Students from JobKeeper and JobSeeker families get entry advantage

Students whose parents or guardians have been on JobKeeper or JobSeeker will have an advantage in university entry.

Female college student walk on the road to start her success

Students whose parents or guardians have been on the JobKeeper or the JobSeeker allowances for at least three months from March will from August 1 be eligible for inclusion in a university entrance scheme that takes account of financial disadvantage.

The University Admissions Centre, which covers NSW and ACT universities, announced the new provisions to its Educational Access Scheme (EAS) in May, as it became apparent there would be severe economic damage caused by the COVID-19 lockdown.

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“We wanted to make sure that anyone financially disadvantaged by the pandemic would be catered for and there may be some who would not otherwise be eligible under the financial disadvantage category,” UAC general manager of marketing and engagement, Kim Paino said.

“We also grappled with the difficulty of trying to provide consideration for students in what’s been obviously a very difficult year.

“You could argue that all year 12s were disadvantaged. But in a rankings system, if you adjust everything, then it becomes meaningless. So we targeted specific groups we felt were particularly disadvantaged.”

The EAS is open to students who have experienced educational disadvantage during years 11 and 12. There are 25 specific disadvantages grouped into nine categories. As well as financial disadvantage they include disruption to a student’s schooling or family situation and personal illness or disability. All must have supporting documents.

Ms Paino said UAC’s new provisions allowed some students to seek more than one adjustment (previously called bonus points) to their ranking, for example if “their family was eligible because they get a family tax benefit, then, on top of that, is getting JobSeeker simply because they lost their job.”

All of the state admissions centres have similar programs, which take into account Centrelink arrangements, which now include JobSeeker, however UAC has halved the normal six month waiting period. “It’s for those who’ve been receiving JobSeeker since March, who are effectively those who have been placed in that situation because of the pandemic explicitly,” Ms Paino said.

However, UAC is the only admissions centre that has extended eligibility to students whose parents or guardians receive JobKeeper, an allowance paid by the Australian Taxation Office through employers.

The admissions centres have also played a role in confirming that Australian Tertiary Admission Rank would be unchanged this year, despite the disruption of the temporary move to online learning. An April statement from their peak body, the Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admissions Centres (ACTAC), assured students the ATAR would be calculated as in other years and it would be introduced in Queensland as planned.

“Any changes to a state’s examination and assessment processes in response to COVID-19 can be accommodated within the ATAR framework,” it said.

A month later the Education Council of federal, state and territory ministers, confirmed that on the advice of a representatives of ACTAC, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authorities and Universities Australia, the ATAR would be used as normal and all universities would “continue to provide pathways that take other factors into consideration alongside ATAR, including where students experience disadvantage”.