The latest Grattan Institute Report, Attracting high achievers to teaching, is proposing a $1.6 billion reform package to “double the number of high achievers who choose to become teachers, and increase the average ATAR of teaching graduates to 85, within ...
More »USYD tops NSW, ACT student preferences
Another university application data dump, another Go8 domination. The University of Sydney has once again led first and total preliminary preferences among NSW and ACT domestic undergraduate university applicants. Also, per the previous year, UNSW, UTS, WSU, Macquarie and UON followed. USYD slightly increased ...
More »Grades no fix for youth unemployment: Mitchell Institute
A senate inquiry has heard that Gonski funding aside, schools aren't doing enough to prepare students for life. Mitchell Institute Director Megan O'Connell told the inquiry on the future of work that an intense focus on grades has led to other ...
More »Sector reacts to Finkel’s ATAR critique
Australia's Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, has an ATAR-related grievance. "Students select their courses with an eye to a number: the ATAR to enter a particular course," he wrote in his introduction to the STEM Industry-Schools Partnerships report. "Rightly or wrongly, ...
More »It’s time to reassess the ATAR: Mitchell Institute
Education experts have been left questioning the value of the ATAR, after new figures showed just one in four students were entering university undergraduate courses based on their year 12 results. The latest paper by Mitchell Institute at Victoria University ...
More »Is it time to reassess the importance of the ATAR?
Is it time to reassess how the ATAR is used in tertiary education? The current policy climate in teacher education in Australia has a focus on accountability for outcomes as judged by a decreasing trend of primary and secondary student ...
More »ATAR not decisive in UNSW law entry
In the summer of 2016, University of New South Wales Law quietly unveiled a new entry process for undergraduates: prospective students are assessed for admission to the faculty based on their ATAR and their score in a Law Admission Test (LAT). The ...
More »Unis to publish true ATAR cut-offs
Forcing universities to publish the true ATAR cut-offs for their courses and creating a MySchool-style website allowing students to compare the admissions standards of various courses is on the reform agenda for federal education minister Simon Birmingham. Birmingham has announced ...
More »Victoria proposes ATAR cut-off of 70 for teaching degrees
The Victorian government has today unveiled a policy that would require aspiring teachers to have an ATAR of at least 70 before enrolling in teaching degrees, from 2019 onwards. The reforms would also make it compulsory for Victorian universities to ...
More »Tougher uni prerequisites could help arrest maths decline: AMSI
University course prerequisites are one remedy to the decline in Year 12 students taking harder maths subjects, a representative from the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has said. AMSI has released data showing that the number of Year 12 students taking on higher-level ...
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