ATAR charade: Universities will be forced to increase transparency on admissions

The Higher Education Standards Panel, in its final report on improving the transparency of higher education admissions, calls for universities to be required to publish much more information about how students are admitted into courses.

The review was commissioned after Fairfax Media revealed that up to 60 per cent of students at some universities were being admitted below the advertised minimum ATAR requirements.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has said the bonus point system – which helps students who study certain subjects or suffer disadvantage enter university – is as "opaque as a double-frosted window".

Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven, a member of the panel, has said that "university cut-offs are as easy to rig as a bush picnic race meeting".

Senator Birmingham will announce his response to the review within weeks, with changes to come into effect from 2018.

In a letter to Senator Birmingham summarising the report's findings, the panel said "university admissions requirements are becoming more complex and harder to understand" and "urgent improvement" is needed.

"In particular there is a lack of clarity on the use of ATAR rankings and the basis on which bonus points are awarded by universities," the panel, led by Western Sydney University chancellor Peter Shergold, said. "This makes it difficult for prospective students to make informed decisions."

To help students and families navigate the system, there has to be more information on each university and field of study that is "accurate, understandable and easy to compare". This information should be published on a new website allowing students to compare the admissions criteria for different courses around the country.

Instead of a single ATAR cut-off for each course, the panel recommends universities publish the following:

• the lowest ATAR to receive an offer;
• the maximum number of bonus points available;
• the percentage of students admitted with bonus points; and
• the ATAR required to be in the top 25 per cent, bottom 25 per cent and the middle of the student intake.

Universities would also publish information on how many students in each course were admitted solely on the basis of their ATAR or through other routes, such as a vocational diploma.

Senator Birmingham will tell a higher education conference in Melbourne on Wednesday that "it is clear many potential students and their families struggle to decipher information on where and what to study".

"I support the intent of the recommendations from the panel, that there should be greater clarity and uniformity in the information available to students.

"We must ensure that we provide students, and their families, with the information they need, on an easily accessible and understood platform, in a format that is comparable and consistent across jurisdictions to ensure they make informed decisions about their future."

As well as helping students, he said, increased transparency would encourage universities to enrol only students who are well suited to university study.

Some universities, including those in the elite Group of Eight, had moved to increase transparency over their ATAR cut-offs before the review.

The panel did not recommend the creation of a national university admissions centre, but called on the state admissions centres to make it easier for students to apply to study in different states. A single national application form should be considered in the future, the report found.

The panel said there was a "general misconception" that the ATAR is the main tool used to determine university entry. In fact, only 31 per cent of new undergraduate students were admitted on the basis of their ATAR in 2014, with others gaining entry by transferring from another course, mature age provisions or other selection criteria.

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