Thousands of university places have been offered to HSC students just weeks before their final exams as tertiary education bosses fight allegations that the practice benefits the rich.
One of Sydney’s major universities, Macquarie, admitted just 965 students last year based on their ATAR alone compared to almost 5000 who enrolled via alternative criteria such as early entry.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said early offers meant HSC students took their foot off the pedal when it came to studying in their final weeks before exams.Credit: Rhett Wyman
NSW Education Minister Prue Car has criticised the early offer system, suggesting students from more privileged backgrounds receive multiple offers while those from less advantaged schools do not.
“We owe it to high school students and their families to make sure the system is fair, transparent and equitable,” Car said.
Despite transparency concerns, some universities approached by The Sun-Herald would not reveal what proportion of students receiving their early offers came from disadvantaged groups.
A Macquarie University spokeswoman refused to reveal how many early offers it had made at all. Data from last year showed 4911 students got an undergraduate spot without their ATAR being considered, about five times the 965 admitted using their ATAR alone.
With HSC exams starting on Tuesday, the University of Technology Sydney has already made 13,000 offers for 2025 courses (students still need to achieve their course’s minimum ATAR), and Western Sydney University has made 9740 conditional offers, an increase of almost 1000 on last year. A single student can receive multiple offers.
The University of Sydney makes only a handful of early offers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, while this year, UNSW has made only 3500 offers for 2025 study to underprivileged students.
A 2022 analysis by the NSW Department of Education of early entry found about half of all offers came went to high socioeconomic status students.Credit: Janie Barrett
The University of Wollongong received over 8000 applications for early entry (comparable to last year), and 90 per cent of applicants were eligible for either a bachelor degree offer or entry to a pathway course. It said 40 per cent of its total enrolment came from backgrounds underrepresented at university.
The University of Newcastle made 11,000 early offers this year, and around a quarter of those students came from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
“Some students do really well in an exam environment, but others benefit from a broader assessment of their performance,” Newcastle deputy vice chancellor Professor Mark Hoffman said.
“The ATAR can be a great pathway, however, often we see that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds benefit from us being able to consider their results over a whole year rather than from a single exam.”
A 2022 analysis of early entry by the NSW Department of Education found about half of offers went to students with high socioeconomic status while only 19 per cent went to those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
Australian National University higher education policy researcher Professor Andrew Norton said universities were incentivised to make early offers to lock in students in a competitive market.
“We are not seeing any across-the-board spike in low socioeconomic status students going to university,” he said.
Education Minister Prue Car is expected to write to her federal counterpart to seek to discuss transparency and the timing of university offers at a future education ministers’ meeting.
She will raise issues around selection criteria, such as extracurricular activities, amid concerns that students who care for sick relatives are disadvantaged and teachers are splitting their time between preparing students for final exams and assisting students with an array of different applications.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said he had asked the Universities Accord, which conducted a widespread review into tertiary education, to look at early entry.
State and territory governments reached a stop-gap agreement earlier this year not to make offers before September, amid criticism from principals they meant students took their foot off the pedal when it came to studying for exams.
Last year, universities agreed to September offers until at least 2026, meaning students get them after trial exams but before official end-of-year exams take place. The timing from 2027 has not yet been considered.
This year, HSC student Nyla Amir-Schwallie, 17, received early entry to study primary teaching at Macquarie University and Australian Catholic University. She said it had not stymied her motivation as she wanted to get the best ATAR possible.
“And there’s still other opportunities in other unis that you want to get into. So, yeah, you want to give yourself the best shot,” she said.
Phoebe Myers, left, and Nyla Amir-Schwallie have both been offered early entry to university next year.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Phoebe Myers, 18, had received an early offer to study a bachelor of pre-medicine at Wollongong University.
“I personally think the early offer is a really good thing, basically because it definitely takes a lot of stress off the HSC,” she said.
She could see how early offers might favour advantaged students when universities asked about extracurricular activities. For her, this part of the application wasn’t onerous as she listed playing in her netball team, among a few other activities.
The federal Department of Education has not published comprehensive admissions data for several years due to issues with switching data systems. They plan to publish 2022, 2023 and 2024 by the end of the year.
Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said early offers may significantly compromise the learning outcomes of young Australians.
“Universities should also be required to publish all data relating to early offers, so there is appropriate transparency,” she said.
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