1. Participation of non-school leavers in Victoria, Australia Catherine Wills

2. Defining the cohorts School leavers (year 12) are those who apply for tertiary admissions in their final year of schooling, or in subsequent years without having undertaken any other tertiary study. Non-school-leavers (non-year-12) are those who are mature-age, and/or who have undertaken additional study at tertiary level.

3. Declining non-year-12 applications

4. University deregulation 2009 – announcement of a demand-driven system. – Removal of caps on student numbers. – Government target of 40% of Australians under 35 with at least a bachelor degree and 20% of students from disadvantaged families at university. – 22% rise in enrolments – 100,000 additional places.

5. ATAR debate ATAR is the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank. Removing caps has increased numbers of students with offers Additional students meant the ATAR required for entry has deceased The target of 20% of applicants from a disadvantaged background has meant the ATAR required for entry has decreased.

6. University deregulation 2016 – The Australian budget delivered yesterday effectively takes fee deregulation of the higher education sector off the table. A year-long consultation process will be put in place with a discussion paper canvassing options on how to fund burgeoning demand for university places without punishing budget estimates. – Ultimately, students will pay more for their degrees but in what the government hopes is a measured and sensible approach.

7. VTAC Offers

8. Declining non-year-12 applications

9. Direct Offers Victoria allows institutions to make offers directly to applicants who: – Are non-year-12 – Apply directly to only one institution for only one course

10. Direct Offers By allowing universities to take direct applications and make direct offers, have we created a monster? Is this where our missing non-year 12s have gone? Or have we simply exhausted the pool of mature- age applicants. Is there more we can do to promote tertiary study to this cohort?

11. Publishing initiatives – VTAC magazine

12. Publishing initiatives – mobile app

13. Participation of non-year 12 applicants – our questions Should we be concerned about the declining participation of mature-age applicants? Should we actively support institutions in their direct- entry schemes? Should we tighten our regulations to prohibit direct applications? Should we apply a funding formula so the institutions pay us a fee for all their direct applications?

14. Your Questions?