CURRENT STUDENTS GAINING DEGREES, LIKE THE UNSW ENGINEERING SCHOOL’S CLASS OF 2019, FACE PRESSURE WELL BEFORE THEY GET TO UNIVERSITY
A new survey of high school education finds seven out of ten respondents believe the ATAR ranking system creates unnecessary stress for students
Marcus Reubenstein
On the first day of the 2019 Higher School Certificate exams in Australia’s largest state, New South Wales, there are again questions being raised about the appropriateness of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) ranking system. It is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 that indicates a student’s position relative to all the students in their age group.
A somewhat complex method of calculation, it effectively ranks scores over a bell curve; thought it only applies to high school graduates, the sample group includes students of the same age who dropped out of high school before Year 12. While the average score should theoretically be 50.00, for those who actually receive an ATAR rank the average is 70.00.
According
to one independent education website, the ATAR formula in Victoria is: Aggregate
= S1 +S2 +(10% x S3); where S1 is
their English scaled study score, S2 is the sum of their three best
scaled study scores excluding English, and S3 is the sum of their
next best two study scores.
One might agree, complicated…
UNSW Sydney’s Gonski Institute for Education has surveyed 1,170 people, 48 per cent of whom did not just think it is complicated but downright unfair.
The survey’s findings show most people want student ability and talents outside of end-of-school exam results to be factors used in determining their university entry ranking. 67 per cent felt the reliance on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) for university entry creates unnecessary pressure on Year 12 students.
The survey’s release comes as high school students in most states are about to sit their final exams, in New South Wales 75,000 students begin their exams today.
While the Australian Government oversees universities, school education is a state government responsibility. The New South Wales education minister was today reported as saying the ATAR system needs “discussion”. While, earlier this year, the secretary of the state’s education department went further calling it a “straight jacket around our kids.”
Gonski Institute Director, Professor Adrian Piccoli, a former NSW Education Minister, said the UNSW survey results support academic research that suggests relying on an end-of-school series of exams as the primary means to gain entry to a university is not the best predictor of a student’s overall ability, nor are they the most equitable.
Says Professor Piccoli, “There is a growing body of work that shows one off exams, which are supposedly meant to measure a student’s whole of school experience, often do not accurately measure their skills, potential or overall ability.
“Like NAPLAN, the HSC scores are used to measure a very narrow range of student abilities which, under the current ATAR system, creates an enormous amount of pressure for all those involved.”
A total of 80 per cent of all respondents to the Gonski Institute survey agreed university requirements should also consider a student’s ability and talents outside the classroom.
While over 57 per cent say ATAR scores create unnecessary pressure on Year 12 students, that number rises to 75 per cent for people who finished high school but did not do any tertiary study.
It’s not just students who think the system is unfair, says Professor Piccoli, “Schools are also under pressure to ensure their students achieve high ATAR scores. School ranking tables created from Year 12 exam results effect a school’s reputation and this measure doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of education available at schools but rather how their students performed in various tests.”
International students do not face the ATAR ranking system, as their courses are fully paid for by the students, universities have their own admission requirements, which take into account the academic performance of students in their home countries.
One of the reasons Australian students face an across the board uniform approach is that the government subsidises their courses and allows students to defer repayments on the balance of course fees. The ATAR system was first introduced in 2009, replacing the UAI (University Admission Index), both systems based on a combination of exams and school assignments. Prior to that, in New South Wales high school matriculation was based solely on HSC exam results, students were given a score out of 500, which was a simple calculation of the sum of the scores of exams across all subjects.
Marcus Reubenstein is a graduate of UNSW who completed the Higher School Certificate under the score out of 500 system
