The Sydney student who leaked information about a fashion school scholarship controversially awarded to the daughter of the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has pleaded guilty to accessing restricted data.

Freya Rachael Sommerville Newman, 21, admitted in the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday that she used her position as a part-time librarian at the Whitehouse Design Institute to access information about the $60,000 "Director's Scholarship" awarded to Frances Abbott in 2011.

Frances Abbott with her father Toby Abbott and Leanne Whitehouse at an exhibition at the Whitehouse Institute.

Accompanied by her parents and friends, Ms Newman, a resident of Hunters Hill who studies creative writing and cultural studies at the University of Technology, sat quietly in the court while her solicitor entered the guilty plea, before leaving quickly without making any comment.

A police statement of facts, released for the first time, reveals that on May 20, Ms Newman used the user name and password of another staff member at the institute to access its student record system, without the staff member's knowledge.