Problems with ATAR

The ATAR or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank is still the main scoring system used in admitting students to Australian universities, although its importance has declined in recent years as many universities have defined alternative admission paths. Like many ranking systems, it's also become a competitive weapon in pecking order rivalry between universities and a topic of some controversy with some senior academics arguing that too many low ATAR students are being admitted to university..

Now George Messinis and Peter Sheehan from Victoria University have released a report based on VU student performance pointing to problems with relative ATAR scores as a subsequent predictor of university performance. This piece in The Conversation sets out the results. There is a link to the full report. The comments are interesting too

I'm not sure that we have learned something we didn't know, but its still a worthwhile piece. . .