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of Sydney ( USYD ) and the University of New South Wales ( UNSW ).
She told Education Review that both her UNSW and WSU offers are conditional on a certain ATAR , but knows her UOW offers are only conditional on her completing year 12 , so she feels she doesn ’ t need to try her best in exams because of that safety net .
Ms Avnell said she felt like she had “ heaps of pressure taken off her ” when she got her first early offers .
“ So many of my friends don ’ t care anymore , one of them got [ an early offer ] and she literally has not picked up a book since the school holidays ( the holidays before NSW ’ s study period ),” Jessica said .
“ I ’ m still kind of trying because if I decide not to go to UOW , I need a half-decent ATAR .”
Ms Avnell said she is focusing mostly on studying her science subjects because she wants to study medical health and science and university , and knows she needs to understand the content to do well in her course .
THE TEACHER PERSPECTIVE Veteran HSC marker and former Sydney high school teacher Ben Zunica said , even if more than half his students got early university offers , it never impacted their work ethic because of the culture of the school he taught at .
He noticed early offers becoming popular in 2018 , and explained the offers took the “ anxiety-edge ” off students , but if they had a persistent work ethic , they remained ATAR-focused until the end .
“ You might get the odd student who would say ‘ I [ have an early offer ] so I don ’ t really have to try ’, but that was quite isolated ,” he said .
“ The vast majority of my students [ with early offers ] continued to work as if they didn ’ t have one .”
Mr Zunica said students see their ATAR rank as a measure of their worth , but he emphasises to them it ’ s just a tool used to tell students about where they sit in their studies , and how that will affect their chosen study paths .
“ If we can get students to see it in that light , that would be really good , but they see it as a judgement of their worth ,” he explained .
“ It ’ s just a placeholder for now , not the final word on anything .”
Mr Zunica also said , even though schools want high marks from their students , most teachers just want to see their students learning and growing .
“ Schools are ranked on total band sixes over total number of entries , and given a success rate percentage , so schools want to make sure they ’ re getting their band sixes ,” he said .
“ All [ teachers ] really want for our students is growth . If a student who was achieving 30 per cent in year 11 exams achieves 70 per cent in year 12 exams , that kind of growth is to be celebrated .”
THE HISTORY OF EARLY OFFERS The University Admissions Centre ’ s ( UAC ) chief strategy and engagement officer , Kim Paino , told Education Review a student ’ s “ intrinsic motivations ” ultimately determine what they get out of year 12 and their exams .
Ms Paino said before Covid , it was usual for the School Recommendations Scheme ( SRS ), which was established a decade ago under UAC , to send
Teachers and schools are concerned about students disengaging from their learning because they already have a way into university
out early offers after students had sat their HSC exams , avoiding student disengagement .
However , as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted two years of HSC exam operations , universities began sending out early offers independently beforehand , to ‘ make up ’ for their disrupted learning .
Post Covid early offers have continued , and now it is common for students to receive early offers directly from universities before their exams , even if that university is associated with UAC .
When students apply directly to a university , they might have to submit alternative academic material , such as an admissions essay or teacher recommendations .
Admissions centres , such as UAC , which mainly process NSW and ACT applications , allow students to apply to multiple universities at once without extra criteria .
“ For example , Macquarie University has its own early offer scheme , but it will also make early offers through SRS ,” she said .
“ The difference is its own early offer scheme has extra criteria , called Leaders and Achievers , so [ students ] have to provide evidence that they ’ ve achieved academically , been school captain or have done [ extra-curricular ] things .”
THE FUTURE OF ATAR A WA School Curriculum and Standards Authority spokesperson told Education Review a “ refreshment of the [ WA Certificate of Education ( WACE )] is timely ” as their board reviews whether its tertiary admissions pathways suit the needs of students .
“ There are concerns that students who receive early or unconditional enrolment offers ( or both ) may not be motivated to engage in more complex and challenging courses and content that could better prepare them for a broader range of post-school options ,” they said . >
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