Higher education should provide access for as many people as possible to fulfil their potential as individuals. Leaders in higher education must be ready to examine what it will take to achieve this.
A recent report recommended all students leave school with a learner profile. This will capture their academic results, as well as other achievements like extracurricular activities.
A new study and its methods provides a way to replace the current Year 12 structure with one that will help prepare senior school students for their journey into the future – whatever that may be.
Even before COVID-19, use of the ATAR for university entry was contentious. Now it's even more so, and universities need to rely on other ways to admit students.
How will the move to online study, and the disruption of routine, affect year 12 students' abilities to perform and, consequently, their grades? And what does this mean for university entry?
More students from poorer families study vocational education and training subjects than students from advantaged backgrounds.
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NSW schools are losing senior music students in significant numbers. Teachers say they're dropping the subject in year 12 to ensure a higher ATAR.
Think of the ranking system like a queue. The closer you are to the front of the queue, the more likely you are to get a university spot.
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Our top-scoring students aren't choosing to become teachers, and that has flow-on effects for the students who come after them.
Once qualified, men who did a popular engineering-related VET course often worked in high-paid fields such as construction or manufacturing.
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Students with lower ATARs generally have lower lifetime earnings. But a Grattan Institute report found low ATAR men could earn more doing a VET course than a bachelor degree in their chosen field.
There need to be deeper reforms to teaching, such as higher pay at the top end, better opportunities for career advancement, and improvements to the professional working environment.
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Before deciding what to study at which university, high school graduates should consider the drop-out rates, early-career employment prospects and lifetime earnings their program is likely to yield.
A musician must master the instrument before they can master playing in an orchestra.
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Some universities accept students into their teaching degree programs with an ATAR as low as 35. Do we need to raise the bar, or are other factors more important than a high ATAR for teachers?
In short, less advantaged students require significant additional supports, well beyond acknowledging their diverse pathways for entry into a degree program.
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From 2020, ANU will require students to meet co-curricular requirements alongside ATAR. This significant policy shift is meant to improve equity of access, but won't change much.
Many mainstream schools seem to reinforce the message that the ATAR is everything.
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In 2017, around 60% of domestic undergraduate university offers were reported as non-ATAR, meaning there's a diversity of pathways to higher education.
Regardless of your ATAR, it’s important to keep vocational pathways in mind, not as a lesser option, but as a way of getting experience in an industry you’re interested in.
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