Secondary schooling: tertiary entry ranks and university performance

A large proportion of students competing for first year university places are selected on the basis of their Year 12 performance according to the Equivalent National Tertiary Entry Rank (ENTER). The ENTER ranks each student in relation to all other students. Year 12 students strive to achieve the highest ENTER possible, in order to optimise their choice of university and course. Students from Government schools produce lower ENTERs (on average) than students from other types of schools. One also reads, from time to time, that high ENTERs are not a good predictor of university success. This paper examines the situation at the start of the twenty-first century, using Monash University as a case study