South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre

SATAC

South Australian-based tertiary admissions centre founded in 1977 owned by its Member institutions SATAC

Admissions centres in Australia

SATAC for-purpose, not-for-profit organisation income from – applicant processing fees – administration of admissions tests – fee-for-service activities underwritten by the four members

SATAC Governance SATAC Board high level decisions/Budget VCs/Presidents and the CEO of TAFE SA SATAC Committee admissions policy decisions advises the Board managers of Student Administration

SATAC Primary role applicant advice and applications services process applications for courses offered by its institutions assess academic qualifications and other information - institution rules and guidelines generate offers according to institution instructions respond to enquiries

SATAC We also: administer the Special Tertiary Admissions Test and other tests calculate the ATAR for SACE students provide research into issues relevant to tertiary and secondary education undertakes school liaison and counsellor training activities

SATAC’s services YearServices 1978Undergraduate admissions + graduate education Single database Semester 1 only Paper applications 1986Teaching hospitals added – same application 1991TAFE SA joins – limited higher level vocational courses added – same application 1999New separate application service for international students studying Australian year Stand alone service for all 320+ TAFE SA courses

SATAC’s services YearServices 2004Charles Darwin University joins New service for full-fee Australian applications 2006Services extend to Semester 2 admissions 2008Universities require a new stand-alone service for postgraduate applications – 600 courses new to SATAC 2008New separate service for scholarship applications 2011SATAC now processes all international applications for Adelaide and Flinders Universities 2012Services extend to all teaching periods

The timeline of our services

The timeline of our client numbers 1977 – 15,000 clients 2013 – 85,000 clients

SATAC’s Technology YearTechnology 1979First computerised admissions 1994Applications by telephone – the IVRS 1996Electronic retrieval of Australian university records - ARTS 1999Centralised assessment on new software - QTAC 1999www.satac.edu.auwww.satac.edu.au as an information source 2004Web-based applications – all on-line by “Smart” java apply-by-web 2015State-of-the-art admissions software – SANTAS

Centralised assessment Used by SATAC, QTAC, UAC Our point of difference with traditional admissions Efficient, fair, accurate, cost effective

Traditional admissions The applicant… makes an application… for (say) 5 courses… to an admissions centre.

Traditional admissions The admissions centre… does a little processing (e.g. data clean up)… refers the separate applications to administrators/academics for a decision.

Traditional admissions The administrators… each do their own assessing… and return their decisions to the admissions centre… which generates an offer.

Centralised assessment Traditional admissions The five administrators have all had to assess the application (as well as the TAC) Usually applying similar rules and belief systems (but sometimes coming to different conclusions)

Centralised assessment The administrators… provide their rules and belief systems to the admissions centre… which are programmed in the admissions system. which generates offers.

Centralised assessment An admissions centre assessor… processes the application… leaving behind a trail of data… which generates offers.

Centralised assessment The encoded rules… read these data… and provide the selection outcomes. which generates offers.

Centralised assessment The application has been assessed once All rules have been applied consistently and fairly Time from application to outcomes can be:

Centralised assessment Eligibility and competitiveness are calculated automatically As applicants change their preferences, eligibility and competitiveness for newly added courses are calculated in real time

Centralised assessment The administrators are still in full control of the outcomes writing the rules altering them across time dealing with grey areas

Centralised assessment Resource efficient Consistency/transparency in assessment Pooling of assessment expertise Specialist expertise available to all University staff are able to concentrate on quality work

Questions