Universities will be forced to come clean to prospective students about the real ATAR cut-offs for their courses, following recommendations to the Turnbull government from the nation's top higher education panel.

The Higher Education Standards Panel, in its final report on improving the transparency of higher education admissions, calls for universities to be required to publish much more information about how students are admitted into courses.

The review was commissioned after Fairfax Media revealed that up to 60 per cent of students at some universities were being admitted below the advertised minimum ATAR requirements.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has said the bonus point system – which helps students who study certain subjects or suffer disadvantage enter university – is as "opaque as a double-frosted window".