Entry standards for elite courses are plummeting as universities juggle status with government-imposed equity and growth agendas, according to The Australian. This year, 62% of students accepted into Deakin University’s law degree, with an advertised Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) cut-off of 94.4, achieved a score below that. At La Trobe University, 70% of admitted students scored less than the 94.1 cut-off for the double science degree, while 60% ofMonashUniversity’s environment engineering intake scored less than the 90 cut-off. Even Melbourne University’s elite biomedicine program, a traditional pathway into its medical degree, enrolled 56% of this year’s intake with ATARs less than the 99 cut-off.
This is not quite right.
There is undoubtedly a cut-off for each of these courses and generally that would be the last applicant with the lowest ATAR offered a place in one of these courses.
The published figure to which this article refers is actually what’s known as the clearly-in ATAR. The clearly in it does not represent the minimum ATAR required for the course or the applicant with lowest ATAR to receive an offer. It is simply the point at which every applicant with that ATAR or higher received an offer, without exception. Many applicants with a lower ATAR are also offered on the basis of other factors. This has always been the case.
While the level of an applicant’s ATAR is an important factor in selection it is not the only factor. Other factors might include:
- performance in specific studies including those that may be listed as pre-requisites
- General aptitude test results, at some institutions
- special consideration for disadvantage affecting Year 12 performance, or for specific equity groups.
For any course, there are two selection principles are applied to any applicant for a course – eligibility and merit:
- Eligibility meaning the entrance and academic requirements for the course have been met.
- Merit whereby applicants are ranked in order of merit according to all selection criteria. How far down the rank order offers are made depends on the number of places available, so long as the applicant meets all the eligibility requirements.
The number of places available is of course a relevant consideration. If there are 100 places available in Melbourne biomed and there are 44 applicants with an ATAR of 99 plus, with a clearly-in of 99, these 44 applicants get an offer, simply on the basis of their ATAR and there are still 56 places to fill. The university could just offer on the basis of ATAR which means that the clearly-in is actually something less than 99 and is in effect a cut-off. Or the university could apply other selection criteria and create an order of merit in which ATAR is relatively important but not absolutely important.
In the case of biomed at Melbourne, applicants with ATARs of, say, 95 or 96 might get an offer. This is hardly indicative of “plummeting” standards.
