UNIVERSITIES are artificially inflating their entrance scores as a marketing ploy to lift the status of their courses and are then accepting lower-scoring applicants, says the architect of the university entry score system in NSW.
The technique allows students with lower results to get into prestigious courses without achieving the required university admissions index cut-off.
In a surprisingly candid entry on a Macquarie University blog site, George Cooney, the chairman of the NSW committee responsible for calculating the UAI, said some universities were admitting a high proportion of students well below the advertised entry cut-off marks for some courses.
"It concerns me that … the quality of the university program is in the public's view judged by the published UAI cut-off. If universities are allowing students in below that cut-off, it is not an adequate measure," he said.
A few were advertising the terms of their alternative entry schemes on their websites but others were not as transparent.
Last week Macquarie University joined the University of NSW, University of Technology, Sydney, and University of Western Sydney in offering up to five bonus entry score marks for students who performed well in HSC subjects that were directly relevant to their intended course of study.
Professor Cooney said while schemes such as HSC Plus at the UNSW had become more transparent, many others were less open. Almost half the students admitted to the UNSW commerce degree this year scored up to five points below the UAI cut-off of 95.2.
"I am cynical enough to see this scheme (and other similar schemes) as a way for universities to artificially boost their cut-offs for marketing purposes, as a course's quality/prestige is judged by its cut-off," he said.
"This is an ethical issue and needs to be brought to the attention of the NSW [vice-chancellors' committee] but I would not anticipate any change in practice."
Professor Alec Cameron, dean of the Australian School of Business at UNSW, said his institution had been increasingly open about the terms of HSC Plus.
"We have been scrupulously honest. … Other universities use other mechanisms and are far less public about how they are doing that."
Professor Cameron said the Victorian system, which published two entry scores, was more transparent. "In Victoria, the universities publish their UAI cut-off and then a lower figure, which is the range in which you may receive a place," he said. "We would argue that we have done that with the HSC Plus scheme."
The managing director of the Universities Admissions Centre, Andrew Stanton, said NSW universities had increased the transparency of their alternative entry requirements. "Nobody pretends the UAI is the only criteria that should be used," he said.
He said when students were just below the cut-off, it was appropriate to consider other factors.
A spokesman for the University of Sydney said its flexible entry scheme allowed students entry to some courses with a UAI of up to five points below the cut-off, if places were available.
Macquarie University's vice-chanecllor, Steven Schwartz, has criticised the use of a single entry mark to determine student entry.
Last week he launched the university's Academic Advantage bonus marks program and is seeking the approval of the university's governing body to introduce a university aptitude test for next year's intake.
