuous qualitative difference among the various institutions so long as they are of a certain standard. As students can more easily transfer between different institutions at the undergraduate or post-graduate level than students in Japan, the choice of a particular university to enter is not so decisive for students, For these reasons, there are not a great many applicants who are concentrated on a small number of universities, In addition, in the selected countries in West Europe, unlike in Japan, university admission is not necessarily regarded as a prerequisite for social or economic success. This seems to be one reason why only a limited number of students seek university admission.

Meanwhile, in the U.S.S.R., there is severe competition for access to universities leading to the status of state cadres. More than half of the applicants fail to enter universities.