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The head of one of America's top universities has spoken out against government proposals to standardise university tests.

Shirley M. Tilghman, the president of Princeton University, said: "The notion that a federally mandated standardised test could be used to measure learning flies in the face of one of the great strengths of the US education system - the tremendous diversity among universities and colleges." She said imposing federal standards through testing would jeopardise academic freedom for universities to set their own programmes and meet the individual needs of students.