Kankor is a national university entrance examination in Afghanistan. All students from across Afghanistan at the end of their secondary school in case of wishing to enter public universities, free of cost, are required to take the Kankor examination. Every year on average 200,000 students from 34 provinces of Afghanistan attend the Kankor examination between February and April. In Afghanistan, Kankor examination is the only way through which Ministry of Higher Education, the responsible entity for administering Kankor examination, can evaluate secondary school graduates to determine whether they are capable to undertake undergraduate courses at higher education institutions. The findings of this paper demonstrate that the current Kankor examination system does not help university entrants obtain admission in their desired disciplines. Moreover, the findings echo that not considering students’ interests in giving admission to higher education institutions leads to many other challenges for students once they enter universities such as (a) lack of preparation for the admitted major, (b) increasing dropouts, and (c) low academic performance. Hence, the current study aims to discover the existing issues with the current Kankor examination in Afghanistan and propose a new Kankor examination model for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education.
Implementing online language exams within the Spanish National University Entrance Examination: The PAULEX Universitas Project