The University of New South Wales has promised it will not raise its university entry marks even though demand has grown during the pandemic, as students begin to receive their Atars.
After a year disrupted by distance learning and the Covid-19 pandemic, year 12 students will receive their final exam results this month.
Students in NSW and the ACT got theirs on Friday morning; students in Queensland will receive them on Saturday, Western Australia on 20 December, and 30 December in Victoria.
Demand for university places has grown this year because of a higher number of year 12 school leavers, fewer students going on gap years, and people returning to study due to the recession.
Applications from year 12 school leavers are up 5.7% in NSW, according to the Universities Admissions Centre, and 48,620 have applied to universities in the state.
Demand has also risen at UNSW, but it has said no Atar entry cut-off will be higher in 2021 than it was in January 2020 – and lower in some cases.
It has had a 15$ rise in applications this year compared with last year.
“We will look at lowering the Atar by one or two points where we believe we can accommodate demand,” a spokesman said. “We will not be putting any Atar up above the previously published guaranteed entry levels.”
The university would be “as understanding as possible in admissions this year” due to the disruption experienced by year 12 students.
Engineering, one of its most popular courses, has lowered its guaranteed entry to 91, down from 93.
The UNSW calculates its “guaranteed entry” as a combination of a student’s base Atar and any adjustment factors, which provide additional entry points for performing well in certain subjects.
For example, students who performed well in year 12 maths and science receive bonus points when applying to do a bachelor of science.
The required score to enter a degree, known as the Atar cut-off, varies from university to university, and will not be known until degree offers are made to students – starting from 23 December in NSW and Queensland, and 14 January in Victoria.
Kim Paino from the UAC said it was not a given that Atar cut-offs would rise even though demand was up.
“Given that these things change from year-to-year, I’m always reluctant to make predictions, and particularly so this year,” she said.
“While we have more applications, and you might otherwise expect that to lead to increases, it also depends on how many offers universities are prepared to make.
“Some will be looking to a larger domestic cohort to offset the lack of international students, while others will seek to maintain their domestic numbers, and all will be considering the impacts of the job ready graduates package.”
In Victoria, the University of Melbourne confirmed it too had seen an increase in applications.
Tamara Barth from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre said it was “difficult to say” how Atar cut-offs would change due to the “unprecedented events this year”.
The pressures of distance learning also meant many students were applying for special consideration for the first time, she said.
In November it was revealed that more than 50% of all Victorian year 12 students have applied for special consideration in their university applications due to the impact of remote learning.
Remy Hannan, a year 12 student in Sydney, said she was “nervous” for the release of her results on Friday after a year disrupted by the pandemic.
Hannan, 17, attends St Marys senior high school in Sydney’s west.
She plans to take a gap year next year before deciding what to study at university.
“Even though I don’t have a specific degree in mind, I am so nervous about tomorrow honestly,” she said. “There is no one number that I need, but I have worked so hard over the past two years. It is insane. I think if I let myself down now, I think I will be very upset.
“I would be happy with anything over 90. Below that, I think I would be a little disappointed.”
Hannan said many of her peers had struggled with lockdown and restrictions but she found remote learning better than expected.
“It was really unique and I definitely have a mix of emotions about it,” she said. “A lot of people found it really difficult to stay on top of the massive workload in year 12.
“I had done distance education before. I really enjoyed having the time to do both school work and do other things and have a life outside of work and assessments and everything. And I am an introvert – I didn’t struggle being on my own.
“But I was aware we would be missing out on a big part of our year 12 experience. Right up until the end we didn’t think we’d be getting a graduation or a formal.”
