Students finishing high school who hope to get an early university offer now face a longer wait.
University offers are for the most part made in January after Year 12 students have finished their exams and received results. However, they can receive them as early as March in their final year of high school if they apply for one under an early offer scheme.
Those who do receive an early offer are still required to complete Year 12, although there is concern it could cause them to "disengage" from their studies.
That's promoted the federal government to clamp down on the practice, and early offers won't be made to applicants any earlier than September this year and next.
A consistent approach to early offers is one of dozens of recommendations made in a recently-released report following a review of Australia's higher education education. It lays out a bold plan to boost university numbers and meet skills demands.
Ahead of the Universities Accord final report release on Sunday, Education Minister Jason Clare said state and territory education ministers had agreed that for students hoping to start at university in 2025 and 2025, early offers should not be issued before September in the preceding year.
“We need to ensure that early offers aren’t leading to students disengaging from school too early and that there’s more consistency across the board," he said in a statement last Friday.
“This agreement will deliver a standard approach for the next two years and allow time for further work to be done to develop a consistent and transparent approach moving forward.”
Early university offers: A 'contentious' practice
Many universities make early offers to study before their senior secondary studies are completed, according to the report. While not a new practice, it became more widespread during and since the .
The report said early offers were a "contentious practice", with no consistency or transparency around how they are made and "scant" data on their use across the system.
It noted there was evidence that early offers can be helpful for some students experiencing stress about Year 12, but also found concerns with student disengagement.
"The review heard that there is a risk that early offers can favour students who have existing personal or socio-economic advantages, such as strong school performances, principal and parent advocacy, school culture and career guidance, and community and extracurricular claims," the report states.
The report recommended that a fair, open and consistent framework for early offers is adopted.
It says the schools, higher education providers and tertiary admission centres should develop a national approach in time for 2027 commencements that should, among other things, cover the timing of early offers.
What else is in the Universities Accord?
Among the targets laid out in the blueprint was at least 80 per cent of the workforce having a vocational education and training (VET) or university qualification by 2050, up from the current 60 per cent.
To achieve this, enrolments must include students with under-represented backgrounds including people from outer suburbs, the regions, and lower socio-economic and Indigenous communities.
Other targets include boosting to 55 per cent the proportion of university-educated Australians aged between 25 to 34, up from 45 per cent, while increasing the vocational qualifications of that cohort to 40 per cent.
But it will be not easy, the report says, and "can only be achieved by making the higher education system far more equitable".
While Clare was enthusiastic about the accord, he said in a statement on Sunday the government is considering its 47 recommendations.
With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press
