Western Sydney University Credit:Fiona Morris The practice has implications not just for academia, but for the quality of the nation's workforce and mounting public debt, with $7 billion in student loans never repaid, according to the most recent report from the Grattan Institute. "If you have a pulse, you can get in," remarked Richard Hil, a researcher in university admissions policy at Griffith, who has called for a public inquiry to be held into tertiary administration. So how did we arrive at a situation where the majority, not minority, of students at two of Sydney's top universities, Macquarie and Western Sydney, get admitted despite not meeting the minimum academic requirements? The tap opened when the Gillard Government uncapped university places in 2012.

The University of NSW aims to be a top 50 university within 10 years. Credit:Louise Kennerley Before this shift, universities had funding allocated to them for a set number of student places per course. They had no financial incentive to enrol more students than the government was going to fund, so ATARs stuck, as a way of creating competition for a finite number of places. In 2012, they took the competition away. The Gillard government argued more Australians should be able to access tertiary education and uncapped the number of students it would fund. "I don't think that the broader ATAR system we have outside of flexible entry works at all," says Jenavive Westbury, a fourth year UNSW law student. Credit:Edwina Pickles This year, a record 1.2 million people will be educated in higher education institutions, a 22 per cent jump in total enrolments over four years at the cost of nearly $16 billion in government funding.

But a more widely educated population has also come at a cost. UNSW Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs. Credit:Brendan Esposito Higher student numbers, fewer full time academics, and government pressure on research funding has meant that at the same time as universities are dependent on increased student numbers for funding, so too are they running on fewer resources. "Quality has suffered, and it starts with lower ATARs," says a senior NSW education figure. "The decision to open up uncapped student places was a total market failure.

"The big bucket approach of enrol as many as you can has created a totally dysfunctional system, it is completely contrary to the national interest. They cannot leave it as it is now." So far, the Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has indicated the government has no intention of turning off the tap despite issuing a warning to universities after the data was released this week. "There are no current plans to reinstate caps for universities," he said on Wednesday, while promising to keep a "watching brief," as total drop-out rates reach the highest level in a decade. "Although the demand-driven system has provided unprecedented access and must be protected it has come at a significantly higher cost to the taxpayer. Recent attrition rates show that almost 15 per cent of these Australians do not progress to their second year. Universities must take responsibility for those students they choose to enrol and ensure they have the capabilities and support to succeed."

Research from the Grattan Institute's Andrew Norton indicates that based on past estimates only 20% of the 7000 students who are offered places with ATARs below 50 will end up getting a degree. He believes there are no guarantees that those who start from low entry points will get the support they need. "We are relying on standards set by the universities themselves and there certainly has been enough scandal in recent years that you can't be entirely confident that things are OK." Academics at Western Sydney University and Macquarie said they were "not surprised" by the findings, given both institutions have swollen their purses on the back of uncapped student places and flexible entry programs. Western Sydney was the symbol of new-age university growth at the beginning of January, proudly announcing that they had made a record 12,000 offers after a $20 million marketing campaign that centred on the inspiring story of Sudanese refugee Deng Adut.

But behind their public ATARs lay the reality of their admissions. In their Bachelor of Construction management course, 99 per cent of 251 students failed to make the ATAR of 85, the actual average of students was 20 points lower at 63. More than 90 per cent failed to make the grade for the university's engineering course and were still admitted. At Macquarie similar numbers of students who did not make the ATAR cut-off were enrolled in their law and marketing programs. The President of the National Tertiary Education Union, Jeannie Rae, believes that the surge in enrolments can only lead to an inevitable fall in tuition standards. "What we are facing is not a status quo but worsening learning and teaching conditions," she says. "Even prepared students are frantic as they cannot get assistance from tutors".

Professor Hil says he has seen the frustration of academics first hand. "Universities are heavily dependent on bloated class sizes, in tutorials you can get one tutor to 50 students". "Administrators put enormous pressure on academics to pass students. If you have too many fail grades, you will be implicitly asked to explain 'why have you failed students?' It is a bar that is constantly being pushed down". The drop in quality is starting to be noticed in the workforce, believes Mr Norton.

