Dr Finkel attacked universities' entry standards for science and engineering degrees, calling on universities to require intermediate (2 unit) or advanced mathematics (extension 1 and 2) across the board.

"It staggers me that 13 of the 34 engineering courses offered in Australia accept fundamental [general] maths as a prerequisite even though this does not include calculus, and one of our engineering courses does not require any Year 12 mathematics at all," he wrote in the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering's Focus magazine, published on Wednesday.

It comes as UNSW became the first university to publish data on its offers, boosting transparency of entry requirements for prospective students.

UNSW has an ATAR bonus points system designed to recruit talented STEM students to its science and engineering degrees if they have successfully completed extension maths or physics in high school. And students from disadvantaged backgrounds with below advertised minimum ATARs can apply for bonus points consideration if they otherwise meet entry criteria.

On Wednesday, UNSW published a website laying out the number of high-school leavers receiving offers and the average ATAR and range for admission to each degree, as well as the number of bonus points offers.

Professor Merlin Crossley, deputy vice-chancellor (education) at UNSW, said "UNSW has always published comprehensive information about entry criteria and pathways but in addition we are now also releasing our data on offers.

"Prospective university students will see that the average student in each cohort typically has an ATAR a little above the published cut-off.

"We hope this type of detailed information about each degree will help prospective students more fully understand the cohorts they seek to join."

In January, Fairfax Media revealed that up to 60 per cent of students at some universities were being admitted below the advertised minimum requirements, leading the federal government to direct the Higher Education Standards Panel to examine transparency in the sector.

Last week, the Group of 8 universities endorsed the panel's recommendation to publish the lowest, median and maximum Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank for every university degree.

Challenges in education

Dr Finkel said the challenges facing the nation's education system were a focus of the Forum of Australian Chief Scientists held in Hobart last month.

He singled out the "rapid approach of automation and artificial intelligence" as a huge change that will "substantially alter the job market in coming years."

While universities should work as closely as possible with industry, "in reality it is impossible to keep up, so that instead of aspiring to produce job-ready graduates we must aspire to produce job-capable graduates."

Dr Finkel also said Australia's slipping performance and participation in science and maths at school level compared with other countries is "unacceptable", but said "our schools and teachers are much better than the constant criticism implies".

with Eryk Bagshaw