Principals slam universities’ pre-exam offers to students

School principals want universities in Australia to stop offering places to students before they sit the Higher School Certificate (HSC), saying it is an “appalling practice” that encourages pupils to slacken off during their exams and drags their classmates down with them, writes Jordan Baker for The Age.

Thousands of students were offered places at universities such as Macquarie, Notre Dame and Wollongong before they began their HSC recently. But other organisations, such as the Universities Admissions Centre, refuse to send out offers before exams due to concerns from schools.

New South Wales Secondary Principals’ Council Acting President Craig Petersen said pre-exam offers were an “appalling practice” and “we don't support it at all”. While they might reduce students’ stress, he said, they also caused some of them to lose focus. “One of the things people don't realise is that your [individual] HSC results are affected by the whole cohort,” he said. “If some students pull up stumps in term three because they have their uni place, the pool of marks is affected. We need all students in every class to do as well as we can to maximise their outcomes.”
Full report on The Age site