SRS information for schools

SRS ratings are now closed.

If you have any questions, please email srs@uac.edu.au.

The Schools Recommendation Scheme (SRS) gives Australian Year 12 students who have applied for undergraduate admission through UAC an opportunity to be assessed on criteria other than, or in addition to, the ATAR.

Institutions use a wide range of selection criteria, including school recommendations and senior secondary studies. They have their own policies on determining SRS eligibility and making offers. Institutions can, for example, make early offers based on:

  • SRS criteria only
  • SRS criteria and ATAR (or equivalent)
  • SRS and equity criteria.

Institution-specific SRS criteria

This year, the following institutions will be participating in SRS:

  • AIE Institute
  • Australian Catholic University
  • Australian College of Physical Education
  • Charles Sturt University
  • International College of Management, Sydney
  • Macquarie University
  • National Art School
  • SAE Creative Media Institute
  • Torrens University Australia
  • University of Canberra
  • University of New England
  • University of Newcastle
  • University of Notre Dame, Australia
  • University of Technology Sydney
  • Western Sydney University

November Round 1: 10 November 2023

  • SRS conditional and unconditional offers emailed to applicants.
  • Conditional offers are released in November Round 1 only. Applicants can receive up to five conditional offers depending on their course preferences and the institutions' criteria.
  • Applicants can receive only one unconditional offer in each offer round. After November Round 1, institutions may make additional unconditional SRS offers in November Round 2 and December Round 1.

December Round 2: 21 December 2023

  • Conditional offers received in November Round 1 are converted to unconditional offers if the applicants meet the institutions' criteria.

What schools need to do for SRS

1. Set up School Access accounts

  • Schools that have previously participated in SRS: On 15 August 2023, your principal and registered SRS rater received an email inviting them to set up their School Access accounts. This simply involves following a link to create a password. If the link has expired it will provide another option for creating a password.
  • Schools that have not previously participated in SRS: Email srs@uac.edu.au and let us know you would like to participate in SRS. We will send you a link to set up your School Access account.

Principals will be given the Admin user role and raters will be given the SRS user role.

The Admin user can:

  • invite up to four staff members (including themselves) to act as SRS users and rate students
  • transfer the Admin user role to someone else.

If your school’s principal has changed since last year, or you have any queries, please email srs@uac.edu.au.

2. Submit student ratings by 3 October 2023

When UAC receives an SRS application from one of your students, your Admin user will be notified by email. They need to advise their SRS user to log in to School Access and rate the student.

Log in to School Access

What raters need to do for SRS

A rater is a permanent member of staff nominated by the principal to provide their professional assessment of each SRS applicant’s aptitude in four areas:

  1. capacity for abstract thought and analysis
  2. ability to organise ideas and articulate a position orally and in written form
  3. ability to work and learn independently
  4. motivation to achieve long-term goals.

All rating is completed in the School Access portal:

  1. When advised by your principal that a student has applied for SRS, log in to School Access.
  2. Navigate to 'SRS applications', locate the student you want to rate and click the Rate button.
  3. Enter ratings against each of the four aptitudes. Ratings range from 'inadequate' to 'exceptional'.
  4. When you have selected a rating for all four aptitudes, click the Submit rating button. Once submitted, ratings cannot be edited.
    If you start to rate a student and need to finish later, click the Save and finish later button.

All student ratings must be submitted by 11.59pm on 3 October 2023.

Logging in

  1. You will receive an email from UAC each time one of your students submits an SRS application. The email will contain a link for you to log in to School Access.
  2. Log in to School Access using your email address and password. (You can reset your password, if required, after you enter your email address.)
  3. You will be taken to the Admin dashboard. From here you can navigate between the following sections:

    Students

    View the following details for all Year 12 students enrolled at your school:
    - full name
    - student ID
    - date of birth
    - if they have submitted a UAC application for undergraduate admission
    - if they have submitted an SRS application
    - if their SRS ratings have been submitted.

    Reports
    This section was originally designed to allow you to set the frequency of the SRS Summary Report that UAC emailed to you. However, due to changes to privacy protocol, UAC is no longer emailing this information to schools. You can access a report at any time by navigating to the 'Students' page and clicking the 'Download CSV file' button.

    Staff members
    - Invite up to four staff members (including yourself) to act as SRS users and rate students (in addition to your role as Admin).
    - Update user roles (eg SRS school user).
    - Delete users.
    - Transfer your Admin ownership to a staff member.

    My account
    - Update your personal information.
    - Reset your password.
    - Transfer, then delete, your Admin account.
    - Inform your SRS user/rater that there are SRS applicants to be rated.

Inviting a staff member to become a School Access SRS user (and rate students)

As an Admin user you can invite up to four staff members to become SRS users and rate students.

You can make yourself one of those SRS users in addition to acting as Admin – just follow the same steps.

  1. Navigate to 'Staff members'.
  2. Click the Invite staff button.
  3. Enter the staff member's details (email, role (SRS), name, position) then click the Invite staff button. An invitation email will be sent to the staff member.
  4. The staff member's name will appear on your 'Staff members' page with the status 'Invited but not yet accepted'.
  5. The invited staff member needs to accept the invitation and set up their account within 72 hours (for security and privacy). If they don't, you will need to re-invite them.

