How the Educational Access Scheme works

Participating institutions use EAS assessments to increase an applicant’s selection rank.

These selection rank adjustments do not change your ATAR. Instead, they change your selection rank for a particular course. As the adjustment factor schemes for each institution, and often for each course at the same institution, are different, your selection rank can be different for each course you list in your course preferences.

Unlike subject or location adjustment factor schemes, UAC cannot tell you by how many points your selection will be increased.

Example

Course A has six applicants and only three places available. The six applicants have the following selection ranks:

Offers will be made to applicants 1, 2 and 3. Applicant 4 won’t receive an offer, even with an ATAR higher than applicant 3, and applicant 3 will receive an offer even though their ATAR is below the lowest selection rank. The lowest selection rank required to receive an offer to Course A will be 87.00.

We will assess your application and send you an email to tell you which institutions will consider your circumstances when deciding whether or not to make you an offer.

The email will list your eligibility for EAS consideration at each institution, regardless of your course preferences. It will not specify whether or not you will receive an EAS equity adjustment for a particular course preference or how many points will be added to your selection rank. Some institutions provide details of their EAS equity adjustments on their websites.

If you're a post-school applicant, we'll email you about your eligibility once we've assessed your application.

If you're a Year 12 applicant, we'll email you in December, before the main round of offers for Year 12 applicants.

Check all EAS key dates

Institution policies that may affect your eligibility

UAC assesses all EAS applications in the same way, using the same guidelines, regardless of your course preferences. However, each institution has its own policies on how EAS assessments are used when making offers.

This means that you may:

• be eligible for EAS consideration at some institutions but not at others
• receive different EAS adjustments to your selection rank at different institutions
• receive different EAS adjustments to your selection rank for different courses at the same institution
• be eligible for EAS consideration at an institution but not receive EAS adjustments for your particular course preferences.

These institution policies cover:

• previous tertiary study
• course exclusions
• minimum ATAR requirements
• school exclusions
• exclusions of types of circumstances
• English language proficiency
• minimum EAS thresholds.

Previous tertiary study

The following institutions do not give EAS consideration to EAS applicants who are currently undertaking, or who have previously undertaken, tertiary study:

• Charles Sturt University
• University of New England
• University of Sydney
• University of Wollongong
• UNSW Sydney
• Western Sydney University

For EAS purposes, tertiary study includes diploma, advanced diploma, associate diploma, degree or higher level studies undertaken either in Australia or overseas.

If you have a record of tertiary study, your EAS eligibility for these institutions will always be ‘No’.

Course exclusions

Some institutions will not give EAS consideration for certain courses. Check individual institution websites for details.

Minimum ATAR requirements

The Australian National University specifies that applicants must achieve a minimum ATAR of 70.00 before they are eligible for EAS consideration.

This means that even if your EAS eligibility for this institutions is ‘Yes’, you must meet the minimum ATAR requirement to be given EAS consideration.

Exclusions of types of circumstances

Some institutions will not give EAS consideration for certain circumstances. Check individual institution websites for details.

Minimum EAS thresholds

Three institutions specify a minimum level of impact of an applicant's circumstances before they are eligible for EAS consideration:

• University of Technology Sydney
• UNSW Sydney
• Western Sydney University.

This means that you can be assessed as eligible for one or more EAS categories but still not meet the minimum EAS eligibility threshold for an institution. This is why you can be eligible at one institution and not another, even though your assessment is the same for all institutions. If you don’t meet the institution’s minimum EAS threshold, your EAS eligibility for the institution will be ‘No’.

Your application is assessed based on the documentation you provide to UAC, including the educational impact statement and medical impact statement, where required. Unsupported applicant statements are not assessable.

Your application can’t be assessed until your supporting documents have been uploaded.