There need to be deeper reforms to teaching, such as higher pay at the top end, better opportunities for career advancement, and improvements to the professional working environment.
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Before deciding what to study at which university, high school graduates should consider the drop-out rates, early-career employment prospects and lifetime earnings their program is likely to yield.
A musician must master the instrument before they can master playing in an orchestra.
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Some universities accept students into their teaching degree programs with an ATAR as low as 35. Do we need to raise the bar, or are other factors more important than a high ATAR for teachers?
In short, less advantaged students require significant additional supports, well beyond acknowledging their diverse pathways for entry into a degree program.
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From 2020, ANU will require students to meet co-curricular requirements alongside ATAR. This significant policy shift is meant to improve equity of access, but won’t change much.
Many mainstream schools seem to reinforce the message that the ATAR is everything.
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In 2017, around 60% of domestic undergraduate university offers were reported as non-ATAR, meaning there’s a diversity of pathways to higher education.
Regardless of your ATAR, it’s important to keep vocational pathways in mind, not as a lesser option, but as a way of getting experience in an industry you’re interested in.
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More students than ever before have the opportunity for higher education but their choices are being undermined by a confusing admissions system in much need of reform.
What are some alternatives to the ATAR?
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In determining a replacement for the ATAR, it will be essential to consider the impacts of any such change on the school and vocational education systems.
In 2014, less than a third of undergraduates were offered a university place on the basis of their ATAR score alone.
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The government wants to make the university admissions process more transparent as a way to provide greater choice. But this fails to recognise how the system currently works.
We need to do more to ensure teaching is an attractive profession.
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Low pay and status are the main factors turning potentially good teachers away from teaching. We need to work on making teaching an attractive profession.
Should universities ditch the ATAR and use other ways to select students onto courses?
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The ATAR system is cheap and efficient, but it means students are selected to go to university on the basis of a single score which some have claimed is too simplisitc. Is it time for a new system?
Setting minimum ATAR levels will not improve quality of teaching.
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A change in enrolment patterns demands a more comprehensive approach to selection to teacher education programs that goes beyond establishing minimum ATAR cutoff points.
Waiting for the bleep … how did your results go?
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The ATAR is being used less and less as the sole measure that universities use to select students. It’s time to question its value and the pressure it puts on students in year 12.
The focus on teaching anything about Australian languages in our universities has declined over the past decade.
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From 2016, students will be able to study Aboriginal languages in high schools in New South Wales – but a clause in the design of the course means grades will not contribute towards ATARs.
The supply of teachers cannot be turned on and off like a tap – it takes years to create a teacher.
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How do you choose the right university, or the right degree? The whole process can seem daunting. What should you focus on? How do you weigh up the different elements involved?