By Craig Butt, Christopher Harris and Cindy Yin
It is significantly easier for students to gain entry to a major Sydney university after minimum selection ranks required for some courses dropped by up to 20 points over the past 15 years.
More than 40,000 students received university offers on Monday, but tertiary education experts say many with comparatively low ATARs have already secured a spot at university thanks to the growth of early entry schemes.
Aspiring teachers wishing to study a bachelor of primary education at Australian Catholic University 15 years ago needed an ATAR of 85.35, but now the lowest selection rank for that course has fallen to 67.15.
The Universities Admissions Centre stopped publishing ATAR cut-offs five years ago and instead discloses the “lowest selection rank” – which is the ATAR of lowest performing student in the course plus up to 10 so-called adjustment factor points. These are essentially bonus points awarded for reasons such as disadvantage or doing well in particular year 12 subjects.
The change in data reporting coincided with revelations some universities were admitting students who received ATARs below 50 into teaching degrees.
The minimum ATAR required to get into a business degree at UTS has dropped by seven points since 2010, while an arts degree at Sydney University fell by four ATAR points to a selection rank of 80 for 2025 study. A bachelor of commerce at Sydney University fell from 94.40 to 93. A journalism degree at UTS fell by 20 points, with students with an ATAR of at least 72 getting a spot.
Castle Hill High student Sienna Zhang has opted to study at UTS after much deliberation.Credit: Wolter Peeters
It has become harder to get into engineering compared to last year after the average selection rank at all universities increased marginally to 84.60.
It is easier to get into an education degree, however, with the lowest selection rank dropping to 72.55 – a fall of 0.8 points.
According to the University Admissions Centre data, Australian Catholic University had some of the lowest selection ranks for certain degrees, including a bachelor of accounting and finance, biomedical science and commerce in the 50s.
Australian Catholic University provost Professor Julie Cogin said it was rare for students to be accepted on low ATARs, but when they were, it was often because of extenuating personal circumstances.
“We offer extensive academic support systems and our courses are designed with the assumption that students will have varied levels of preparation in their first year of university,” she said.
Andrew Norton says universities must balance risk with opportunities when it comes to admitting students with low ATARs.Credit: Attila Csaszar
ANU Professor Andrew Norton, who studies the practice of higher education policy, said recent data showed just 10 per cent of students with an ATAR below 50 had been admitted with their ATAR taken into account.
“I would expect that this removes some students who would otherwise have appeared in the data with the lowest ATAR selection rank,” he said.
Norton said about six in 10 students with an ATAR in the 50s complete a degree, which may not be the one they started. However, he said universities had to weigh up risks of not finishing, racking up unnecessary student debt and wasting time.
He said government policies which were rolled out between 2021 and 2024 require universities to manage risks more proactively.
“This includes intervening more quickly if things are not going well and cancelling enrolments when students are not engaged,” he said.
Sienna Zhang, 17, applied to study a bachelor of communications majoring in social and political science at UTS next year after much deliberation.
“My parents were beside me, and we were just flipping through the UAC books looking at the ATARs, and moving preferences up and down. It was so stressful because in the moment, it felt like I was choosing my next four years – the future,” she said.
“I don’t think I can say I’ve made the right decision until I take a couple of classes and see what it’s actually like.
“Some people have had this decision made since primary school – they’ve been working towards a degree for a long time.
“But I think a lot of my friends, we just don’t really know what we’re choosing until we’ve experienced it and decided whether we like it.”
Students have until 11.59pm on January 2 to change their preferences ahead of the next round of offers on January 9.
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