Students who leave high school with the lowest scores — some close to zero — are being offered places in teaching degrees at universities, a secret report has found.

Key points: In NSW and ACT in 2015, school leavers who scored in bottom 50 per cent made up half of all teaching degree offers

In NSW and ACT in 2015, school leavers who scored in bottom 50 per cent made up half of all teaching degree offers Figures contained in confidential report obtained by the ABC

Figures contained in confidential report obtained by the ABC Report's co-author says it's "worrying that offers were being made to some students"

The explosive figures are contained in a confidential report obtained by the ABC that university bosses ordered to be suppressed.

It shows some prospective teaching students had an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) that was often as low as zero to 19 — far below the Federal Government's official data.

These figures, which have never been publicly reported by universities, show that in NSW and the ACT in 2015, students who scored in the bottom 50 per cent of school leavers made up half of all those offered places in teaching degrees.

There were 28 offers made to students scoring an ATAR of 0-19, 29 offers to those scoring 20-29, and 73 offers to students with an ATAR of 30-39.

ATAR is used in all states except Queensland.

The report's author, retired professor John Mack, has taken the extraordinary decision to release the figures to the ABC after the University of Sydney demanded the report be destroyed.

"It was clearly not in the interest of the universities to make this data available," Professor Mack said.

"What it shows is that overall the general quality of applicants has gone down.

"In some cases it was worrying that offers were being made to some students that I would have thought would have had exceptional difficulty coping with first-year university."

The University of Sydney said in a statement it was "very disappointed" the report had been released.

"At the time the report was written, we communicated with the researchers involved, UAC (Universities Admissions Centre) and the NSW Vice-Chancellors Committee, to ensure research produced by our academics meets both UAC's protocols for data use and ethics requirements, as well as our own policy requirements, before being made public," it said.

"We are currently considering whether the release of this report now constitutes a breach of our policies and processes and will take appropriate action if it does."

The report shows the numbers of students admitted into teaching degrees has increased markedly in recent years.

Of 4,075 offers to school leavers in 2015, only 292 scored a tertiary entrance score above 90. Just 14 scored above 98.

The report also found there have been big declines in the high school maths achievements of prospective teachers.

Twenty-five per cent of those offered places studied no maths at all in Year 12.

Commonwealth figures show worrying trends: expert

Professor Mack's report, co-authored with University of Sydney lecturer Rachel Wilson, draws on NSW Universities Admissions Centre data for recent school leavers that is available to all universities, but is not released publicly.

The data includes those who gained entry to university through alternative pathways and not on ATAR alone.

Dr Wilson declined to comment on the report. Asked generally about publicly available Commonwealth figures, she said there were deeply worrying shifts nationally.

"There are very clear trends, I would say disturbingly steep trends, in the admission of lower-attaining students to initial teacher education," Dr Wilson said.

"And that appears to be feeding back in a really pernicious way into school education.

"When we look broadly across Australian education at the moment, there are lots of really disturbing indicators in terms of declines in performance.

"Those indicators are system-wide, they're not just among disadvantaged students, and they're across all states.

"To my mind, these entry standards in initial teacher education are one very obvious candidate for explaining these declines.

"And if the system doesn't rise up and address this issue we are going to be in a downward spiral from here on in."

Do you know more about this story? Email Specialist.Team@abc.net.au

Students with low ATAR scores accepted 2018 uni spots

National figures show many universities have accepted prospective teachers with low ATAR scores into education degree courses in 2018.

The Federation University of Australia's lowest reported ATAR was 22, for Southern Cross University it was 35, and 36 for the Australian Catholic University (ACU).

In a statement, ACU's Executive Dean of Education, Professor Elizabeth Labone, said it was "very rare" for students to be accepted on very low ATARs and when they were, there had been "extenuating circumstances" taken into account.

The university said all students in initial teacher education courses must pass multiple quality benchmarks throughout their degrees.

The university sector argues ATARs are a flawed measure of student ability, and not all students made offers would enrol in teaching degrees.

There is also a national literacy and numeracy test that graduates must pass at the end of their degree to gain accreditation as a teacher.

"We need to be careful with low ATAR data because students with low ATARs are usually made offers based on other criteria such as their educational disadvantage, membership of an equity group and/or performance in a separate test or interview," said Kim Paino from the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC).

"For these students their ATAR has either not been considered at all, or has been only a very small part of the university's consideration.

"Reporting these low ATARs isn't really helpful to prospective students, because having that ATAR won't be enough on its own to secure an offer."

All universities have access to complete datasets of the ATARs of school leavers offered places in undergraduates degrees, and as a one-time chair of Sydney University's admissions committee, Professor Mack had been accessing the data for years.

Over time, the number of special entry categories used by universities to offer places to recent school leavers with low ATARs has expanded dramatically.

"The bottom line is: are the universities given a minimum intake prescription by their vice-chancellor, which they are obliged to try to meet?" Professor Mack said.

Vice-Chancellors Committee defends uni selection measures

When Professor Mack sent a copy of his report to the NSW Vice-Chancellors Committee, alarm bells rang.

In a statement to the ABC, the NSW Vice-Chancellors Committee said an academic subcommittee had considered the report.

There were concerns the use of ATAR scores "could potentially breach data-sharing agreements between the NSW Government, universities and the UAC".

The committee said there had been "fundamental changes" since 2016 due to recent ATAR transparency measures.

The Vice-Chancellors Committee defended universities' use of alternative selection measures for disadvantaged students or those whose education had been disrupted.

"The emphasis should be upon success post-graduation," the statement said.

"Use of, and reference to, the data should be cognisant of what actually happens when people use the very sophisticated and expert enabling programs on offer at many NSW universities.

"The 'effective' ATAR post such pathway courses is very sound and the progression and success rate of such students is impressive."

The NSW Government introduced minimum benchmarks for undergraduate teaching degree applicants in 2016 that stipulated that students must have achieved a band five or above in a minimum of three subjects, including English.