By Christopher Harris and Lucy Carroll
The majority of new students starting at The University of Sydney last year had attended a private high school, despite a major push to attract pupils from poorer backgrounds.
Almost 60 per cent of new students at the sandstone university went to private and Catholic schools, a slight increase on the previous year.
Sydney University has long been viewed as a bastion of privilege.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Public school graduates made up 41 per cent of new undergraduates at the university last year, down from 44 per cent in 2023. Catholic school graduates also increased slightly to 11.6 per cent, as revealed by figures obtained by the Herald.
The slide in public school students comes after the university, a long-standing source of top-tier lawyers and future prime ministers, embarked on a 10-year strategy in 2022 to prioritise attracting disadvantaged students with scholarships.
Despite the drop, university vice-president of external engagement Kirsten Andrews said she was proud of the university’s work to make enrolment more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds.
“Our MySydney Scholarship and Entry Scheme, introduced in 2023, is attracting more students from low socio-economic areas to the University of Sydney,” she said.
The scheme reduces the minimum ATAR for a bachelor of secondary education from 80 to 70, for combined law from 99.5 to 95, and reduces the entry ATAR for disadvantaged students wanting to complete a doctor of medicine program by just under half a point, from 99.95 to 99.5.
“When considering the data it’s important not to assume non-government schools are only for high-income families or that students from low socio-economic backgrounds are only in government schools,” Andrews said.
She said the university had scrapped maths prerequisites from some courses as “many students simply don’t have the opportunity to take advanced mathematics at school”.
“And we’re delighted to have seen a resulting significant increase in preferences for our business and science degrees,” she said.
Provisional figures provided by UTS for students starting study this year showed a similar pattern: 22 per cent had attended Catholic schools, 38 per cent were from independent schools and 40 per cent came from public schools.
At the University of NSW, students’ backgrounds were more reflective of the NSW high school population, with those from public schools making up 60 per cent of students compared to 39 per cent who attended either private or Catholic schools. The remainder came from schools overseas.
Miriam Palazzi, 18, always dreamt of studying a combined arts and law degree at The University of Sydney.
“I have always been pretty ambitious and Sydney Uni has always been my goal,” she said.
Palazzi attended Merewether High, a selective high school in Newcastle. During her first week of living on campus, she has met plenty of other students. But she’s noticed most of them went to private school.
Miriam Palazzi, 18, graduated from selective school Merewether High in Newcastle and enrolled at the University of Sydney this year.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
“You should come to uni and meet lots of public school students, but you don’t,” she said.
“A lot of people will ask where I am from. Most of the people are surprised. People don’t really expect public school people from outside Sydney to be there.”
The stark difference for Palazi was underscored at an event held as part of the university’s Dalyell Scholars program, which is for students received an ATAR over 98.
“I don’t think I met another person from a public school the whole day,” she said.
“Your school, where you grow up, defines your character. At university, there should [be] more focus that people are actually expanding their bubbles outside private schools, but you don’t see that.”
“It is important that the university should make allowances for it as well and understand that public school students don’t perform as well in the HSC, your results don’t scale as well.”
Monash University Professor Andrew Norton, an expert in higher education, said very few students from low socio-economic status backgrounds could meet reduced entry criteria such as those at Sydney University.
“These students might not finish school. If they do, they might not be on an ATAR track,” he said.
“At the margins, there are things you can do, like the different forms of recruitment, like the lower ATARs, but there simply aren’t enough students to satisfy the criteria.
“The reality is Australian students don’t move to study. If they want to go to Sydney University and UNSW, they probably won’t do it because it is not a commutable distance.”
Approached by the Herald, Macquarie University said it did not collect data on where students went to school, while the University of Wollongong said the figures were “commercially sensitive”. The University of Newcastle and Australian Catholic University do not break down students’ former high schools by sector.
A Western Sydney University spokesperson said 60 per cent of its students were from government schools.
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