Student placement policy: Towards an improved system

In many education systems, especially in the developing world, the government often decides on behalf of students what programmes they should enrol for and where they should study.

This is a major tradition in many countries driven by a variety of challenges such as the lack of financial and other resources to fund students and enough available spaces at universities.

When students, themselves, choose universities or particular fields of study, they can be influenced by several factors, such as their inclination and competence, the relative popularity of the field chosen, the number of study spaces available and the specific demand of the various disciplines in each university.

University placement based on students’ own study preferences is believed to have better results.

Research also indicates that a student’s choice towards a given field of studies plays a decisive role in student motivation and the success of the learner and creates better retention rates in a given education system.

Hence, it is suggested that, where possible, students should be assisted to pursue a course of studies that interests them.

The practice in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the admission of students to public universities is currently centralised. The ministry of education undertakes the task annually, utilising an automated placement system.

Despite a few articles in the higher education proclamation about the admission requirements for disadvantaged students, there has been no comprehensive and transparent scheme for university admission and placement.

The admission and placement of students to universities have been based mainly on student results attained in the secondary school leaving examination.

The same principle applies in the students’ choices of fields of studies after they join universities.

This is again determined by the space available and the cumulative grade point averages (CGPA) students attain during their first year.

Students who do not meet these requirements have been placed in departments which do not reflect their preferences.

The system provides little opportunity to pursue studies of students’ choice nor do they have the freedom to choose which universities they wish to attend.

With the help of the new national admission and placement policy, this matter could be addressed in future.

What are informing the policy’s content?

The new policy plans to incorporate additional criteria in the admission and placement of students on top of the student score, which has been previously used as the major criterion. Accordingly, five major guidelines have been identified.

The first is underpinned by the need to align university admission and placement with the wider national economic needs and students’ competencies and interests.

Accordingly, in addition to introducing a labour market information system that helps to align the admission and placement system with global and national market needs, the system plans to introduce a mechanism for career guidance and counselling.

This change not only addresses the question of proper human resource planning which has been lacking in the system, but also adds a new dimension to the hitherto placement scheme, which never considered assisting students in their choice of field of studies.

The second policy direction promises to link the placement and admission system with the differentiation of Ethiopian universities into one of research, applied and comprehensive universities.

Since the differentiated system indicates the relative focus areas of universities, it assists students to adjust their choice based on their high school background, preparation and interest, compared to the earlier system where such considerations were not possible.

The third aspect that informs the policy is the development of a modern information management system that enhances student admission and placement through the provision of fair and equitable services.

If properly organised, managed and utilised, the development of an information system on admission and placement can provide substantial support to the sector in terms of understanding and addressing the nature of students and their preferences.

It can also provide reliable information about institutions and their capacities, allowing improved alignment and a more predictable system of admission and placement that can address student interests, including those from disadvantaged groups and those who seek delayed or accelerated admission and placement.

The fourth factor that informed the policy considers addressing diversity and unity.

This may provide another needed improvement for a sector that has been accused of encouraging diversity while doing very little about developing a sense of national unity among students who join universities.

In the previous system, whereby the allocation of students and instructors was influenced by the regions where respective universities are located, there was limited chance for students from different regions of the country to live together and develop the needed sense of nationality.

Another policy aspect is set for developing a system of admission and placement for international students who wish to join Ethiopian universities.

The policy promises the establishment of a structure which provides this service and support for higher education institutions that provide such services within and outside of Ethiopia.

This appears to be a new addition to the system and aligns well with the national internationalisation policy and that of education sector development plans that encourage local institutions to attract foreign students.

On top of the new directions set, the admission and placement policy acknowledges the need for additional financing that can enhance the applicability of the envisaged plan.

Accordingly, the assumption is that different schemes of financing are to be introduced, though their type and nature have not been disclosed in the policy.

A scheme for supporting students who wish to be placed at private higher education institutions is also envisaged, although the contents and directions of this scheme have not been made clear, either.

This is perhaps indicative of a new direction in encouraging the private sector to admit more students with government support, which has never been the case before.

Despite the introduction of schemes such as cost sharing in the public system since 2003, students who join private universities had no opportunity for receiving financial aid from the government.

Are there any specific requirements?

The requirements set in the new policy identify different types of students in the system and set specific criteria for their choices of universities and fields of studies.

However, these requirements do not show a fundamental shift from the earlier criteria. This would mean that it is only when combined with the four major policy considerations given earlier that a student’s preference could be determined.

The policy stipulates that, for a successful university placement, students should pass their secondary school leaving exam with a score above 50%, should meet the cut-off point set annually by the ministry and take the aptitude test administered by individual universities.

While placement at public universities will depend on factors such as space availability, special considerations shall be given to students from remote regions, students with special needs, students having health problems, female students and breast-feeding mothers.

When it comes to field choice, the high school background (subjects they studied) of students, freshman cumulative grade point averages, or CGPA, and entrance exams given by departments shall be considered as useful criteria for admission and placement.

The criteria set for student achievement, above 50%, is to be enforced anew since it has never been practised before, despite a similar policy direction set in the Education and Training Policy of 1994.

This policy direction was neglected due to the excessive focus on creating additional access in the system, allowing students to win entrance to universities without necessarily securing such grades.

While this new direction may be regarded as an indication of the increasing focus the ministry wishes to give to the quality of students who join universities, it is not easy to achieve given the low achievements students continue to exhibit at the secondary level.

The implementation challenge

The new policy on admission and placement considers a variety of factors that need to be taken into account in a modern higher education system – in addition to students’ scores, which were used to determine students’ admission and placements in the past.

This is assumed to take the practice of student placement to the next higher level by aligning it with a variety of factors that can have an impact, creating a system that attends to individual needs and national development plans in a balanced way.

Except stating the time for implementation to be the next Ethiopian academic year, the policy does not offer a clear indication of how or when tasks such as the development of a labour market information system and that of a modern information management system on admission and placement will be undertaken.

As may be anticipated, the implementation of such a comprehensive system requires more preparation and resources than are assumed to be the case. So does the task of coordinating all relevant stakeholders and organisations who should work towards the same end.

Without the proper planning, resources and commensurate activities, translating the envisaged policy statements into action will simply remain a pipedream. Hence, more work is needed before hastily implementing the policy.

Another alternative is to follow a phased approach in which timelines are set for achieving the different policy goals set out in the policy.

Understandably, even this decision requires enough preparation before the onset of the next Ethiopian academic calendar, which is only a few months away.

Wondwosen Tamrat (PhD) is an associate professor and founding president of St Mary’s University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a collaborating scholar of the Programme for Research on Private Higher Education at the State University of New York at Albany, United States, and coordinator of the private higher education sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa. He may be reached at preswond@smuc.edu.et or wondwosen@gmail.com.