Applying to study at Australian universities

Planning and course selection to study at an Australian university

If you plan to attend university in Australia, we recommend you plan your NCEA subjects in advance to give you the best chance of being accepted.

In Australia:

• Year 12 is the equivalent of New Zealand Year 13 and NCEA Level 3
• each state has its own secondary education system
• university entry requirements can be different in each state
• each university sets its own admission requirements and criteria.

Contact the university or education provider you wish to attend as early as possible to ensure that your Year 13 course will meet all the entry requirements.

In general, for applications to be considered:

• you must achieve New Zealand University Entrance
• you need to achieve a high ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) score
• you need to meet the state's university entry criteria. Take note of the state’s English requirement for New Zealand students. Credits must be from Level 3 University Entrance approved English. Some Australian states require up to 20 English credits.
• you need to meet the state's English language proficiency requirement (if there is one).

To maximise your potential ATAR score, you should:

• have at least 90 assessed level 3 credits results (assessed credits are those with results of Not Achieved, Achieved, Achieved with Merit, and Achieved with Excellence)
• aim to get as many level 3 excellence and merit results as possible in externally and internally assessed achievement standards in University Entrance approved subjects.

How to apply to an Australian university

The Australian education system treats New Zealand citizens as domestic interstate students. You usually apply through a Tertiary Admission Centre that works on behalf of the universities in their state or territory. For particular courses at some universities, you will need to apply directly to the university.

New Zealand residents are treated as international students by the Australian system.

Contact details for tertiary admission centres and universities are available from the Australian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres (ACTAC).

What you need to do

If you plan to study at an Australian university and have completed NCEA Level 3, or are in your final year of NCEA Level 3 study and expect to gain University Entrance, you will need to:

• provide your New Zealand National Student Number (NSN) when applying (ensure that this is accurate)
• ask your school’s Principal Nominee to check that your tertiary release indicator (privacy flag) on the school management system is set to "Yes" so that the Australian Tertiary Admission Centres and Australian and New Zealand universities can access your results
• if your results change after the January results release, either from a review and reconsideration, or if results are reported late, tell the Australian Tertiary Admission Centre or university you applied to. Your ATAR score will be automatically recalculated so they can then log into the NZQA website to obtain any updated results.

You do not need to contact NZQA to send a copy of your results record and ATAR score.

What we do

NZQA calculates ATAR scores in January once all NCEA Level 3 results are available. We can make the information available to tertiary institutions if you have set your tertiary release indicator to "Yes".

If you have selected "Yes", the Australian tertiary institution can download an electronic copy of your individual results record with your:

• University Entrance status
• Australian defined level 3 subject scores
• NCEA Level 2 and Level 3 results, and
• ATAR score.

We do not provide students with official documentation of ATAR scores. However, you can get your ATAR score after NCEA results are released in January by contacting the PRS team (Psychometrics, Statistics and Reporting) at NZQA:

• by phoning +64 4 4633000 or 0800 697 296, or
• emailing PRS@nzqa.govt.nz with your full name, NSN, Date of Birth and the last school you attended.

When we release results

NZQA sets the annual NCEA assessment results date as early as possible, however it may not always satisfy the specific cut-off dates of all the Australian Tertiary Admissions Centres.

We work closely with the Tertiary Admissions Centres to agree on a release date that best meets:

• the NZQA marking requirements, and
• the Tertiary Admissions Centres' cut-off dates.

Privacy of your information

We can only make the information available to tertiary institutions if you have set your tertiary release indicator to "Yes".

There are differences between Australian and New Zealand privacy laws. This means we do not know if the Australian organisations that access your information:

• will make any use or disclosure of it in the future
• will protect your information in a way that is comparable to New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020.