The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) is the administrative body that processes tertiary course applications for universities (and other tertiary institutions) in the state of Victoria, Australia. Incorporated in 1967, it has offices located at South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a member of the Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres (ACTAC).
History
Before 1967, all universities in Victoria had their own application systems, and students can only directly apply to them. To simplify this process, VTAC was formed in 1967 by three Victorian universities: The University of Melbourne, Monash University and La Trobe University as the Victorian Universities Admissions Committee (VUAC). They started coordinating offers of places to students for the first time in the 1968 academic year.
In 1972, VUAC was expanded to include processing applications for the then four members of the Victoria Institute of Colleges: the Physiotherapy School of Victoria, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the Swinburne College of Technology, and the Victorian School of Speech Science. In 1986, it was renamed to its current name.
Application system
Course requirements
All courses listed on VTAC have their own prerequisites and requirements, which are published on the CourseSearch website.
Most courses will require a minimum ATAR before an offer is even considered. Some institutions publish a guaranteed ATAR, where if the applicant achieves higher than the ATAR and preference appropriately they will be secured a place in their chosen course. For those who score between the minimum and guaranteed ATAR, personal statements will also be a part of the screening process. Not all courses judge their applicants solely using ATAR. Some courses require an audition or a folio, while some courses will require an admission test before applying, notably the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) that is needed for undergraduate medicine/surgery courses. Other tests include: International Student Admissions Test (ISAT), for international students applying for Type 3 places in medicine/surgery courses at Monash University VETASSESS Casper, for initial teaching education courses
The ATAR profile for all undergraduate courses is also published on the VTAC website, acting as a guide for students if their score is enough for being considered for the course. A sample ATAR profile is as follows:
Where it indicates the student with the highest and lowest ATAR that was made an offer in the previous year, as well as the median ATAR of all students that entered the course. The right column shows the ATAR data after Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS) adjustments.
Preferencing
VTAC processes applications from suitably qualified students, which may list up to 8 preferences for tertiary courses in the state of Victoria. Tertiary institutions determine whether the applicant is given the offer to undertake a course – VTAC then informs students of the highest preferred course they have been offered, if any. Universities do not consider the order of preferences when making offers, so all courses listed on an applicant's preferences will be treated equally and making sure that no applications are disadvantaged. Some courses have early closing dates, where after the date students will not be able to add them to their preferences. This mainly includes courses that require interviews or auditioning, particularly in areas such as medicine, music or fine arts.
After the release of VCE and ATAR results, applicants will still be able to adjust their preferences for a few days before the closure of the system. Students are able to change their preferences for any reasons, including a change of mind, adding a newly available course or if the course applied has been cancelled and needs replacement. There are no additional fees for change of preference, provided that they have already paid the application fee. After the release of offers for each round, the system will reopen to allow for preference adjustments before its closure again for the next offer round.