And, Associate Professor McCallum said, there was already a relationship between Scots and Ann Brewer, a former deputy vice-chancellor who is chief executive of Sydney Learning, the wholly owned subsidiary of the university that devised the diploma and charges those who complete it as much as $12,000. Typically they are mature-age students who missed out or "bombed out", as Associate Professor McCallum put it, on the HSC. Professor Brewer, also CEO of the university's Centre for Continuing Education, helped Scots establish its Research Centre in 2012. She then helped it establish what the school called a "customised" master's course for its teachers who – like the boys in the diploma course – could complete their study while remaining on the school campus. When the university's admissions committee approved the Sydney Learning diploma, it knew nothing about the Scots trial. And the diploma at Scots was conducted over 17 weeks, while the committee understood it would be a one-year, full-time course. When the academic board learned of the Scots trial, it had to approve it in retrospect. Otherwise, boys who opted for the diploma would have been left stranded.

Scots talked up the diploma in last year's Research Centre annual report, under the headline: "Scots Advantage and Australian Universities." Scots also promoted another non-HSC pathway: boys who studied for a diploma in business or sports management could enter Bond University's equivalent degree and they would earn enough credits to skip the first year of study. Bond did have talks with Scots, but that arrangement never went ahead. Some of the boys who went to Sydney University somehow gained the mistaken belief that they, too, could proceed directly to second year. This cohort of boys, to be eligible for the diploma, had to have a predictive ATAR between 55 and 70 - but some reckoned they would get a full year's head start on the smartest HSC students in the state.

Associate Professor McCallum said the Scots trial was "an honest attempt to widen access to the university". But he and his board decided to call a stop to this alternative pathway. They did not want a system that lured school-age students out of the HSC. Unless diploma students are mature-aged – 21 or older – the board will insist they also have the HSC to enter the university. Except there remain the 11 Scots boys in Year 12 this year who are studying the diploma. The academic board wasn't aware of them. Once again in the dark, it did not know the pilot was still going or that, as Dr Lambert told Fairfax Media, the school had a contract with the university. So the board will honour any undertakings to those boys.