ATAR-Based Higher Education Admission System In Australia

The higher education admission system for high school students in Australia is more accurately described as ATAR-based admission system since the selection process predominantly relies on Australian Tertiary Admission Rank(ATAR),a rank calculated on the basis of students’ secondary school achievement.ATAR was first introduced as a national scale by then Education Minister Julia Gillard(who was Australian Prime Minister 2010-2012)in 2009,symbolizing a big step towards a national admission system.Prior to ATAR,states and territories adopted different forms of percentile tertiary entrance rank ranging from 0 to 99.95(the maximum for New South Wales was 100).Queensland is an exception that adopts another system banding students’ performance from the highest to the lowest into OP 1 to OP 25.Institutions enjoy the autonomy to decide the entry requirements and admission process,while Tertiary Admission Centers(TACs)centrally coordinate applications and disseminate information,relieving administrative burden from higher education institutions and allowing institutions to focus on research and teaching.This thesis attempts to investigate the possibility of the establishment of a national admission system by analyzing the international selection methods,the difference of ATAR within different jurisdictions,governments’ efforts to build a national curriculum and a national senior secondary education certificate.In the meantime,the study probes into the obstacles of unifying the national admission system from the perspectives of political divisions and state-federal relationships.Federal government’s demand-driven policy in 2012 and the proposal to implement full fee deregulation in 2014 imply that higher education in Australia is heading to a more competitive and market-oriented direction.Placed in this context,the transparency,validity and equity of the ATAR-based admission system are to be evaluated in this study.ATAR shows evident strengths in transparency,efficiency,and cost-effectiveness,while its limitations are also self-evident since ATAR is positively correlated with socio-economic status(SES),which means students from high socio-economic status(SES)are much more likely to be admitted to higher education institutions especially prestigious universities,exacerbating the social imbalance and class stratification in an increasingly competitive environment.The current equity programs adopted by institutions are primarily bonus schemes and alternative entry schemes targeting equity groups including students from non-English background,women in non-traditional areas(such as Engineering and Information Technology),students with disabilities,Indigenous students,and students from regional and remote areas(excluding metropolitan areas).Currently,these equity programs are under review by government in terms of transparency and legitimacy.The litigation and legislation surrounding “affirmative action” in the United States or “positive discrimination” in England also provide lessons for Australia to take cautious steps to solve the equity issues without violating the principle of fairness and merit,avoiding designating special quotas to certain groups.More importantly,equity issues can never be simply addressed at the transition from school to university without reducing education inequality at the early stages.In the meantime,the complexity of ATAR calculation,the different education systems and numerous special entry programs have caused considerable confusions to students especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds due to the lack of proper information and consultation.Therefore,in order to build a national admission system in Australia,it is strongly crucial to improve the transparency and consistency of admission system,providing timely,accurate and comprehensive application information to all students,guaranteeing the equitable access to application information and the opportunity to higher education.