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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 33, Number 7. 27 May, 1970

From Auckland: — Exams again

From Auckland:

Exams again

The examination system has been attacked at Auckland University for the second time in a month.

Craccum reports that a staff/student committee of the Art History Department at Auckland has come forward with a system which, if implemented, will entirely eliminate examinations as a means of assessing students' work and replace them with a course-work assessment.

These proposals closely follow those suggested by a staff/student committee in the Philosophy Department at Auckland However, the proposals of the Philosophy Department called for a reduction in the emphasis on end-of-year examinations rather than their complete abolition. No final decision has yet been taken on the Philosophy Department recommendations.

The Art History Department proposals have been approved by all Art History classes and a report recommending implementation of the proposals has been sent to the Committee on Academic Development for its consideration. However, the Art History Department consider it unlikely that the action recommended will be taken before 1971.

The decision of the committee of the Art History Department, which was a unanimous one, was based on a criticism of the examination system. This system, the committee said, "encourages emphasis on both teaching and learning aimed at feats of memorising information and rapid writing, and discourages teaching aimed at the development of the understanding of the individual."

The suggested methods of assessment for the Art History Department would primarily consist of: slide tests on specific topics (with some suggested reading); slide tests on lecture material; essays; individual project work; papers for seminars; 'take-home' tests (for assessment of overall grasp of the year's work.)

In other departments at Auckland, student representatives in Psychology and Political Studies have entered proposals for changes in or abolition of the examination system on agendas at their respective departmental staff/student meetings.