University Admission Centre managing director Kim Paino has a blunt message for school leavers intent on tertiary education and facing a tough time gaining entry to a Sydney university next year.
“Take the offer,” said Paino, who joined the chorus warning of the risks involved in the new funding regime, which passed parliament on Tuesday.
“Students really need to make sure they preference carefully, and if they receive an offer … accept it,” she said. “It doesn’t mean they necessarily have to enrol in that course, but at least it gives them an option.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says the new funding package will create an extra 230,000 university places and $3.6 billion in extra funding for tertiary institutions over the next decade, with an emphasis on admitting a higher number of disadvantaged students through specially created places.
It will also tighten numbers at popular metropolitan universities, including the University of Sydney, the University of NSW, Macquarie University and the University of Technology, Sydney, meaning some students may be unable to get a place. This will leave them to either study elsewhere or abandon tertiary education.
The changes were introduced for a transition period in 2025, before the new regime was enshrined in law.
The University of NSW and Macquarie University have said that, as a result, they have been forced to decline prospective students, while the University of Sydney has disbanded its long-running guaranteed-entry scheme and UTS made fewer offers than before.
HSC students apply for up to five courses through the UAC. The centre looks at their preferences and will admit students to the first course for which they meet the entry requirements. It conducts two main rounds of offers, in December and January.
Paino urged HSC students to be aspirational but “really try to be realistic” about their results.
“That’s always the advice but this year it’ll potentially apply to a wider range of students that won’t have that opportunity to have another crack [at a second round offer] in January,” because of the tightened places, she said.
“The traditionally more competitive universities to get into are exactly those that are having to tighten their numbers, so it makes it even harder to get into those particular universities,” she warned.
“There still will be places. The government’s saying that overall there’ll be more places available. It’s just not necessarily in the institutions and the courses that are already oversubscribed.”
Medicine, which also has additional selection criteria, law and allied health courses such as physiotherapy are historically popular.
She suggested students who want to study a combined arts/law degree also preference a standalone arts degree, or students aiming for biomedical science also preference a straight science degree.
“Look to include a university that isn’t necessarily going to be under the same pressure to manage numbers. Their entry criteria might be a little bit less [stringent],” she said.
The federal Department of Education released its semester 1 enrolment data on Tuesday. It shows a 5.3 per cent increase in students commencing a degree compared to 2025.
Enrolments are up in teaching (7.7 per cent), health (6.6 per cent), social work (15.7 per cent), engineering (10.5 per cent), clinical psychology (9.8 per cent) and science (6.8 per cent).
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