Should the Atar be scrapped? Seven experts on the student ranking system

‘The Atar system is elitist, assigning a non-reflective rank to students when the starting line is unequal,’ Angelina Inthavong, first year student, says. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In classrooms around Australia at this time of year, final-year high school students hunch over desks, furiously trying to distill and demonstrate years of learning and knowledge in their end-of-school tests. The ultimate result of these tests is an Atar, or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.

It can be a confusing system to get your head around, so the University Admissions Centre has developed an animated explainer video. “If you’re struggling to understand what the Atar is all about, imagine that we’re talking about a fun run – like the Sydney City2Surf – instead,” the narrator says. “Your Atar is your rank in the HSC race.”