School leavers with a university entrance standard

Forty-three percent of 2008 school leavers achieved a university entrance standard, a 35% increase from 2004.

Date Updated: October 2009

Indicator Description

Percentage of school leavers with at least NCEA Level 3 or sufficient attainment to attend university.

What We Have Found

Forty-three percent of 2008 school leavers achieved a university entrance standard, a 34% increase from 2004.

Why This Is Important

A formal school qualification is a measure of the extent to which young adults have completed a basic prerequisite for higher education and training and many entry-level jobs. An entrance qualification enables students to go directly into further tertiary study at degree level.

Educational qualifications are also linked to labour force status and incomes. For example, in 2007, in New Zealand, wage and salary earners with a Bachelor degree or higher, on average, possess double the relative earning power of those with no qualification (OECD 2009).

How We Are Going

During 2004, NCEA Level 3 was offered for the first time and New Zealand Scholarship was introduced. Students leaving with university entrance requirements, NCEA Level 3, NZ Scholarship or a Level 4 NQF qualification have successfully completed the final year of schooling.

In 2008, 43.4% of school leavers achieved at least a university entrance standard, a 35% increase from 2004. Girls performed better than boys, with more than half of female school leavers achieving an entrance standard compared to 36.6% of boys.

Asian students had the highest proportion of school leavers achieving a university entrance standard (66.5%), which was 36% higher than the percentage of European/Pākehā (48.8%). Pasifika (23.0%) and Māori (20.8%) had the lowest rates. However, relatively higher rates of improvement for Pasifika and Māori since 2004 imply that the disparities between ethnic groups are reducing.

Percentage of school leavers achieving a university entrance standard, by ethnic group (2004 to 2008)

Since 2004, the proportion of Pasifika school leavers achieving a university entrance standard improved by 63%, compared to non-Pasifika school leavers who had a 35% improvement over the same period.

The proportion of Māori school leavers achieving a university entrance standard increased by 77% between 2004 and 2008, compared to an improvement of 31% for non-Māori school leavers.

There is a clear positive correlation between the socio-economic mix of the school the student attended and the percentage of school leavers achieving a university entrance standard. Schools in the lowest deciles (deciles 1 and 2) draw their students from communities with the highest degree of socio-economic disadvantage.

Percentage of school leavers achieving a university entrance standard, by school decile and school (2008)

Students from schools in the highest deciles (deciles 9 and 10) are almost three times more likely to leave school having achieved a university entrance standard, than students from schools in the lowest decile schools.

There is a large variation in the proportion of school leavers achieving a university entrance standard amongst schools within each decile.

Where To Find Out More

To obtain other information about school leavers consider indicators:

The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:

References

Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington, Ministry of Education.

Anthony, G., and Walshaw, M. (2007). Effective Pedagogy in Mathematics/Pangarau: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

OECD (2009), Education at a Glance: OECD indicators 2009. Paris, OECD.

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