Search your second round university offer in our database

Science dominated the second round of uni offers following last year’s controversial higher education reforms. See if you got an offer.

Padua College graduate Phoebe Canning, 18, was eagerly awaiting the announcement of second round offers on Monday. Picture: Jason Edwards

Science has trumped every other faculty in the second university offer round, with more offers made for science than any other course.

A total of 9240 offers were made on Monday by universities, TAFEs and independent colleges to Year 12 students.

A Leader analysis of the figures showed about 1159 offers were made for science related courses including health and pharmaceuticals, sport and biomedical science.

Offers for other courses including business and commerce (704), the arts (423), engineering (329), marketing (70), and education and teaching (199), paled in comparison.

The figures come after the federal government last year announced sweeping higher education reforms designed to make students “job ready”.

The changes saw fees cut for courses in industries the government predicted would experience higher future demand for jobs, while fees for courses with an oversupply of graduates were increased.

Fees for some courses skyrocketed as much as 113 per cent.

The fee structure made nursing, health, agriculture and engineering courses cheaper while pushing up the cost of many arts and humanities subjects.

Below is a searchable database of second round offers released by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre.

If your name doesn’t appear you may not have given VTAC permission to have your name published.

Thousands of students who missed out on their preferred course in last month’s first offer round were eagerly awaiting the release on Monday.

To date, 44,356 offers have been made to individual Year 12 students, an increase of 2.7 per cent on last year.

Australian Centre for Career Education chief executive Bernadette Gigliotti said it was important students remembered there were other options if they missed out on their preferred offer.

Three further offer rounds would take place later this month, she said.

Students could also apply for mid year intake, call university selection officers to see if spare spots were available due to low international student enrolments, or visit a student advisor who could help them find a similar course that could get them into their desired career.

“The second round is really important. In the third and fourth round the offers are going to be fewer,” Ms Gigliotti said.

“For example, let’s take a student who wants to study nursing … they (the student advisor) will be able to show them a pathway into nursing that has vacancies.”

Phoebe Canning, 18, was today hoping to receive an offer to study physiotherapy at either Australian Catholic University or La Trobe University.

The two courses were her first and second preferences but she did not receive an offer for either during the first round.

The Padua College student said she “never expected” to get into La Trobe because her ATAR was not high enough, but said she was “disappointed” not to receive an offer from ACU.

She has already accepted an offer to study a bachelor of health sciences at La Trobe, which was her third preference. If she is not lucky today, she will “just transfer into physiotherapy from health sciences later”.

A Monash University spokesperson said there were a number of different study options for students.

It was also normal for students to change their mind about their studies or career paths after starting a course and university advisors were able to help.

“In 2021, Monash has introduced shortcourse, undergraduate programs, undergraduate certificates, as well as new places across our exceptional graduate certificate degrees. This means more students now have more options available to them to upskill, build knowledge and enter into a career aligned with their passionate interests and ambitions,” the spokesperson said.

VTAC director Catherine Wills penned a piece for today’s Herald Sun containing helpful information for students about the offer process.

ACCEPTING, DECLINING OR RECEIVING AN OFFER

Accepting: Receiving an offer does not confirm your enrolment in the course.

To secure your place, you must follow the enrolment instructions sent to you by the institution making the offer. These instructions will arrive by email, separate from the VTAC notification of your offer. In some cases you may be required to attend enrolment in person on a specific date and time.

Accepting an offer does not stop the offer process and does not reduce your chances for future offers.

Declining: You should only decline an offer if you are absolutely certain you wouldn’t take the course even if you don’t receive any other offers. To decline an offer, you don’t need to do anything.

If you do not enrol in the course on the date and time specified in your email, your offer will automatically lapse.

The place that was offered to you will become available to someone else in a future round.

Enrolment: Instructions on how to enrol will be sent to your email address by the institution making the offer.

You must follow the instructions to accept your offer.

In some cases, you may be required to attend enrolment in person on a specific date and time.

In most cases, you will need to supply photo ID to enrol.

If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, you must provide your tax file

number (TFN) to enrol.

For information about getting a TFN, see the Australian Taxation Office website: ato.gov.au or call 13 28 61.

To find your specific enrolment deadline, follow the instructions emailed to you by the institution.

It’s important that you enrol on time, because in most cases the institution won’t hold the place for you beyond the set date and time.

Can I defer my place?: If you don’t want to start your course straight away, you might be able to defer your place until the next semester or the next year. Not all institutions allow deferment.

To find out if it is possible, and what you need to do to defer, you should check with the institution.

In most cases, to formally defer your place you will need to submit your request in writing and you may need to complete an official form. In some cases, you may even need to attend enrolment.

Don’t risk it!: VTAC advises all applicants to accept an offer they receive. Even if you are eligible, there are no guarantees that you’ll receive an offer in the next round.

If you receive an offer for a preference lower than number one, then you will automatically be considered for any higher preferences in a future round.

If you have received your first preference as an offer, but have changed your mind, you can still change your preferences.

Course authorities can only make offers in future rounds if there are places available.

Your chances of receiving an offer in the next round will vary for each course.

Accepting an offer does not affect your chance of receiving a higher preference course offer in the next round.

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