By Alex Crowe
Ruslana Taraunickh was studying for a literature exam when air raid sirens blasted through her home town in eastern Ukraine.
Russian air strikes and a ground invasion were launched on the Donbas region in the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and Sievierodonetsk was under heavy attack.
“I realised we can’t go to school any more; we have to go to a bomb shelter instead,” she said.
Iryna Rykova escaped Ukraine with her daughter Ruslana Taraunickh, who is among students receiving their ATAR on Thursday.Credit: Joe Armao
Taraunickh, 18, never went back to her school, instead finding safety in Australia and learning a new language to complete her senior years at Viewbank College in Melbourne’s north-east.
Now, she’s among 47,461 Victorian year 12 students who will receive their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank – or ATAR – on Thursday.
Taraunickh and her mother, Iryna Rykova, spent weeks in a makeshift shelter in an underground space below her school in Ukraine, crowded alongside their neighbours as food ran out and Russian troops moved in.
“The town got occupied quite fast. For a long time we couldn’t leave the town ... no one could,” Taraunickh said.
“Food supplies wouldn’t come. So it was a very isolated period in our life.”
At 7am on Thursday, thousands of students’ phones will ping, marking the end of 13 years of schooling.
The number that will appear on their screen – a rank from 0 to 99.95 – is calculated by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre from up to six VCE-scaled study scores.
Forty-one students have achieved the highest possible rank of 99.95 – up from 39 last year. The average ATAR for this year’s cohort is 69.52, a slight increase from 69.41 in 2023.
For many, the ATAR will guide their next step towards their career goals, including where and when they go on to further education.
The University of Melbourne has already offered Taraunickh a Hansen scholarship, which she hopes to use to study a bachelor of science, majoring in neuroscience.
But the significant bursary – awarded to students who have demonstrated resilience to adversity – is conditional on an ATAR of 90 or above.
Taraunickh and her mother are also waiting on the outcome of their visa application to stay in Australia.
“My dream is at stake at the moment,” Taraunickh said. “But also, I did my best, so now I can probably just be proud of myself.”
Students who do not receive an ATAR, including those who studied the VCE Vocational Major (VM) or chose not to sit VCE exams, will also receive results on Thursday.
Education Minster Ben Carroll congratulated the 61,998 students who will graduate this year with their VCE, including 8250 VM graduates.
“You should be proud of everything you’ve already achieved as you move to the next exciting step, whether it be further study, training, the workforce or a gap year,” Carroll said.
As universities increasingly provide alternative pathways for enrolment, a proportion of the class of ’24 slept soundly on ATAR eve knowing there’s little pending on their number.
Of the Group of Eight universities, the Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia and UNSW Sydney all provide early offers. The practice has become increasingly common over the past 10 years.
UNSW Sydney will provide 3500 offers to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the University of Western Australia has made about 3000 offers to students expected to do well. The University of Sydney expects early offers will make up about 2 per cent of its 2025 intake.
Carey Baptist Grammar School twins Miette and Will Harcourt both received tertiary offers before exams had begun.
Carey Baptist Grammar School students Will and Miette Harcourt received university offers ahead of VCE exams.Credit: Eddie Jim
Will is pursuing commerce and finance, choosing an American college experience after studying in Texas in year 10.
“I got to experience college football games and the atmosphere was just incredible,” he said. “I loved how involved all the students were.”
Studying in the northern hemisphere means a break before starting university in August. He intends to spend time at an American summer camp working as a lifeguard.
“Obviously, you still want to do well,” Will said. “But if I don’t, I know I’ve got these offers.”
Miette, a budding filmmaker, received an early offer to study film and television at Bond University on the Gold Coast. She’s also applying to universities in England and the US.
“We’re both interested in travel and seeing the world and sort of expanding our bubble from just Carey,” Miette said.
“That’s probably inspired us both to apply interstate and overseas.”
Miette said completing exams with a pathway to study had taken the pressure off: “It’s been a relief.”
This week ends a tumultuous period for the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority, one marred by the worst blunder in the ATAR’s 15-year history.
Sixty-five exams were revealed to have been potentially affected when the authority unintentionally published exam questions online.
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