The Fiji National University has reduced its mathematics intake mark to thirty percent for some programs.

FNU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Healey the decision was made following poor pass rate in mathematics last year and talks were held with the Education Ministry before the step was taken.

“The Ministry of Education has stopped the practice of scaling so they didn’t adjust the marks so the Universities have simply got together and tried to adjust pass marks so they get similar kind of distribution as in the past so if in the past you had 60 percent of the students with 50 percent or above, we just look at what’s that cut off now and so we’ve reduced the marks for math’s intake on number of programs.”

However, Professor Healey is adamant that mathematics is still a requirement for a number of their courses.

“We were worried some students may have lost confidence so we offered pre-session math to students who want to come in and do a bit of refresher course before they start and we have already got quite well-developed maths hub on every campus so we will be providing much more systematic maths support for the new students.”

The Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Board says as far as they are concerned, they need offer letters from universities to approve student loans and scholarships irrespective of the subject marks.