Uni transparency reforms to boost graduate quality

New data on university graduate outcomes and experiences released today is part of the comprehensive higher education admissions transparency reforms.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said the new Graduate Outcomes Survey data published on the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) website would assist in delivering clearer information on university entry standards and a one-stop shop for students looking for guidance on if and what to study.

The Turnbull Government accepted all 14 recommendations from the Higher Education Standards Panel following a review into higher education admissions throughout 2016 to tackle issues that families and students faced when considering further study.

The Higher Education Standards Panel, chaired by Professor Peter Shergold AC, made 14 recommendations including:

• to develop a national higher education admissions information platform as a ‘one-stop shop’ for students and families looking for information about admissions policies and processes
• to better define ATAR admissions thresholds so they are more useful to prospective students
• to adopt common language on admissions processes, requirements, and thresholds across the sector to ensure greater consistency
• to use information templates to deliver a common approach to the presentation of admissions information and data on entry pathways, and 
• that State Tertiary Admission Centres work together to establish more consistency and streamline the burdensome processes and costs for interstate applications.

“These reforms are about clearing away the fog and double-speak that has clouded higher education admissions processes so prospective students can make well-informed decisions about if and what they want to study,” Birmingham said.

“We’ve heard too many stories about students who have changed courses, dropped out because they made the wrong choices about what to study, students who didn’t realise there were other entry pathways or who started a course with next to no idea of what they were signing themselves up for. Transparency and consistency in the admissions process will boost the quality of Australia’s graduates across all fields."

Birmingham has asked Professor Shergold and the Higher Education Standards Panel to continue their work to provide more information to students through examining what evidence-based strategies can be developed to better support students to succeed and how institutions can improve their practices to help boost course completion rates.