ATA Sponsors the Workshop on Personalized Tests for College/University Enrollment

Date of Release: September 3, 2016

What are the requirements of our society for talents? What are the problems and challenges facing the college/university enrollment in China? How do foreign universities enroll and assess their students? How can we examine the student’s special strengths and innovation potentials? How can Chinese universities be able to shift from “score first” to “talent first” when enrolling new students?

In the 2016 national college entrance examination, ATA provided a number of colleges/universities with the test services for independent enrollment (talent selection) as well as the exam design for testing student’s comprehensive quality and learning potentials. As a third-party testing and assessment service provider, ATA has caught the attention of both the general public and top universities with its staunch support to the independent enrollment system of prestigious higher educational institutions in China.

To address the problems and challenges in talent selection and independent enrollment of colleges/universities, promote the progress of the university independent enrollment, and strengthen the exchanges of views on independent enrollment method among higher educational institutions, the “Workshop on Personalized Test Solutions for the Enrollment of Top Universities” sponsored by ATA was held in Chengdu on September 2nd.

Those delivering a keynote speech at the workshop included Dr. Liu Yin, ATA’s Chief Executive Assessor and President of ATA Assessment and Research Institute, Ms, Lin Fang, a post-doc of Graduate School of Education of Peking University and the former Dean of Admissions for Peking University, Dr. Wang Gang, founder and CEO of ApplySquare and a Senior Expert of Beijing Municipality, Mr. Zhou Chao, Deputy Director of Academic Affairs Office of Northwestern University, Mr. Peng Kang, Content Development Manager of ATA Assessment and Research Institute , and Ms. Gao  Xiaofeng, Director of ATA Independent Enrollment Program.

Also present at the workshop were more than 50 attendees who are either experts in the fields of enrollment testing and talent assessment or admission officers and academic affairs officers from 14 universities, including Chang’an University, Dalian University of Technology, Guizhou University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University, South University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xidian University, Southwestern University, Northwestern University, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and Zhengzhou University. 

At the workshop, Dr. Liu Yin gave a keynote speech first on “Shifting from ‘Score First’ to ‘Talent First’, and Sharing University Enrollment Solutions”, introducing ATA’s latest research results in various fields, such as new challenges to talent quality as required by the society, how to identify potential talents in terms of basic subject knowledge, learning abilities, personal characters and social engagement, as well as talent selection and enrollment procedures in conjunction with the objectives of cultivating talents in higher educational institutions.

Next, Ms. Lin Fang delivered a keynote speech titled “Research on Trends of Subject Tests for University Enrollment”, sharing with the audience the subject test reform in national entrance examinations, the trends in subject test design in China’s independent enrollment system, and the SAT and ACT reforms in the United States. 

Dr. Wang Gang’s keynote speech is titled “Enrollment and Assessment System of Foreign Countries”, in which he introduced the university enrollment system and assessment system in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Singapore respectively, and the similarities and differences among these countries; and analyzed the reform trends of university enrollment and assessment system across the world, as well as the developments of standardized test reform, diversified assessment means, process assessment and outcome assessment in colleges/universities of various countries.

In addition, Mr. Liu Chunlei, Director of Admissions of Northwestern University, shared with the attendees the experiences of his university in the enrollment work; Ms. Gao XiaoFeng, Director of ATA Independent Enrollment Program, introduced the company’s comprehensive solutions for university independent enrollment, including computer-based testing technologies, test delivery and test center deployment; and Mr. Peng Kang, Content Development Manager of ATA Assessment and Research Institute, also demonstrated the company’s latest achievements and successful cases in the research and development of learning potential assessment solutions.

Admissions offices/academic affairs officers from other universities also exchanged views with each other on what their universities have done in terms of independent enrollment and test design.

Admissions officers from Dalian University of Technology, South University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Northwestern University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University share with each other their working experiences

Independent enrollment is a key part in the reform of university enrollment and talent selection program, and is an important step to shift from “score first” to “talent first”. In accordance with the spirit of reform in university enrollment proposed by the State Council and the policy requirements of the Ministry of Education, all pilot colleges/universities of independent enrollment shall address the new challenges in organizing test and testcontent starting from 2015 – namely, all independent enrollment tests shall be conducted after the national entrance examination and before the announcement of the exam results, and the test content of independent enrollment interviews shall be focused on students’ special strengths and innovation potentials.

As a third-party professional testing and assessment service provider, ATA will give full play to its strengths in providing professional test delivery and test design services to more universities in China.

(If there is any inconsistency or conflict between the English and Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.)