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Monash University is Victoria’s most desired higher education institution, listed as a first-choice destination by 13,346 students.

But not all of these prospective students received good news on Friday, with only 9677 first-round offers issued.

The next most desirable is the University of Melbourne, which received 9020 applications and issued 6538 offers in this initial round. The next most popular are Deakin University, which received 7620 applications and RMIT University which received 7399.

In this round, 7038 Deakin students will get their first choice, along with 7426 RMIT students.

Overall, unis have made six per cent less offers compared to last year and received nine per cent less applications, data from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre shows.

A total of 54,157 students applied for first-round places and 47,756 offers have been made so far. These include 43,871 made on Friday and 3885 made last year under early entry programs.

Eligible students who applied through VTAC will find themselves being offered a place by one of 33 participating universities, TAFE institutes, and independent tertiary colleges.

“VTAC is thrilled to support our member institutions and provide offers to students headed to Victorian universities, TAFE institutes, and independent colleges,” acting VTAC director Tamara Barth said.

“Students should be very proud of their achievements, given the difficulty and disruption they have faced over the past two years of their studies.”

Year 12 graduate Indy Warren-Smith is getting ready for uni. Picture: Ian Currie

Nearly 20,000 students agreed to their names being published, offering a snapshot of the most popular courses.

While some courses, such as Resort and Hotel Management at William Angliss, have only one published first-round offer, others such as Science at all institutions have 1800 published.

Other major courses include Arts which issued 1600 first-round offers, Engineering with nearly 1400, 1250 for Nursing, 1050 for Commerce, 1180 for Business and 960 for Biomedicine.

Other popular courses for 2022 include Criminology which had 549 first round offers published, and those which cover Gaming, Paramedicine and Physiotherapy.

VTAC’s ATAR guide shows 25 courses require the top “perfect” score of 99.95, including Law/Commerce at Monash Uni Clayton, Arts/Law at Melbourne Parkville and Professional Honours Engineering at Swinburne Uni Hawthorne campus.

Another 107 courses have ATARs of 99, 65 require ATARS of 98 and 49 require ATARS of 97.

However, many of these courses have median and minimum ATARS lower than this.

Some of the most accessible courses include a Health Diploma at La Trobe Melbourne campus which has a high ATAR of 51.75, Education Studies at Federation Uni in Gippsland which has a high ATAR of 53.9 and Teaching at La Trobe Uni Bendigo which has a high ATAR of 54.7.

ATARs for popular courses include Swinburne Uni Hawthorn Arts/Sciences 88.85, IT at RMIT on 85.9, Public Health at Deakin Uni Burwood on 83.75, Nursing at Victoria Uni St Albans on 81.9, Educational Studies at ACU Melbourne on 71.5, Teaching at LaTrobe Uni Bendigo 65.35 and Arts at Federation Uni Berwick on 62.1.

A number of students from each course will be admitted with much lower ATARs than this as they receive second, third, fourth and fifth round offers.

Five of the University of Melbourne’s tertiary courses were among the top 10 most popular university courses.

As the sought-after university offered 6214 domestic students from 713 different secondary schools a chance to study at the institution, Bachelors of Arts, Science, Commerce, Biomedicine and Design were ranked among the most in-demand courses among the class of 2021, according to VTAC.

2029 additional students were also offered spots to study Bachelors of Science, while 1621 students received offers to study a Bachelor of Arts.

University of Melbourne deputy vice-chancellor Academic Professor Gregor Kennedy congratulated the class of 2021 on the offers they earned while enduring remote learning and Covid lockdowns.

“Congratulations to every student who received an offer today following another year of significant disruption to your studies,” Prof Kennedy said.

“Your resilience and determination are remarkable and you should be immensely proud of your efforts.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming our most diverse cohort of students yet, who will be inspired and supported by some of the world’s brightest minds and will consider and wrestle with some of the biggest challenges facing the world today.”

Education Minister James Merlino said he congratulated the Year 12 class of 2021 who received their first round tertiary offers on Friday.

“It’s the beginning of their next journey and you think about the challenge that the class of 2021 had, their entire VCAL and VCE was through the pandemic and through long periods of lockdown and it’s just a wonderful day that they’re getting their tertiary first round offers,” he said.

“Despite the pandemic, there were no delays to their exams last year, there were no delays for those students receiving their results and today they receive their tertiary first round offers on time.

“They’ve been through a lot and there’s nothing the world can’t throw at them, my very best wishes to the class of 2021.”

Melbourne High principal Tony Mordini said he was delighted that many students were able to achieve their academic goals.

“We will be assisting any student that needs any support with any change of preference,” Mr Mordini said.

“Approximately 12 per cent of students received an ATAR over 99, I’m confident that many of them will achieve their goals.”

Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Colin Axup said: “Congratulations to students who received a first round offer and all students are reminded that this is the first step in a process of opportunities.”