"Employers such as state governments are now imposing their own literacy and numeracy assessments, this is a response to the loss of faith in the assessment of universities," he says. Fewer and fewer graduates are getting jobs straight out of the university gates too, with graduate employment rates falling to their lowest point since 1993, while many industries which would have been staffed by potential TAFE graduates such as building, are reporting a shortage of available workers. If reform is going to come, it has to start at the beginning, argue vice-chancellors from Victoria to Kensington, well before nervous students tick preference boxes or stay up at night contemplating what four numbers will flash up on their screens in January. No one now seriously argues that the ATAR is the complete measure of academic success. It can't quantify illness, disadvantage or potential, it is a four digit number. "ATAR tells us more about social advantage than it does about anything else," Professor Sally Kift, an expert in university admissions, told Fairfax Media on Thursday.

"They tell us more about where students went to school and the social and culture capital which 'cotton-woolled' them at the point of their final school assessment". When UNSW's Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs called for NSW to move away from the current system as quickly as possible this week, he said: "We need a set of criteria that identifies the most talented students from all backgrounds, not ATAR alone". Mitchell Lavelle knows it well. The 18-year-old survived leukemia by the age of 11, and worked pizzas by night and picking up glasses by day, while on his way to become dux of Casino High school. "In the long run going through something like that gives you a determination," Lavelle says of his battle with leukemia.

He fell 8.75 points short of the required mark to get into Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sydney. Fortunately for Lavelle, the sandstone university had already disregarded his ATAR, and admitted him on the basis of his leadership, tenacity and ability to overcome adversity through its dux program. "You wake up every morning a little bit more thankful for what life gives you," he says. Across town, another band of students are thankful that their institution also ignored their ATARs. Fourth-year law student Jenavive Westbury got into UNSW's law program, which admitted 90 per cent of students below the cut-off this year, through its flexible entry scheme. "I don't think that the broader ATAR system we have outside of flexible entry works at all," she says. "There are a variety of different circumstances that people face in high school, that it does not take into account.

"Some kids go to good schools and some don't, some have supportive families and some don't, the ATAR can't measure that." The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Tyrone Carlin, argues that whatever the outcome, a more transparent admissions system is essential. "From the points of view of parents, students, one of the great difficulties of navigating the system is the complete lack of transparency," he says. "In the minds of some there is an association between the published ATAR and the quality of that course." He believes a more accurate reflection would be publishing not just the public ATAR cut-off, but the highest, median and lowest ATAR in that degree.

"Because that tells you much more about who is going to be sitting next to you." The new approach could also take its cues from universities that have already relegated the current university admissions system to second fiddle. The University of Notre Dame Australia has eschewed the university admissions centre for more than two decades. "Notre Dame has never selected students on an "ATAR-only" basis; we've always asked for evidence of personal motivation, professional suitability, community contribution - and then tested all this at interview," says Professor Hayden Ramsay, Notre Dame's Deputy Vice Chancellor. Larger universities are already skirting around the edges of the main university offer round too.

Direct entry, where students are marketed to and recruited before the main ATAR cut offs are becoming a far more significant part of the tertiary apparatus. "We have really ramped up our activity in the early rounds," says Professor Carlin, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney. "It has been a consistent pattern of growth every year". At UNSW, the sentiment is the same, they are moving to a "contextual admissions system," from next year, with a goal of reflecting Australia's socio-economic demographics on campus by 2025. "It will be a much richer contextual admission system from a variety of sources that is much broader than just an ATAR," says UNSW's Deputy Vice-Chancellor Iain Martin. He has called for a national discussion on where to next for university admissions system.

"Let's have a constructive debate about what could replace the ATAR alone as a fairer, more comprehensive and contextual measure of academic potential," he says.



