A SHOCKING report has revealed students with near-zero ATAR scores have been offered teaching degrees by universities across the country.

According to a confidential report obtained by the ABC, some aspiring teachers had an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) that was often as low as zero to 19.

The publication reported that university vice chancellors refused to publish the report, but its author, retired professor John Mack, took the extraordinary decision to release the figures to the ABC — despite the University of Sydney demanding it be destroyed.

“It was clearly not in the interest of the universities to make this data available,” Professor Mack told the ABC.

“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.”

Across the country, 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.

It also showed 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 for teaching degrees.

The University of Sydney said in a statement provided to news.com.au that it was currently

considering whether the release of the report constituted a breach of its policies and processes, and if so, it will take appropriate action.

The university also said 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.”

According to the publication, the report revealed that Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) lowest ATAR for admission was 36.

The ACU’s acting Executive Dean of Education, Professor Elizabeth Labone said it was very rare for students to be accepted on such low ATARs, but when they were, “it’s because there are extenuating personal circumstances that we take into account”.

“An ATAR is one of a number of factors that ACU considers in order to provide the strength and diversity needed for teachers in our classrooms,” Professor Labone told news.com.au

“All students in Initial Teacher Education courses must pass multiple benchmarks throughout their degree including non-academic selection, LANTITE and Teacher Performance Assessment (a final assessment of teacher performance moderated across universities).”

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She said graduating teachers have met all quality benchmarks and ACU graduates have a higher than sector average in their employment rates.

The report also showed that the Federation University of Australia’s (FedUni) lowest reported ATAR was 22 and for Southern Cross University it was 35.

“No FedUni student with an ATAR of 22 can go straight into a Bachelor of Education teaching program,” Professor Andy Smith, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of FedUni told news.com.au

He said all Bachelor of Education teaching students enrolled in the program this year were required to have an ATAR of 65 or above.

“The University supports this State Government initiative, as well as the requirement that students achieve an ATAR of 70 from next year before enrolling into the Bachelor of Education teaching degree.”

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.

“We recognise that some school leavers benefit from the opportunity to develop the skills they require to reach the necessary academic standard for further study. Our Bachelor of Education Studies addresses that issue and provides a pathway into a teaching degree.”

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 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.”

Southern Cross University had not yet responded to news.com.au’s request for comment.