12 May 2012

Massey University drops teaching degrees

4:59 pm on 12 May 2012

Rejecting arguments from students and a teachers' union, Massey University plans to go ahead and drop its primary-school and early-childhood teaching degrees.

From next year, the university will phase out the three-year and four-year degrees and offer only one-year graduate diplomas in teacher training.

That means people wanting to study at Massey to become early-childhood or primary-school teachers will follow the same route as would-be secondary-school teachers, first doing a bachelor's degree in any subject, then a one-year teaching diploma.

Students and the NZEI teacher union say one year is not enough preparation and they worry other universities will also drop their teaching degrees.

Massey says, however, that students with a bachelor's degree are well prepared for teacher education and go on to become good teachers.

The dean of education, James Chapman, says graduates of the one-year courses are of very high calibre.

"That's certainly the feedback...from the majority of principals who employ graduates from these programmes," Professor Chapman says.