“All students are encouraged to contact their school’s careers practitioner for advice regarding their offers,” he said.

VTAC applicants who have received an offer today are encouraged to accept their offer, even if still hoping for a higher preference offer in February.

All courses listed as a higher preference than an offered course will be considered again in the next round. There are further offer rounds ahead, the next being on 1 February.

Applicants wishing to change their course preferences prior to this round must do so by 4pm, 20 January.

STRESS, EXCITEMENT FOR STUDENTS

Methodist Ladies college student Suzy Dingle, 18, said it was “nerve-racking” to wait for her offer from Monash University to study a Bachelor of Medicine after being required to be interviewed for a spot in the sought-after degree.

“This morning was a massive relief,” Suzy said.

“It was a bit nerve-racking for my course to be out of my hands but it’s nice to know it finally all paid off,” she said.

Suzy Dingle (left) says it was a nerve-racking wait. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Suzy said her family and friends were celebrating the news she had received her first preference and was already looking forward to the year ahead.

“Everyone was super happy and relieved that I got my first preference. It was good to share that excitement together,” she said.

“I’m excited to meet a bunch of new friends.”

With shaking fingers caused by a sense of nervous excitement, Steven Tran was overcome with relief when he opened his offer letter from VTAC on Friday morning.

The Salesian College graduate said he will accept his offer to study his first preference of Medicine at Monash University this year, right after celebrating with his family.

“I just ran into my sister’s room to let her know the good news,” Steven said.

“I’m pretty excited.”

2021 Salesian College Captain Steven Tran will study medicine. Supplied

Steven said it felt ‘surreal” to be offered a place at his preferred course after a stressful VCE period.

“Despite it being a stressful experience, it was ultimately such a rewarding experience to have gone through this entire process and to really transition from high school to tertiary education.”

“Monash medicine was something that I really had only nailed as an ambition in the past year and through all of this hard work I was able to achieve it.”

For 18-year-old Travis Pemberton there was much to celebrate on two fronts.

The Salesian graduate not only completed his VCE as dux of his year level, but landed himself a place to study Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne.

Travis said Friday morning proved to be a period of anxious waiting as his offer filtered through after several of his friends celebrated their offers.

“It was a bit stressful because a few friends had already received theirs (offers),” Travis said.

“It was a relief for everybody,” he said.

Travis said studying his first preference of Biomedicine was a fitting choice after scoring top marks in Biology and environmental science during his VCE.

“I’ve always enjoyed learning about pathogens and viruses,” he said.

“And during environmental science, we got to study plants and animals.”

Padua College graduate Emily Foran has been a sought-after student, receiving early offers to study her dream degree of a Bachelor of Psychology at Bond University, Monash University and the Australian Catholic University.

Emily Foran from Padua College will study a Bachelor of Psychology.

But the 18-year-old, who scored a perfect study score of 50 in food studies and a 96.05 ATAR, was waiting for an offer letter from Deakin on Friday before her first choice institution offered her a place.

“I was so excited when I finally got the VTAC message to say I had got into my first preference course at Deakin,” Emily said.

“I was nervously waiting on my phone to get the VTAC email this morning. I kept refreshing my emails every few minutes.”

“It’s a huge relief to know I can do the course I’ve been wanting to do for so long.”

Musical prodigy Thien Pham is looking forward to studying Science and Law at the University of Melbourne this year after graduating from Glen Waverley’s Wesley College.

Thien said he opened his letter from VTAC to find he had also been accepted into the university’s Juris Doctor graduate law program, all while concurrently studying a degree in music and continuing his passion for the trumpet.

“I’m so happy I got the offer I wanted,” he said.

“When I got the offer, I was with my friend at his beach house in Port Lonsdale, so we were able to celebrate it all together.”

Thien, who also scored a perfect ATAR of 99.95 while studying the International Baccalaureate, said he is excited to be kept busy during the year ahead with his degree and a slew of concerts lined up as part of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra.

Fellow Wesley graduate Sara Pisacane was also propelled into her first preference at the University of Melbourne with a perfect ATAR she scored during her IB course.

Wesley College duxes Sara Piscane and Thien Pham are happy with their uni offers. Picture: Ian Currie

Sara said she was relieved the wait was over to learn she will be studying Science, as well as being guaranteed a spot in a post graduate program of her choice through the Chancellor’s Scholarship, which Thien also received.

“It’s been a little bit of a hard wait but now it’s come true,” Sara said.

“A few of my friends are also going to Unimelb so it will be nice to have some familiar faces around,” she said.

Sara and Thien were two of nine students who achieved a perfect ATAR at Wesley in 2021, a new record for the school.

The nine top scorers earned Wesley the highest number of students who scored a 99.95 at any Victorian school in 2021, and in Wesley’s history.

43.5% of Year 12 students achieved an ATAR of 90 and above, placing them in the top 10% in Australia.