Australian Tertiary Admission Rank
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank is the primary criterion for entry into undergraduate courses in universities in Australia. It was gradually introduced since 2009-10 and has since replaced the Universities Admission Index, Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank, Tertiary Entrance Rank and the Queensland Core Skills Test. It is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 which shows student’s relative position compared to all other students in the age group of 16 to 20 years and not just for the specific cohort or year of passing, an ATAR of 80.00 denotes that a student belongs to the top 20 percent of students within their current age group of 16 to 20 years. ATAR is calculated at state level, and NSW and ACT ATARs are considered equivalent to ATARs in all other states. If all students complete schooling then the average ATAR would be 50.00, but since some students quit studying early the average ATAR is 70.00. Admission to universities is granted based on the "selection rank" calculated by each university based on its own unique criteria, i.e. selection rank is a combination of ATAR and additional points based on universities own criteria used for selecting students such as a "personal statement, a questionnaire, a portfolio of work, an audition, an interview or a test".
The ATAR rank provides an indication of the overall position of the student in relation to the student body for that year across the state. A higher ATAR gives preference to that student for the course to which they wish to enrol in a university of their choice. The ATAR is used by: the Universities Admissions Centre in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre in South Australia and the Northern Territory; Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre in Victoria; and the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre in Western Australia. Starting in 2020, the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre in Queensland will also use and calculate the ATAR. These bodies then allocate positions for the tertiary institutions in their relevant states. Tasmania is an exception, where the University of Tasmania is the only tertiary institution and therefore acts as a self-governing admissions centre. All Australian universities, except the private universities use the ATAR for admission, entry to private universities is via direct application.
To calculate ATAR across different subjects within a state, "scaling" is applied. Given the discrepancy of difficulty and competition between the wide ranges of subjects offered as part of secondary school education in Australia, these subjects are normalized against each other by means of some sort of study score scaling. For example, a score of 89 in Psychology might be scaled to 77, while a score of 89 in Physics might be scaled to 84. Details of this scaling are not available. Individual universities might also have their own scaling systems. Scaled marks are not reported to students. Another example is that being at the 99% percentile for Standard English can only produce a scaled mark of 40 while that same scaled mark can be achieved by being at the 70th percentile for English Extension. In order to calculate the ATAR for HSC students, UAC adjusts students' HSC marks in a process known as scaling. Given the lack of comparability between subjects of different difficulties, the spread of students' marks in each individual subject is adjusted so the mean, the standard deviation and the maximum mark in each course are equivalent. UAC then shifts the mean mark and spread of marks in each subject to equal the mean mark and spread of marks that the students of that one subject attained in all other subjects. Finally, UAC aggregates scores into a single mark out of 500 for each student, and then gives students a percentile ranking in increments of 0.05 based on this aggregate. This percentile ranking is the ATAR. In practice, this means that if two students receive the same HSC marks for each subject, but one student takes more higher-scaling subjects, and the other takes more lower-scaling subjects, the student who took higher-scaling subjects would attain a better ATAR. In a 2018 survey, 35.8% of HSC students said they chose one or more subjects because they believed it would help them achieve a higher ATAR.
Most states, though treat each others ATAR equivalent nationwide, but use a different criteria within the state for inclusion of mandatory subjects for the calculation of ATAR or for applying scaling. English is mandatory subject in Victoria for the calculation of ATAR, while English needs to be passed as a subject but is not be a mandatory component of the ATAR in Queensland and Tasmania.
History
Introduction of ATAR
During June 2009, the Federal Minister for Education Julia Gillard announced the removal of Universities Admission Index and the introduction of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, or ATAR, for Year 12 students of 2009 within the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, and for the rest of the country, excluding Queensland, in 2010. The ATAR was introduced to unify the university entrance system in Australia, where previously each state or territory had its own individual system. Now in Queensland, the OP system is planned to change to the ATAR system from 2019.2016 ATAR error
In 2016, a computer error allowed 2075 students to receive their ATAR score five days earlier than they were supposed to be announced. External SMS provider for VCAA, Salmat Digital, created an error that allowed students to receive their results by texting VCAA and requesting their scores to be sent to them on the expected release date. This sparked outrage from parents of students who did not receive their scores, citing that they considered it "unfair", as well as concern about some students receiving their results before they were equipped to deal with them.Changes from UAI
The shift to ATAR means that the ranks most students receiving a UAI would increase by a small amount, while the maximum rank in NSW/ACT would change from a UAI of 100 to an ATAR of 99.95. Queensland will not shift to the ATAR system because it uses a different system and ranking scale, the Overall Position; however, conversion tables to or from the ATAR are available.ATAR details
Calculation of ATAR
The ATAR is a percentile score given between "less than 30" up to 99.95 which denotes a student's ranking relative to their peers upon completion of their secondary education. For example, an ATAR score of 99.0 means that the student performed better than 99% of their peers, and ranks lower than 0.95% of peers. "Peers" is not the body of students receiving an ATAR that year, but a notional body of persons who might be qualified to receive an ATAR – as a result, the median ATAR score is well above 50.00. For example, the median ATAR score for 2014 was 68.95.The ATAR score is derived from a single aggregate score that is the sum of English and the next three highest scoring subjects that the student has completed at a year 12 standard added with 10% of the sum of the weakest two subjects if the student has elected to study further subjects. The maximum number of subjects used in the calculation of the aggregate score cannot surpass six, therefore additional subjects completed in excess will re-order the scores used in the determination of the ATAR such that the lowest scores beyond the six will be ignored entirely. Certain subjects may also have restrictions such that they may only be used as one of the lowest two contributing scores, or mandated to be one of the top four contributing scores.
Each completed year 12 subject marks that contributes to the ATAR calculation is referred to as a "study score", which is a normalized score between 0 and 50 for a study undertaken at a year 12 level. This is similar to the percentile ranking featured in the ATAR score itself.
Usage of ATAR by universities
This score is used by university and tertiary education programs as a clear and intuitive ranking to select prospective applicants for their programs, though other means may be used in combination.Victoria ATAR
In Victoria ATAR is derived from mapping a student's aggregate score to the national averages. A student's aggregate score can be calculated using the following formula:Where is their English scaled study score, is the sum of their three best scaled study scores excluding English, and is the sum of their next best two study scores. Because ATAR is ranked on averages, a new table is published each year for mapping aggregate scores to ATAR.