The federal government will improve transparency around university admissions, after an expert report found entry score requirements mislead students and are inflated to enhance courses’ prestige.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, will promise to improve transparency at the AFR higher education summit in Melbourne on Wednesday.
At the same the summit shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek, will argue that Labor’s promised extra funding for universities to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds will increase equity and prosperity.
On Wednesday Birmingham released a report by the Higher Education Standards Panel that found some higher education providers exaggerate Australian Tertiary Admission Rank requirements “in an attempt to boost perceived prestige” of their courses.
Many education providers publish only main round offer cut-offs, even when students are admitted in later rounds with lower ranks, it said.
The report warned that prospective students may be deterred by the Atar requirements of courses, which “can be misleading as it only accounts for a little over 30% of all new higher education enrolments”.
It recommended that published information should clearly identify the minimum Atar admission requirements for the course at the completion of all offer rounds.
The report proposed a template for universities to disclose the percentage of students admitted to a course with bonus points, the maximum number of bonus points available and the Atar required to be in the top and bottom 25% and the middle of the student intake.
The government will respond to the report within weeks but Birmingham will tell the summit that he supports the intent of “greater clarity and uniformity in the information available to students”.
“We must ensure that we provide students, and their families, with the information they need, on an easily accessible and understood platform, in a format that is comparable and consistent across jurisdictions to ensure they make informed decisions about their future.”
The Universities Australia chief executive, Belinda Robinson, welcomed the report as “a measured and sensible way out of an increasingly complex and confusing admissions information mire”.
The report struck the right balance between strengthening information standardisation and consistency while respecting universities’ autonomy, Robinson said.
“The university sector is unified in its acknowledgement of the need for greater transparency, consistency and clarity of information on university admissions policies, processes, [and] procedures.”
Universities Australia also said the panel’s report demolished media claims of “dramatic increases in the number of unprepared students being admitted into universities and escalating attrition rates”.
The report notes that offers to students with ATARs below 50 represented just 4% of offers in 2016 and less than 10% of year 12 offers were made to students with ATARs below 60.
Plibersek’s speech to the summit will frame education as “a contributing factor to economic growth and a dividend of it”. Reinvestment in education is needed so people don’t feel left behind by economic growth, she will warn.
The speech reiterates Labor’s commitment to spend billions of dollars more than the Liberals on university education and increasing per-student funding.
Plibersek will seize on a Committee for the Economic Development of Australia report that found 40% of jobs could be redundant in 10 to 15 years to argue greater investment in education is needed to prepare people for future jobs.
She will recommit Labor to oppose university fee deregulation and so-called $100,000 degrees.
“We think everyone should have the chance to go to university without incurring a lifetime of debt.”
Plibersek told ABC’s AM that university is “not just a benefit for the individual student ... but it’s also an investment in our national prosperity”.
“We know that investment in education is a driver of economic growth,” she said.
“One of the commitments Labor has always had is to make sure that we’re not just offering a university education to kids who have wealthy parents but ... that’s [it’s] available for anyone who is prepared to work hard enough.”
