Universities favour rich students through early offer system, minister claims

As year 12 students approach their final exams, one education minister is worried that early university offers have encouraged them to slack off.

Early offers of university places to year 12 students are making them ‘take their foot off the gas’, NSW Education Minister Prue Car says.

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Universities have been accused of “rewarding privilege” by offering study places to tens of thousands of year 12 students before their final exams.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car – who is in charge of the ­nation’s biggest public schooling system – said universities were encouraging year 12 students to take their “foot off the gas’’.

Ms Car said half of all year 12 students were getting into university based on an early offer, after 40,000 year 12 students applied for university this year before sitting their final exams for an official Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

She said some well-resourced schools “work the system’’, favouring students from wealthy families.

“Unfortunately, principals see declining levels of engagement in the critical final weeks of school among pupils who have received offers with few strings attached,’’ Ms Car writes in The Australian.

She said that “a school’s overall performance can be warped because a statistically significant number of students have taken their foot off the gas’’.

Students should be encouraged to finish their studies “to the best of their ability”, she added.

“While getting an early offer can reduce a student’s stress levels, the job of an educator is to help prepare our young for adult life, including valuable life skills.”

Ms Car said the system of early offers “rewards privilege over ­potential’’.

“My concern is that the lack of transparency around the admissions process is leading to a system where only those who work the system can benefit from it,’’ she said. “Applying to universities directly is more of an art than a science.’’

In NSW alone, 10 universities make early offers based on school principal recommendations, students’ year 11 results, interviews or portfolios of school work.

In Victoria, 11 universities make early offers to students, while early offers are discouraged in Queensland.

Ms Car said some schools had “mastered the process, from ensuring their students are par­ticipating in extra-curricular activities to get extra credits, to assisting them in developing their applications’’.

“(They) are more likely to succeed in attracting more early offers,’’ she said.

“Less-advantaged schools don’t always have the time or resources for this. This imbalance can result in students from more privileged backgrounds receiving multiple offers, while (others) are left out, despite their potential.’’

Ms Car called for “transparent pathways’’ into university that “reward those students who work hard and make the most of their potential’’.

The minister’s criticism comes despite an agreement by federal, state and territory education ministers last year permitting universities to make early offers in September.

In past years, universities had been offering places to year 12 students as early as March – seven months before their exams.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the September offer deadline would stay in place for only another year, pending permanent reforms that will start with offers made in 2026 for university entry in 2027.

“I asked the Universities Accord to look at this issue and we are now reforming the entire early offers system,’’ Mr Clare said.

He and Ms Car wrote to vice-chancellors in March, complaining that early ­offers were affecting year 12 students’ ­“attendance, application and results’’.

“Students who receive an early offer may change their study habits, with effects not only on their own achievement but which could also affect their peers’, and their school’s, overall results,’’ the letter reads.