A one-day conference was held at the University of New South Wales in Australia to consider alternatives to the Higher School Certificate as a college selection device. The first address was by L. H. T. West, who outlined some of the current controversies in the debate about selection and presented evidence that pointed to serious weaknesses in the procedure in most common use in Australia. J. Beauchamp spoke from his experience as an admissions officer and stressed the need for a more humane and individual approach, and R. Campbell described the development of the school-based selection system that has just been adopted by the Australian National University. K. Mitchell gave an account of the complex and radical system that will be used to select the first intake of medical students at the University of Newcastle, and J. Frederich considered the problem from the viewpoint of the secondary schools and concluded that community attitudes are such that any system that is not based upon a public examination will have little prospect of being accepted. (SW)