Attitude of University Students in Tehran Province towards Nationwide Exam Removal Scheme and Its Replacement with Educational Records

The following article studies university students’ attitude to eliminating nationwide exams and replacing it with students’ educational records. The population in the survey includes students studying in Universities of Tehran province in the academic year 2008 (1387 of solar calendar) with a sample of 200 students. Means of data collection constitutes a questionnaire created by researcher. Results show that 76.5 of the entire respondents are willing to prioritize academic aptitude, intelligence and open studies in student admission. 39% of the respondents consider nationwide exams modified by educational records as the best option to select students in higher education programs. Additionally, respondents’ viewpoints regarding main causes of some candidates’ failure were analyzed. According to the results, 36% of the respondents consider lack of motivation (the highest percentage) as the major cause and 5% of the respondents believe in the absence of additional educational classes (the lowest percentage) is the main reason. Admission to higher education is independent from gender and the number of times each participant takes part in exams. Respondents’ opinions regarding to the strengths and weaknesses of the scheme were also evaluated. 85% of the respondents agree that the application of academic background to the final stage of selection procedure is the point of strength and 71% of the whole think lack of standardized tests in the education system is the weakness to this scheme. According to the respondents, an efficient method for university entrance would be combination of both nationwide tests (by adding educational aptitude, intelligence and open studies) and educational records.