Tertiary study needs to be contemplated from year 10 when students have to select their courses for year 11 and 12.
Students must then decide if they want to aim for university entry, in which case they have to plan how to get an ATAR, an Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking. If you want to find out how that is calculated for each State or Territory, go here: Year 12 Certification and ATAR.
This is the tertiary application process for year 12
1. Get tertiary institutions application number from your school (August);
2. Online application portals open in August;
3. Register, enter course preferences based on projected ATAR scores, pay application fees;
4. Enter bonus point options – whether through the portal, if that is covered by your service centre or according to information from applicable institutions;
5. ATAR is published in December – change course preferences from your application account if applicable;
6. University offers are made in January.
Online Application Portals Open
University application portals open first or second week in August. The student should then have received an ATAR projection from their school that should enable them to aim for suitable courses in their application.
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Undergraduate applications will for most universities go through an application portal. Check out the information below.
Bonus points or special entry
Applications from year 12 is made based on the ATAR and any bonus points. Note that some bonus points are applied automatically while for other access schemes you have to apply and be granted these bonus points. Any bonus points are added to the ATAR to achieve a higher admissions ranking.
Special entry can be by entry tests or other criteria relevant to the course applied for. Some Arts courses will consider portfolio submission entry with an interview.
Course prerequisites
Make sure you check course prerequisites early. Some universities will offer bridging courses for students but it is easier to plan well from year 10 to make sure you are not frustrated when you get to the application process in year 12.
Medicine and Law commonly have entrance exams in addition to course prerequisites.
International Baccalaureate and International students
The tertiary application centre in each state or territory as applicable will calculate an ATAR based on IB and international qualifications. Submit translated copies of certified secondary school qualifications.
ACT and NSW
Applicants for universities in ACT and NSW must head to the Universities Admission Centre, UAC. All applications are online.
UAC also provides the applications for the different bonus points schemes:
Schools Recommendation Schemes (SRS) consider a range of criteria other than, or in addition to, ATARs such as:
- Year 11 studies
- school’s rating of your abilities in areas of study
- school’s rating of your aptitudes
- Educational Access Schemes (EAS) application (if applicable)
Educational Access Schemes (EAS) help students who have experienced long-term disadvantage that has affected their study:
- Disrupted schooling – DO1A, DO1B, DO1C, DO1D 1
- Financial hardship – FO1A, FO1B, FO1C, FO1D 2
- Home environment and responsibilities 4
- Severe family disruption – H01A, H01B, H01C, H01D 4
- Excessive family responsibilities – H03A, H03B, H03C 5
- Abuse of applicant, parents or sisters/brothers – H04A 7
- English language difficulty – LO1A, LO1B, LO1C 7
- Personal illness/disability – PO1A 9
- Refugee status – RO1A 10
- School environment – SO1D 10
- School environment – SO1C, SO1E, SO1R
Equity Scholarships (ES) help financially disadvantaged students:
Equity Scholarships are awarded to students from low socio-economic backgrounds, particularly those who receive Centrelink income support payments.
There are two types of Equity Scholarships:
- Institution Equity Scholarships (IES) funded by individual institutions
- Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP) Scholarships funded by the Australian Government for Indigenous students.
Considerations for ES includes:
- carer responsibilities
- English language difficulty
- financial hardship
- Indigenous Australian
- long-term medical condition/disability or ongoing effects of abuse
- refugee status
- regional or remote disadvantage
- sole parent responsibilities.
UAC participating institutions:
- Australian Catholic University
- Australian College of Applied Psychology
- Australian Maritime College
- Australian National University
- Charles Sturt University
- CQUniversity
- Griffith University
- International College of Management, Sydney
- La Trobe University
- Macleay College
- Macquarie University
- MIT Sydney
- National Art School
- SAE Creative Media Institute
- SIBT
- Southern Cross University
- Top Education Institute
- Torrens University Australia
- University of Canberra
- University of New England
- University of Newcastle
- University of Sydney
- University of Technology Sydney
- University of Wollongong
- UNSW Australia
- UNSW Canberra at ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy)
- Western Sydney University
SA and NT
Applicants for South Australian or Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory need to head to South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre, SATAC.
Bonus points and special entry
Institutions can add bonus points to your ATAR according to their own criteria. Check institutions and courses individually to find out how what you get bonus points for. These are added automatically if you are eligible and you don’t have to apply especially for them.
Special entry is an application program and usually involves the Special Tertiary Admissions Test, STAT.
SATAC participating institutions:
QLD and Tasmania (Australian Maritime College)
Students who want to apply to Queensland Universities and the other tertiary institutions in the list below need to head to the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre, QTAC.
QTAC also administers the Education Access Scheme, EAS. The EAS can be relevant to you in two ways:
If you have experienced adverse conditions of a kind covered by the rules, you can get bonus points that will be added to your ATAR and will give you a higher admissions ranking.
One of the EAS categories cover Financial Hardship. In that case, you may be eligible for financial support such as scholarships or bursaries.
You apply for the EAS when you complete your QTAC online application.
