Year 12 Applicants

To satisfy minimum entry requirements for admission to undergraduate programs, applicants with year 12 qualifications need to:

• qualify for the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), the International Baccalaureate, or a recognised interstate/overseas equivalent;
• obtain ‘recorded achievement’ in at least five SACE Stage 2 subjects in a maximum of three attempts (which need not be made in consecutive years) or, for non-SACE year 12 qualifications, meet all award requirements;
• include among the five SACE Stage 2 subjects at least four Higher Education Selection Subjects (HESS).

Selection into undergraduate programs is competitive as the number of applicants generally exceeds the number of places available, i.e. the quota for each program. Therefore applicants are encouraged to make full use of preferences to enhance their opportunity of receiving an offer.

School-leaver applicants are given a tertiary entrance rank (TER), based on their SACE results. School-leavers with interstate/overseas equivalents and applicants studying the International Baccalaureate (IB) have their final school results converted to a South Australian TER by SATAC. Equivalences for interstate year 12 and IB results are included in the university's Undergraduate Prospectus and the SATAC Uni Guide.

When a school-leaver applies for entry to a program that uses the TER as an entry criterion, a check is first made that the applicant has met the entry requirements for the program, e.g. program pre-requisites. All eligible applicants are then ranked in order of their TER and offers are made on the basis of academic merit until the quota for the program is filled. The score of the last applicant to gain entry to the program is called the 'cut-off' score. To give applicants an indication of the competitiveness of entry to various programs, cut-off scores for the previous year are published in the Undergraduate Prospectus and the SATAC Uni Guide.

Cut-off scores do vary from year to year due to changes in course quotas and/or applicant demand. Whilst you may consider cut-offs in listing your preferences when you apply through SATAC, please do base your preferences on your preferred programs and not simply the previous year's entry scores.

Higher Education Selection Subjects (HESS)

A HESS is a SACE Stage 2 subject that has been designated as being acceptable for university admission purposes. For most undergraduate programs the four HESS may be any subject designated HESS General. For all diplomas and for undergraduate programs in Music, Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Wine Marketing, the four HESS may be any subject designated HESS General or HESS Restricted.

Bonus Points Scheme

The University of Adelaide operates the Bonus Points Scheme, designed to highlight the importance of study in mathematics and languages at a higher level. This is in line with government and industry policies promoting: the development of Australia's international capabilities in science and technology; commercial and political inks with major trading partners; an internationally competitive labour force; and cultural pluralism within Australia.

For the purposes of admission, bonus points are automatically added to the university aggregate of applicants who have successfully completed Specialist Mathematics and/or a language other than English (LOTE) subject at SACE Stage 2 level, or equivalent. Each subject adds 2 additional points to an applicant's university aggregate, to a maximum of 4 points with no more than 2 points being granted on the basis of LOTE studies. Applicants with the International Baccalaureate (IB) or the interstate equivalent of the SACE are eligible if they have successfully completed equivalent subjects.

The Bonus Points Scheme applies to eligible local applicants, and international applicants who have completed their year 12 qualification on-shore.

Fairway Scheme 

The Fairway Scheme is designed to provide students from schools in Australia that are under-represented in higher education or rurally located with additional opportunity to study at the University of Adelaide. Adelaide metropolitan Fairway schools are determined by the participation rate of their students in South Australian universities. For all other schools across Australia the University refers to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC). If a school falls within a postcode that is classified by the ABS as anything other than a ‘Major City’ (e.g. ‘Remote Australia’, ‘Outer Regional Australia’, etc.), then it is a Fairway Scheme School. To find out if your school is a Fairway School, please refer to the ‘ASGC Remoteness Postcode Look-up Tool’.

Applicants from Fairway schools have bonus points automatically added to their university aggregate which in turn creates a new tertiary entrance rank, a University of Adelaide entrance rank, which is used as the basis of their application to programs at the University of Adelaide only. Students do not need to apply to be considered under the Fairway Scheme as eligible applicants are automatically identified through the SATAC system.

The Fairway Scheme applies to local and eligible international applicants who have completed their year 12 qualification on-shore.