Review of Massey Horticulture diploma underway

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 266, 6 December 1988, Page 13

Review of Massey Horticulture diploma underway

Students undertaking Massey University's Diploma in Horticulture may in future be able to do it extramurally, and may be given credit for polytechnic qualifications.

Proposals to extramuralise the diploma and to work in more

closely with polytechnics are part of a review of the one-year,

practically-based programme by the Faculty of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences. Course director D r Keith Fisher said the review was in response to community calls for flexibility in eduea-

tional programmes, and for such courses to be more "student-centred". "We've noticed that more and more of the students taking the Diploma in Horticulture have polytechnic qualifications and it's

felt that credit should be given for work prior to entry." As well as looking at cross-crediting qualifications from other institutions, the question of cross-crediting from the diploma to

Massey's new horticulture degree would be investigated, Dr Fisher said. Greater co-operation with polytechnics would also raise the option of taking the diploma extramurally. The review was expected to produce a new diploma format in time

for the 1990 academic year. However, the revised format would retain the diploma as a one-year (full-time) course with options in amenity, cut flowers, fruit, nursery and vegetable crops because these had proved successful in the past, Dr Fisher said.