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The University of Western Australia has become the first university in WA and one of the first in Australia to make publicly available its Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) entry data.

UWA’s move follows the Federal Government’s push for universities to provide greater transparency in their admissions processes amid claims that entry standards are slipping and students with low ATARs are gaining entry to university courses.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Johnson said the University’s website now provided details of its median ATAR scores by course, the lower quartile and upper quartile as well as the percentage of students who gained entry to the University based on an ATAR.

“On our website studyat.uwa.edu.au/entry-standards students, parents and members of the community are able to see the standards UWA places on gaining entry to one of the world’s top 100 universities,” Professor Johnson said.   Based on this year’s enrolments at UWA, the overall median ATAR for entry to UWA was 92.9.

The University has also published ATAR data for each of its courses. For example this year the median ATAR entry (including additional bonus points) for a Bachelor of Arts degree was 91, Bachelor of Commerce was 90.1 and Bachelor of Science was 90.9. The assured entry pathways into a Master of Professional Engineering was 97 and Law was 98.3.

Professor Johnson said universities had a responsibility to provide students, families and schools with transparent and readily available information about entry standards at their preferred university.

“Prospective students deserve to know the exact basis upon which their application for admission will be assessed, what they are required to demonstrate and some insights into the likelihood of their admission,” he said.

“Like any product or service, customers should have access to the information they need to make informed choices. In the case of higher education, we are providing a service in the form of education and our customers are our prospective students.”

Media references

David Stacey (UWA Media and PR Manager)                          (+61 8) 6488 3229 / (+61 4) 32 637 716