Deleting a staff member from School Access

  1. Navigate to 'Staff members'.
  2. Go to the staff member you want to delete and click View full profile. The staff member's details will be displayed.
  3. Click the Delete staff member button. A confirmation dialog box will appear.
  4. Click the Delete staff member button to confirm.

Transferring Admin role and deleting your account

  1. Navigate to 'Staff members'.
  2. Go to the staff member you want to transfer the Admin role to and click View full profile. The staff member's details will be displayed.
  3. Click the Make owner button. A confirmation dialog box will appear.
  4. Click the Transfer ownership button to confirm. If you wish, you can now take the following steps to delete your account.
  5. Navigate to 'My account'.
  6. Click the Delete account button. A confirmation dialog box will appear.
  7. Click the Delete account button to confirm.

You will be automatically logged out of your account.

Assigning yourself SRS user role (in addition to Admin role)

As Admin, you can give yourself the role of SRS user so that you can rate students.

  1. Navigate to 'Staff members'.
  2. Go to your name and click View full profile.
  3. Go to the Role field. It will be displaying 'Admin'. Click on the dropdown menu and select 'SRS'.
  4. Click the Save button. A 'Save updated roles' dialog box will appear.
  5. Click the Log out button.
  6. Log back in to School Access using your Admin account email address and password. SRS applications will now be displayed on the Admin page and you can navigate to the 'SRS applications' page to rate your students.

Logging in

Your Admin/principal will receive an email from UAC every time an SRS application is submitted by a student at your school. They should advise you when they receive each notification.

  1. Log in to School Access using your email address and password. (You can reset your password, if required, after you enter your email address.)
  2. You will be taken to the SRS dashboard. From here you can navigate between the following sections:

    SRS applications
    View the list of all the students at your school who have submitted an SRS application. Locate the student you want to rate and click the Rate button. Enter ratings against each of the four aptitudes. Ratings range from 'inadequate' to 'exceptional'.

    Reports
    This section was originally designed to allow you to set the frequency of the SRS Summary Report that UAC emailed to you. However, due to changes to privacy protocol, UAC is no longer emailing this information to schools. Your School Access Admin user has access to a ‘Students’ page and can download reports from there.

    My account
    Update your personal information, reset your password and delete your SRS user account.

Rating students

  1. Navigate to 'SRS applications'.
  2. Locate the student you want to rate and click the Rate button in the Action column.
  3. Enter ratings against each of the four aptitudes. Ratings range from 'inadequate' to 'exceptional'.
  4. If you start to rate a student and need to finish later, click the Save and finish later button. The 'SRS applications' page will display the status 'Partially rated' next to the student's name and the Rate button will remain active.
  5. When you have selected a rating for all four aptitudes, click the Submit rating button. A confirmation dialog box will be displayed.
  6. Click the Submit rating button. Once submitted, ratings cannot be edited.
  7. The 'SRS applications' page will display the status 'Rated' next to the student's name.
  8. Finalise all your ratings by 11.59pm 3 October 2023.
The four aptitude categories

You will be asked to rate each SRS applicant's aptitude in four categories:

  1. capacity for abstract thought and analysis
  2. ability to organise ideas and articulate a position orally and in written form
  3. ability to work and learn independently
  4. motivation to achieve long-term goals.
Aptitude rating scale
  • Exceptional
  • Very good
  • Good
  • Adequate
  • Inadequate

Deleting your School Access account

  1. Navigate to the 'My account' page.
  2. Click the Delete account button. A confirmation dialog box will appear.
  3. Click the Delete account button.

You will be automatically logged out of your account.

School SRS Summary Reports

School Access Admin users can download SRS reports from the 'Students' page. SRS users do not have access to this page.

Due to changes to privacy protocol, UAC is no longer emailing SRS reports to schools.

Column Explanation
A to F These columns contain details about your current Year 12 students (eg UAC number, student number, name, date of birth).
G Undergraduate application status
This column tells you which Year 12 students have submitted an application for undergraduate admission through UAC and the status of their application. These students may or may not have also submitted an SRS application. See Column H.
Applicants must submit an application for undergraduate admission through UAC (ie have flag ‘YES’ in Column G) before they can apply for SRS.)
H SRS submitted
This column tells you which Year 12 students have submitted an SRS application in addition to their UAC undergraduate application for admission.
I Rated – aptitudes
These columns tell you how many ratings have been completed for the students who have applied for SRS. For example, if you have rated 3 out of the 4 aptitudes, Column I will show ‘3 of 4’.
You must rate all 4 aptitudes for each SRS applicant.
J to M These columns tell you how you have rated each student against the 4 aptitudes.
If these columns are blank, you have not rated the student. Once you have rated the student, these columns will populate.
N Ratings submitted
If you have submitted ratings for the student this column will state ‘YES’.
If you have not submitted ratings for the student this column will state ‘NO’.
Once you have rated all 4 aptitudes, click the Submit ratings button.
If you wish to complete certain rating questions for applicants at a later time, click the Save and finish later button. The current rating values will be saved and you can return later to complete the remaining ratings values and submit.