Public Consultation on Draft Admissions Transparency Implementation Plan

The Admissions Transparency Implementation Working Group (IWG) released a draft implementation plan for public consultation. It identified proposed actions that higher education sector stakeholders and relevant government agencies could commit to.

On this page:

Download the draft implementation plan.

Comments on the draft plan were sought from all interested parties, including current and prospective higher education students, their parents and influencers, senior secondary education stakeholders such as school principals and career educators, universities and other higher education providers, employers, industry, professional associations and any other interested stakeholders.

54 written submissions were received. The IWG also held a series of meetings with key stakeholders to inform their consideration. A high level summary of feedback received through the consultations is available .

Consultation questions

The IWG posed a series of consultation questions to guide stakeholder feedback:

  1. Is the proposed approach likely to be effective in increasing transparency and public understanding of how contemporary admissions to higher education work?
     
  2. How achievable are the proposed implementation timelines, including commitments to deliver a 'best endeavours' version of the proposed information sets to inform students applying to enter study in the 2018 academic year?
     
  3. If there would be difficulty in delivering the commitments proposed, what could be changed to make them achievable?
     
  4. Do you have any comments on the proposed four broad groupings to describe the basis of admission for applicants to higher education?
    1. Recent secondary education
    2. Previous higher education study
    3. Previous vocational education and training (VET) study
    4. Work and life experience
       
  5. Do you agree that the proposed approach to Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) thresholds is reasonable (i.e. replacing the use of the terms "cut-off" and "clearly in" with functional terms describing the lowest ATAR made an offer in the relevant period?). What issues or difficulties, if any, might this raise?
     
  6. Do the proposed "information sets" meet the need identified by the Higher Education Standards Panel for comparability of the information available from different providers about the requirements to be admitted to study at each institution and each course that they deliver?
     
  7. Does the proposed approach set out in the draft implementation plan adequately inform prospective students about admission options or pathways that do not use ATAR? If not, how might this information be improved?
     
  8. Any other feedback you wish to provide on the draft implementation plan and the commitments it outlines is very welcome.

Written submissions received

  1. Name Withheld
  2. University of Western Australia
  3. Deakin University
  4. Box Hill Institute
  5. NSW Department of Education
  6. University of Newcastle
  7. Griffith University
  8. Tertiary Institutions Services Centre
  9. Queensland University of Technology
  10. Edith Cowan University
  11. David Perry Alphacrucis College
  12. University of Notre Dame
  13. Central Queensland University
  14. Regional Universities Network
  15. Group of Eight
  16. University of Sydney
  17. Victoria University
  18. Heads of Student Administration Network
  19. University of Technology Sydney
  20. Macquarie University
  21. RMIT University
  22. Australian Technology Network
  23. University of South Australia
  24. Charles Sturt University
  25. University of Divinity
  26. University of Southern Queensland
  27. University of Wollongong
  28. Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre
  29. Swinburne University
  30. University of Queensland
  31. La Trobe University
  32. Southern Cross University
  33. NATSIHEC
  34. Australian Council for Private Education and Training
  35. Australian Council of State School Organisations
  36. VTAC
  37. Open University Australia
  38. SATAC
  39. ACTAC
  40. UAC
  41. ATEND
  42. JMC Academy
  43. Holmesglen Institute
  44. TAFE NSW
  45. EPHEA
  46. AASE
  47. University of Tasmania
  48. Universities Australia
  49. Career Industry Council of Australia
  50. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
  51. Council of Private Higher Education
  52. Northern Territory Department of Education
  53. Innovative Research Universities