Australia has a state-based education system. In each state, university admission centres are responsible for calculating the ATAR from the sum of the scaled marks for an individual's top ten scoring units.
Kim Paino is a General Manager of Marketing and Engagement at Universities Admission Centre or UAC.
“The key feature of the ATAR is that it is a rank, it is not a score or a mark, it’s rank, so it’s a measure of how you have performed against others in your age group, and it’s meant to be used only for university entry.”
To be eligible for receiving an ATAR, students in Victoria must complete the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE); in Tasmania, the ATAR is based on students’ Tertiary Entrance (TE) scores.
In New South Wales, UAC provides the ATAR to secondary school students awarded the Higher School Certificate (HSC).
Ms Paino says that although each state has its own secondary education system and qualification, and they calculate ATARs independently, there is an appropriate mechanism in place that makes an ATAR transferable across state borders.
“If I get 70 ATAR in New South Wales and want to go to university in, say Melbourne, I can apply to Melbourne Uni, and they will accept my 70 ATAR, even though it’s been calculated in New South Wales, not in Victoria. So, there is that interstate transferability of the ATAR even though each state is responsible for calculating it individually.”
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