Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre blames technical blunder for incorrect ATAR notice
Thousands of Queensland Year 12 students have received notifications telling them that they are ATAR “ineligible”.
QLD News
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Queensland Year 12 graduates have been wrongfully told they were ATAR “ineligible” in a technical blunder that has impacted tens of thousands of students.
The Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre was conducting an internal test of their ATAR processes overnight when the testing results rolled over to their “live production space”.
They have confirmed ATAR notifications were issued to 24,000 Queensland Year 12 students, who may have been told in the notification that they were ATAR ineligible.
QTAC chief executive John Griffiths issued an apology to the Year 12 cohort this morning for the technical error.
“This has no doubt caused additional anxiety during what has already been a trying year for our school community,” Dr Griffiths said.
“We receive the Year 12 result file from the QCAA on Monday, which is when the actual calculation of the Queensland ATAR begins.
“We are on track for official release on Saturday 19 December.”
QTAC won’t actually receive the Year 12 results from the Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority until this Monday and will officially calculate the ATAR results on Thursday.
They will then load the ATAR results into their portal on Friday before releasing them the next day on Saturday, December 19.
This is the first year that the ATAR ranking system has been used for university entrance in Queensland following the phasing out of the OP system last year.
Education Minister Grace Grace said QTAC was not part of the Department of Education or overseen by herself.
“(It) is governed by an independent board of directors representing Queensland universities,” she said.
“ATAR results will be issued next Saturday December 19. Best of luck to all students.”
LNP education spokesman Christian Rowan described the blunder as “extremely heartbreaking” and said it was concerning for the affected students.
“Our Year 12 students in Queensland have suffered an incredibly difficult year with COVID-19,” Dr Rowan said.
“It needs a full and transparent explanation by the Minister.”
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