Victorian universities are enrolling students with ATARs as low as 31 into some popular courses, new data has revealed.
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For the first time, universities have published data that discloses the minimum, maximum and average ATARs of their 2017 offers.
The new information, which is part of a federal government push to improve the transparency of university admissions, provides new insight into the real distribution of ATARs among enrolments.
Arts at La Trobe University had a round one clearly-in ATAR of 50 but a quarter of students in the course were accepted with ATARs of below 47.55.
The lowest ATARs that led to an offer was 31.20. It's important to note that students in this range would have received bonus marks for a range of reasons including being from a non-English speaking background, financially disadvantaged or having a medical condition.
Occupational Therapy at Deakin Geelong had a clearly-in ATAR of 76.05 in round one this year, but 56.72 per cent of students got an ATAR below this.
The new data shows that one quarter of students in the course had an ATAR below 68.20. The lowest ATAR was 55.30.
Nursing at the Australian Catholic University had a cleary-in of 83.10 but one quarter of students had an ATAR of 78.45 per cent or below.
At RMIT's Bundoora campus, nursing had a clearly-in of 69, but one quarter of students had an ATAR of 57.25 or below.
But the data shows a sizeable majority of students in some courses obtained scores above the requirements. Primary teaching at Deakin University's Burwood campus had a clearly-in ATAR of 60.6, but three quarters of its offers went to people with an ATAR above 61.05.
And Arts at Melbourne University, the course that receives the most first-preference applications from year 12 leavers, had a clearly-in ATAR of 89.30 and three quarters of its offers went to students with a score of 90.10 or above.
La Trobe University associate professor Buly Cardak, who studies the economics of education, said the data gave students new insight into their peers.
"Savvy students will be looking for this and trying to work out what their peers are like and whether they want to go to a place where there are students with low ATARs," he said.
"You can see a lot of students admitted to programs are below the clearly-in."
Dr Cardak said universities needed to support students with low ATARs because they were potentially less prepared.
The state's admissions centre has traditionally published data on each course that shows the percentage of students who were offered a place despite having an ATAR below the cut-off.
But the old figures did not provide any indication of the range of scores below this cut-off that would have led to an offer.
Not every university is publishing the data, with a consistent data set still being finalised.
They must adopt the new plan by 2019.
The changes come after Fairfax Media revealed that up to 60 per cent of students at some universities were being admitted below the advertised minimum ATAR requirements.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has previously described the bonus points system, which lets students with special circumstances enter university, as "opaque as a double-frosted window".