These are the EAS categories:
Financial Hardship
Home Environment and Responsibilities
English Language Difficulty
Personal Illness or Disability
Educational Disruption
Application through QTAC:
Application through QTAC: ACU AMC BOND CHC CQUNI Griffith College GU JCU logo QUT SAE QANTM SCU TAFE UQ UNE logo USQ USCWA
Applicants for the universities listed below need to head to the Tertiary Institutions service Centre, TISC.
You have to get information about alternative entry from the institutions as that is not handled by TISC. Alternative entry would then be handled by direct entry not the TISC portal.
Apply through TISC for these universities:
VIC
Applicants for admission to institutions listed below need to head to the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre, VTAC.
As part of your application, you can fill in Special Entrance Access Scheme, SEAC. The participating institutions will have regard to this information when processing your information. The following categories are available:
- Category 1: Personal information and location
- Category 2: Disadvantaged financial background
- Category 3: Disability or medical condition
- Category 4: Difficult circumstances
You use VTAC to apply to the following institutions:
- Abbey Road Institute
- Academy of Design Australia
- Academy of Information Technology
- Academy of Interactive Entertainment
- Australian Catholic University
- Australian College of Applied Psychology
- Australian Guild of Music Education
- Australian Institute of Music
- Australian Maritime College
- Bendigo TAFE
- Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School
- Box Hill Institute
- Charles Sturt University
- Chisholm
- Collarts (Australian College of the Arts)
- CQUniversity
- Deakin College
- Deakin University
- Eastern College Australia
- Elly Lukas Beauty Therapy College
- Endeavour College of Natural Health
- Federation University Australia
- Footscray City Films
- Gordon (The)
- Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE
- Health Skills Australia
- Holmes Institute
- Holmesglen
- JMC Academy
- Kangan Institute
- La Trobe Melbourne
- La Trobe University
- Latrobe College of Art and Design
- Longerenong College
- Macleay College
- Marcus Oldham College
- Melbourne Institute of Technology
- Melbourne Polytechnic
- Monash College
- Monash University
- Moorabbin Flying Services
- Navitas College of Public Safety
- Northern College of the Arts and Technology
- Open Universities Australia
- Photographic Imaging College
- Photography Studies College
- RMIT University
- SAE Creative Media Institute
- Southern Cross University
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Torrens University Australia
- University of Melbourne (The)
- VFA Learning
- Victoria University
- Victorian Institute of Technology
- William Angliss Institute
Tasmanania
If students want to apply to the University of Tasmania, other than for the Australian Maritime College, they have to go to the university website for direct entry.
The university has a bonus points scheme with the following categories (information taken from their website. Contact university for more information:
1. Schools in Regions of Socio-Educational Advantage stream
Students who studied in high schools in Tasmania, or elsewhere in Australia, which are in a postcode which has an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) rating of below 1,000 will be awarded a reduction in “clearly in” ATAR for most* courses in accordance with Table 1:
| ICSEA (based on postcode of student’s high school) | Reduction in “clearly in” ATAR |
|---|---|
| <950 | 5 points |
| 950-999 | 3 points |
| ≥1000 | nil |
Table 1
ICSEA ratings for schools can be obtained from My School.
2. Language stream
The University’s Languages Bonus Scheme encourages students to strengthen their preparation for undergraduate studies by undertaking language subjects. Students who have gained a Satisfactory Achievement (SA) in at least one and up to three language subjects at pre-tertiary level will be awarded a reduction in “clearly in” ATAR for most* courses in accordance with Table 2:
| Satisfactory Achievement (SA) in Language studied at pre-tertiary level in year 11 or 12 | Reduction in “clearly in” ATAR |
|---|---|
| 3 Language SA pre-tertiary results | 5 points |
| 2 Language SA pre-tertiary results | 4 points |
| 1 Language SA pre-tertiary result | 2 points |
3. Maximum available reductions in “clearly in” ATAR
The maximum reduction in a “clearly in” ATAR for the cumulative points available under both the Schools in Regions of Socio-Educational Advantage stream and the Language stream is 5 points.
4. Application date and courses excluded from the Bonus Points Scheme
* The policy will apply to all courses offered by the University of Tasmania from 1 August 2016 with the exception of MBBS (M3N and M3NC).
Example
If Susan studied at Suburb High School (postcode of Suburb is 7980 which in a region with an ICSEA rating of 975) and she obtained SA in pre-tertiary Japanese and French she will be eligible for 5 bonus points as follows:
| 975 ICSEA rating for Suburb High School | 3 points |
| 2 Language SA pre-tertiary results | 4 points |
| Total | 7 points |
| But maximum bonus points available is | 5 points |
Susan achieved an ATAR of 62 when she left City College and wishes to apply to study a Bachelor of Education (Primary) [43B]. The Bachelor of Education which has a “clearly in ATAR” of 65. The 5 bonus points means Susan will be offered a place in the Bachelor of Education as her ATAR of 62 exceeds the adjusted “clearly in ATAR” for the Bachelor of Education (which will be reduced for her from 65 to 60 on account of the 5 bonus points she is eligible for).
