ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
The universities in Australia are autonomous institutions and set
their own faculty and course entrance requirements. Specific
subjects and levels of achievement may be prescribed as
prerequisites for entry to individual courses. A university’s
entrance requirement is most clearly linked to the school leaving
certificate system in its own state. In New South Wales, the
Universities Admissions Centre calculates an ATAR score for
students who have completed the Higher School Certificate. This
is reported out of 100 at intervals of 0.05 for each eligible
student. On this basis, cut-off points for the University of New
South Wales in 2010, for Commonwealth-supported students,
were: law 99.55, science 78.00, arts 79.00, architecture 95.40,
commerce 96.00 and engineering 91.05.
The South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre (SATAC)
calculates ATAR for students who have completed the South
Australian Certificate of Education. In 2011 current cut-off points
for the University of Adelaide are: arts 65.05, commerce 80.00,
civil and structural engineering 80.45, and law 95.25
(undergraduate entry), science 70 and architecture 70 (design
studies). Since 2000 entry to the University of Queensland, the
following OPs have been required for courses: arts OP12,
commerce OP7, engineering OP8, architecture OP5, science
OP12 and law OP3.
Recent information can be obtained from each state’s University
Admission Centre website.