Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Survey Of International Practice In University Admissions Testing, Daniel Edwards, Hamish Coates, Tim Friedman

Dr Daniel Edwards

This paper explores how admissions tests are used in different higher education systems around the world. This is a relatively new area of research, despite the fact that admissions processes are a key component of university practices and given the ever-increasing globalisation of higher education. This paper shows that aptitude and achievement tests, for example, are used in many developed countries. In some of them, a specific test is nationally instituted and generalised; consequently, the function of the test is well embedded in the education landscape of the country. Elsewhere, tests exist but are administered in an ad hoc fashion …