Entrance Qualifications

In spite of squeals from the Chambers of Commerce and the occasional lament of northern Professors, I don't think falling standards in our schools are the cause of University failures rocketing skywards. Indeed, from personal observation and recollection. I don't think our schools are going down but up in the quality of the work they do. Nor do I think, as some people do without looking at the evidence, that we've reached a sort of intellectual saturation point. At any rate in two classes in which entrants have been tested for a decade, the Departments of Education in Otago and at Victoria College, the wider intake hasn't reduced the average I.Q. The ability remains constant to a couple of decimal points, and still the failures go up in almost all Departments.