Students and Applicants in Higher Education The need

Students and Applicants in Higher Education The need for wider information

Population of Study: ¡ Applicants to first degree studies in the academic institutes ¡ (New) students in the higher education system ¡ Recipients of degrees

Types of Institutions: ¡ Universities (7) ¡ Private academic colleges (16) ¡ Public academic colleges (21) ¡ Public academic colleges of education (23) ¡ Open University (1)

The information presented today: ¡ Information from the Applicants’/Students’ file: l Number of applications per applicant l Final results of the application l Field and subject of study l Sex l Institution of application/study

The information presented today (Cont. ): ¡ Demographic information (from the population Register): l Date of birth- age l Population group and religion l Country of birth l Location of residence- today and at the age of 18

The need for wider information- previous academic achievements: What is the purpose? ¡ Gives wider and true information ¡ Gives information about the quality of the students ¡ Examines the match between previous studies (subjects of study in high-school vs. subjects of study in higher education) ¡ Examines the “miss” cases - students with high number of scientific units which didn’t continue to S&T studies

The Matriculation Tests Te'udat Bagrut is the official Israeli matriculation certificate attesting to graduation from high school. Bagrut is a prerequisite for higher education in Israel. A Bagrut certificate is awarded to students who pass the required written (and in some cases oral) examinations with a passing mark (56% or higher) in each exam.

¡ Subjects are tested a study- unit level ranging from 1 to 5 units, calculated by the number of class hours devoted to the subject. ¡ Compulsory subjects: bible, Hebrew/ Arabic, English, mathematics, history, literature. . ¡ Choise subjects: Physics, chemistry, geography…. .

The Psychometric Test The Psychometric Entrance Test is a tool for predicting academic performance, and is used by institutions of higher education to screen applicants to various departments. The test ranks all applicants on a standardized scale and, compared to other admissions tools, is less affected by differences in applicants' backgrounds or other subjective factors.

The Psychometric Test- Cont. ¡ The test is combined from three domains: l l Quantitative reasoning l ¡ Verbal reasoning English The scores range from 200 to 800, whereas the mean is 535 and s. d. is 110

The need for wider information- previous academic achievements: Rejected Field and subject of study of first preference Avg. score of the Accepted, not studying Accepted to the first preference Accepted psychometric Accepted and studying Absolute to another to first to another Avg. score of the Absolut e test numbers preference psychometric test number s Absolute numbers Total 579 8, 713 2, 736 2, 765 3, 436 619 History 495 75 4 62 9 581 340 490 Education 456 115 41 56 31 556 293 536 Economics 582 510 125 96 177 670 832 1, 740 Psychology 574 188 128 103 677 617 1, 224 General medicine 684 967 339 17 373 735 390 2, 086 Electrical engineering 624 657 203 91 358 690 967 2, 276 GRAND TOTAL 18, 123 35, 773

More sources that can be used: ¡ The Matriculation tests’ file: l Percentage of entitled for a certificate l Percentage of entitled that met university entrance requirements l Percentage of examinees with enhanced subjects (sciences/ humanities) l Percentage of excellents- general and by subject of study

Cont. l Percentage of examinees with enhanced Mathematics (4+5 points) l Percentage of examinees with enhanced English (5 points) l Matching score ( )ציון סכם l Percentages- calculated from all examinees or only entitled? l Relating to the students that weren’t found in the Matriculation tests’ file? (example 1)

Data- the English exam Total Universities No. of units Open university Academic colleges Colleges of Education 3 % of examinees 9. 3 3. 57 10. 43 17. 16 14. 16 4 % of examinees 35. 15 21. 78 40. 4 42. 03 52. 81 5 % of examinees 55. 55 74. 65 49. 17 40. 81 33. 03

Cont. ¡ The Psychometric Test l Percentage of examinees that have exemption from English studies from the Psychometric test l Scores- Average? Percentiles? l Resolution- by subjects of study?

Data- the Psychometric test (first degree students) Total Universities of examinees % Avg. score Academic colleges Open university Colleges of Education 66. 66 86. 51 61. 95 43. 32 63. 88 568. 09 620. 87 546. 74 517. 19 491. 3

Thank you!