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Twenty Thousand Left Out in the Cold!

More than 20 000 VTAC applicants have been left without an offer as round one closes for the 2003 admissions.

By Abby Dinham - 22nd January 2003 - Back to News

More than 20 000 VTAC applicants have been left without an offer as round one closes for the 2003 admissions.

Statistics have shown nearly 85 000 potential students applied for a tertiary placement through VTAC, a 3.6 per cent increase from the 2002 total, (according to http://www.vtac.edu.au/library/library.html).

However, only 63 201 offers have been made in the first round, a figure which is comparably unchanged from last years total.

Federal MP for McMillan, Christian Zahra, has blamed the Federal government for the high number of applicants missing out. "It is disappointing that so many outstanding students are missing out on a place due to government under-funding".

Acting Education Minister, Peter McGauran, has called the accusation ‘irresponsible and misleading’, stating that under the Howard Government universities receive more funding than ever before.

Monash University in Gippsland made 543 first round offers, receiving close to 5000 preferences in total.

Public relations officer for Monash Gippsland, Justin Kohlman, estimates that around 85 per cent of applicants to Gippsland could get in, provided they have the appropriate qualifications. "Its difficult to work out the percentage of students being accepted per application as one application could have several preferences for the same institution" he said.

VTAC applicant, Chris Anders said he was ‘devastated’ by not being offered a place at Monash Gippsland in the 2003 admissions. "The government stimulated interest in these positions through advertisement but they haven’t increased the number of places", said Mr Anders.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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