The University of Wollongong has offered more than three-quarters of places in some of its courses to students whose ATAR ranks were below the advertised cutoff.
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Hundreds of offers have been made to school leavers with ATAR scores 20-30, and in some cases 40, points below the stated cutoff for the course.
Course with a majority of offers going to lower-ATAR students include Arts/Law, Business, Arts, and Engineering bachelor’s degrees.
Confidential data obtained by Fairfax Media shows the admissions into each course at Wollongong. Together it paints a picture of a once-competitive entry scheme being turned on its head.
About 75 per cent of places in Arts/Law were offered to students below the ATAR cutoff of 90. Several of these were more than 20 points below the cutoff.
The Bachelor of Business degree at Wollongong offered more than 80 per cent of places to students below its cutoff ATAR of 70. Again, many of these had ATARs more than 20 points below.
Only six of 34 students offered places in the Bachelor of Digital Media made the advertised cutoff ATAR of 75.
In Civil Engineering 66 per cent of offers were below the cutoff. Arts had about 75 per cent (many were below 50 ATAR). In Commerce the figure was about 62 per cent (again, many were more than 20 points below).
Dozens of students have been offered places in courses despite receiving an ATAR more than 30, and almost 40 points, below the cutoff.
There were some courses at some UoW campuses in which not a single student scored above the cutoff ATAR. The Mercury has chosen not to identify these.
These ATAR figures are “raw” and do not take into account how some students receive “bonus” points towards entry according to regional status or other factors. But these schemes usually add only 10-15 “points” to a student’s ATAR.
The revelations at UoW come after a Fairfax Media investigation showed several major Sydney universities were massively relaxing their entry criteria following the removal of the Federal Government cap on university places.
The result is a record student intake and less competitive entry standards.
UoW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (global strategy) Joe Chicaro said the raw ATAR ranks did not consider alternative entry programs.
“The University of Wollongong values ATAR as an important measure of student performance but considers it one of several factors that can indicate a student’s potential for success at university,” he said.
“UoW has run successful bonus points, early entry and alternative entry schemes for over a decade and in that time has continued to achieve sector-leading graduate outcomes, particularly in graduate employability and student satisfaction measures.
“Students entering UoW via these schemes have been individually assessed according to many factors that can determine their prospects for success which may include subject and discipline performance, school recommendations, personal circumstances, portfolios of work, relevant non-academic attainment and an interview.
“As one of Australia’s leading teaching institutions, UoW ensures appropriate support measures are in place to enable all students to achieve their full potential and experience the life-changing benefits that access to higher education can deliver.
“UoW is pleased with current trends in student growth, having made around 6000 offers for the 2016 academic year. Actual enrolment numbers will not be finalised until late March.”
Newly elected Liberal president of the UoW Students Association Sam Tedeschi said he was not concerned about the effect on the value of a UoW degree.
“It’s clearly skewed to more people getting in, probably too many, when you look at the numbers,” he said.
“The relaxing of the entry criteria doesn’t change the difficulty and the hard work that goes into a degree.
“Once you’ve got to university you still have to work as hard as anyone else.”
Mr Tedeschi said he backed the university’s move in making more offers, and said most students would not mind if there were more people in courses.
“I think it raises more questions about the ATAR and the HSC scheme for judging (entry) into university,” he said.
He said he could not comment on whether it seemed the move was motivated by financial concerns, as universities look to raise more money from students.
