Achievements

 Some of the Major Achievements of the AARP


• AARP was one of five finalists in the Corporate Organisations category at the annual National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Awards ceremony held at Caesar’s Palace, Gauteng in May 2004. This recognition of AARP in a national science and technology research forum represents a major fillip for its work.

• National co-ordination of test development teams in the areas of Verbal Reasoning and Mathematics and Scientific Reasoning. Current teams consist of academics from the Universities of Cape Town, Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch, Free State, Kwazulu-Natal, Rhodes, Western Cape, Limpopo, Transkei.

• Invitation to AARP team members to contribute to the development and implementation of access and placement testing in all 17 historically disadvantaged higher education institutions (HDIs) countrywide. The current Dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development at UCT co-ordinated the development of the Language Test for use in the HDIs; the current AARP Co-ordinator has provided technical assistance workshops on the use of access testing and placement to HDIs countrywide; the AARP Project Manager served as Programme Manager to the testing initiative in the HDIs; and the AARP Research Administration Officer has provided database and scores processing assistance to a number of HDIs.

• Through the Dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development (formerly the Co-ordinator of AARP), the Project has also maintained crucial links with national bodies such as Higher Education South Africa (HESA), the South African Universities Vice-chancellors’ Association (SAUVCA) and the Department of Education in order to keep the test developments in line with national Higher Education assessment imperatives, such as access, equity, efficiency and throughput.

• AARP has also been selected by HESA through the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town to develop and administer the National Benchmark Testing (NBT) initiaitve.

• Formal appointment of the AARP as the provider of access, admissions and placement testing in the following Higher Education institutions countrywide: the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Free State, Johannesberg, Free State and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. In addition, AARP has done contracted testing for RAU and for Technikon SA (now UNISA).

• Separate formal appointment of AARP for access testing for member universities of the Health Sciences Consortium. The following universities currently make use of this testing: the Universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Free State and Walter Sisulu University and the University of Kwazulu-Natal.

• The growth of AARP testing at the University of Cape Town – where the Project was initiated – to the point where five out of the six Faculties make extensive use of this testing. AARP testing is now compulsory in the Faculty of Health Sciences (see previous point) and Humanities. In addition, AARP tests all first-year students in the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Commerce for placement and/or skills assessment purposes.

• The appointment of AARP as the consultant to Technikon Southern Africa in the development of its diagnostic language and mathematical skills assessment instruments (the TSAALT and the TSAMAT).

• Research collaborations investigating the predictive validity of the AARP Tests with academic performance have been initiated between AARP and the UCT Faculties of Engineering, Science and Humanities and the Graduate School of Business (the GSB). Nationally, such research collaborations have been established between AARP and Wits University, and between AARP and the Health Sciences Consortium. The research with the Graduate School of Business (GSB) forms part of an international collaboration between UCT’s GSB and the US-based Graduate Management Admissions Council (the GMAC), exploring the predictive validity of the GMAT against other assessment instruments that may be in use worldwide for the selection of applicants to graduate studies in Business Management.

• National and worldwide growth of the AARP access testing infrastructure. UCT-based AARP testing as well as testing for the Health Sciences Consortium has lead to the establishment of some 30 testing centres in South Africa. In addition, AARP has set up testing centres in a number of countries of the SADC region, e.g. Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius. Worldwide, testing centres have been established in countries such as the UK, the USA and Israel.

• International interest in the work of the AARP from such organisations as the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the newly-established Asian University for Women.

• Highly-competitive and prestigious international research exchanges were awarded to two AARP staff members: the Harvard Mandela Fellowship for one-year was awarded to Associate Professor Nan Yeld, then Co-ordinator of AARP, and a UCT/UCLA staff exchange award of six-weeks’ duration went to Alvin Visser, the Research Administration Officer of AARP.