Year 12 graduates are crossing their fingers to nab a place in their dream 2024 course before vacancies fill up at universities and tertiary institutions.
The University Admissions Centre, which processes applications for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, is issuing about 15,000 applicants offers in its first January round on Thursday.
The round, issued to international baccalaureate graduates and for select courses, shows a continued interest in medicine courses and dual medicine and science degrees. Here’s what you need to know before semester one.
How important is the January release?
The UAC’s chief strategy and engagement officer, Kim Paino, said “for many students, this is the round they’ve been waiting for”, pointing to offers being made for the first time for a number of sought-after courses including medicine.
It was also the first chance students had to change preferences after the first release of course offers.
The most popular course for this round was a dual bachelor of medical science and doctor of medicine at the University of Newcastle, followed by a double commerce degree at UNSW and a bachelor of arts at the University of Sydney.
The lowest selection rank for entry into each course has also been updated before the next round of offers on 24 January.
For those who haven’t applied, it’s not too late, with applications for first semester study open until midnight on Friday 2 February.
“I’d encourage them to look at courses that still have vacancies for the next offer round and also think about all the other pathways available to get to university and study their preferred course,” Paino said.
How do university offers work?
University offers are issued to inboxes by state-based tertiary admission centres in a series of rounds, running from December to March.
The first offers to graduating year 12 students were issued in December, covering the bulk of tertiary courses across the higher education, vocational education and training sectors.
Institutions decide which applicants receive an offer based upon a number of factors including the lowest selection rank (a student’s Atar, plus adjustment factors), interviews and special admission criteria.
Most applicants receive their offers by the first January round, once end-of-year results are released for all students.
If applicants didn’t receive their top pick in the first January round but did receive another offer, they are advised to accept it. Candidates will be automatically considered for their highest preferences in future offer rounds.
Applicants have until Wednesday 17 January to finalise their preferences for the next round of UAC offers.
How many offers have been issued?
More than 100,000 year 12 graduates have now received offers across Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.
That’s not including early offers, or offers to be made in subsequent rounds. Tertiary admission centres say there are encouraging signs that despite cost-of-living pressures, school leavers are flocking to further studies in large numbers.
The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre issued 42,929 offers for graduating year 12 students in its December round – the largest release yet and 2,334 more offers than the same time in 2022.
The UAC issued more than 35,000 Atar-based offers in December, while the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre provided offers to just shy of 11,000 year 12 graduates.
Paino said across all application channels “we can see that year 12s are still applying for university”.
“Demand from those not coming straight from year 12 has reduced this year, as that group is particularly sensitive to the rising costs of living and study and the strong employment market,” she said.
Which courses are popular?
Health and society and culture continue to dominate as the most popular courses across the nation for school leavers, accounting for just under half of first preferences to the UAC.
Some 25.7% of applicants listed a health course as their first preference for 2024, while 20.6% listed a society and culture course.
Five medical science courses were in the top 10 overall, with a combined bachelor of medical studies/doctor of medicine at UNSW maintaining its first position, with 1,481 first preferences.
Second overall was a bachelor of business at UTS with 956 first preferences, followed by a bachelor of commerce at the University of Sydney with 742 first preferences.
It was flipped in Victoria, where society and culture courses accounted for 19.75% of Vtac offers in the December round. Health followed at 17.62%, experiencing the largest increase compared with 2022 (16.9%).
Offers to management and commerce courses were third (15.72%), while growth in Victorian teacher education courses was also strong, with 1,463 offers made in December – an increase of 8.05% from the same time last year and 4.1% of all offers.
What happens if you don’t get your first preference?
Don’t panic! The second round in December and first round in January are the biggest releases for undergraduate courses but there’s still time to change preferences to courses likely to have vacancies and with lower selection ranks.
After UAC’s next January round there will two more rounds in February and a final round in March.
Similarly, Vtac will issue its first round of January offers on Friday, with more to come throughout the month and in February, and Qtac has several rounds of offers throughout the year.
The chief executive of Vtac, Teresa Tjia, advised graduates who hadn’t received an initial offer or had changed their mind to keep on top of change-of-preference deadlines.
“There is still time to seek out support from your school, tertiary institutions, and [admission bodies] to maximise your opportunity to study,” she said.
