Content
University offers for 2009
17 January 2009
This is the time of year when the 2008 school leavers receive offers for study at university. Last week we sent out 1,100 offers through QTAC (Qld Tertiary Admissions Centre). There was an early round in December that catered for non-school leavers (670 offers) and we have also received applications from about 230 people who had deferred an offer last year or who are articulating from the tertiary preparation program.
Past experience tells us that although the main offer rounds are now complete, there will still be many individuals grappling with the question of whether or not the time is right for them to go to university this year. At USC, we typically receive around 20 percent of total applications after the main offer round and before the start of semester in late February. By the time semester starts we expect that around 2,750 offers of a place for 2009 will have been made.
Universities make their assessments about likely student demand in any particular year in the year before. These estimates are built into the funding agreements approved by the commonwealth government. It is a risky situation to be in unless you are confident student demand is going to comfortably reach or exceed the number of places specified in the funding agreement. So universities have a pretty intense interest in the applications being made through the state tertiary admission centres.
And it’s not just a matter of counting the applications. Not all students will accept an offer if one is made and in other cases the student will accept but then defer their offer to take a gap-year or two. While we know what has happened in past years, we can never be certain about just how the new batch of applicants will behave. Likewise, the ratio between full time and part time students has an impact on the university’s student load. In recent years, there has been a trend for students to work more and study fewer courses per semester.
Times of economic uncertainty are associated with increased interest in further education and training due to the direct relationship between qualifications and employment and career prospects. So, as could be expected, Australia-wide there has been strong growth in the number of applications for university places this year, but not in Queensland. Demand here is about the same as it was in 2008. Some of the state’s regional institutions are seeing significant declines in applications. At USC, we are showing a modest increase on last year and this will help maintain the quite extraordinary growth rate achieved at our University in recent years. Because we will have new programs just entering their second or third year in 2009 we have built-in growth regardless of new enrolments.
It’s a stimulating time for University staff as they analyse application data and complete planning on the number of tutorial groups and practical placements that will be required, as well as the host of support services to be put in place to facilitate a positive learning experience. It’s also a time when first contact with new students is made and these interactions are very important to an institution such as ours that places so much emphasis on the quality of the relationship developed between students and staff.
Professor Greg Hill is Acting Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.