Steps to completing your application

Note that you are unable to change your preferences in your application between each offer round's deadline for changing preferences and the release of offers (eg from 11.59pm Thu 11 Apr 2024 to 7.30am Thu 18 Apr 2024).

Institutions decide when they will make offers to their courses. There may be a significant amount of time between when you apply for a course and when the institution makes offers to that course. Most offers to 2025 semester 1 courses will be made in December and January.

All times indicated are based on Sydney time.

* This is the final closing date to apply for courses starting semester 1, 2025.

There are a number of offer rounds throughout the year. Check the 'Important dates for 2024–25 admissions' at the top of this page: they are the dates by which you need to apply, provide documents and change your preferences to be guaranteed consideration in each offer round.

Your application will remain valid throughout the admissions period and you can change your preferences for courses starting later in the year.

Offers to 2025 semester 1 courses

Offer rounds for 2024 Year 12 students

You cannot receive an offer until you have an assessable qualification. Therefore, the most important offer round for Year 12 students takes place after ATARs are released.

NSW and ACT ATARs will be released on 18 December 2024. The first offers to Year 12 students based on their ATARs will be made in December Round 2 on 23 December 2024.

It is anticipated that offers will be made to applicants with 2024 interstate qualifications and IB qualifications on the same date.

It is anticipated that offers will be made to applicants with 2024 NCEA qualifications in January Round 2 on 23 January.

Note: Not all institutions make offers in December Round 2: check institutions participating in each offer round. Also, some institutions will wait until January Round 1 or January Round 2 to make offers to a small number of courses (eg medical degrees). Check with the relevant institutions about your selected courses.

Offer rounds for post-school applicants

If you already have a qualification we can assess, universities can make you an offer whenever they are ready to start filling places in their courses. This could be before they make offers to Year 12 students, or they may wait and make offers to all applicants at the same time. Therefore, you might not know the outcome of your application for a semester 1 course until late December or early January.

If you are completing tertiary studies this year, your results will usually be available for assessment in time for January Round 1 offers.

Early offer rounds

The offer rounds before December Round 2 are usually for early offer schemes such as the Schools Recommendation Scheme, ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) courses, distance education courses and some post-school applicants. Not all institutions participate in these early rounds, so if you don’t receive an early offer and aren’t in one of the categories listed, there’s no need to worry.

Some institutions have early offer schemes for Year 12 students. Through these schemes, Year 12 applicants may be selected for courses independently of their final Year 12 results.

Later offer rounds

Offer rounds after January Round 1 are for entry to courses that still have vacancies.

Offers to semester 2 courses

There is no 'main' offer round for semester 2 courses, or any courses starting after March. However, most offers are made on designated offer round dates between April and July.

Check when institutions will be making offers. But be aware that even if an institution is making offers in a particular round, it may not be making offers to your specific course. If you don't receive an offer, check in with the institution before you change your preferences: they will be able to give you an idea about if and when you are likely to receive an offer in another round.

Selection criteria

Before you can be selected for a course, you must first meet the course admission criteria. Then you must compete against other eligible applicants.

For most courses, you'll be selected mainly on your academic qualifications. For example, Year 12 applicants will usually be selected on the basis of their selection rank (ATAR + adjustment factors). If you're a post-school applicant, most institutions will consider the following factors in addition to your ATAR (or equivalent) when assessing your application and determining your selection rank:

• secondary studies
• tertiary studies
• other relevant factors such as employment experience.

Read more about how your application and qualifications are assessed.

Selection process

Your preferences will be considered in the order you’ve listed them in your application.

If you don't meet the admission requirements for the course listed as your first preference, or your selection rank isn't high enough for you to be offered a place to that course, your second preference will be considered, and so on, until an offer can be made or you have no more preferences.

The institutions decide who they will make offers to. UAC doesn't select applicants, or have the power to persuade institutions to make a particular offer, or question decisions made by institutions.

Accepting your offer

Most institutions require you to accept your offer online. Your offer email will include either a link to accept your offer or further information about how to accept it.

If you receive an offer in one round, don't assume that you'll receive another offer in a later round.

Accept any offer you receive by following the instructions the institution gives you. You must accept your offer by the date indicated in your offer material, otherwise your offer will lapse and it may go to another applicant in the next round. If you have questions, contact the institution making the offer.

Accepting an offer doesn't stop you from being considered in later offer rounds, as long as you remove the successful course from your preferences list to prevent it blocking offers to lower preferences in future rounds.

If you receive an offer in one round and accept it, and then receive an offer in a later round, you can choose to do one of the following:

• Keep your previous offer and not accept your new offer.
• Accept your new offer and hold multiple offers. If the new offer is from the same institution as your previous offer, check its policy on accepting multiple offers: you may need to give up your first offer to accept the second.
• Accept your new offer and withdraw from any other courses you've already accepted.

Accepted multiple offers? Withdraw before census date: Census date is the deadline for withdrawing from a course without financial or academic penalties. If you accept multiple offers, make sure you formally withdraw from all courses you are not proceeding with so that you are not charged tuition fees or graded as failed.

Enrolling

Each institution has its own procedures for enrolment.

When you apply, make sure the name on your application matches your official ID (birth certificate, passport, citizenship documents). You'll need your ID when you enrol and there may be problems if the name on your ID doesn't match your offer letter.

After you enrol in a semester 1 course, you have until the course census date (usually a couple of weeks after the course start date) to pay your fees, sign up for a HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP loan, or withdraw without penalty from the course.

Getting your Unique Student Identifier (USI)

Students starting higher education need to have a USI.

Your USI stays with you for life and gives you access to an online record of your nationally recognised training in the form of a USI Transcript.

You'll be asked for it when you apply through UAC and when you enrol, and you'll need it to access Commonwealth Government HELP loans (eg HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP).

Check if you already have a USI (from previous vocational education or training).

Create a USI.

Advanced standing

If you have already studied at tertiary level, you may get credit for those studies when you enrol. Each institution has its own policy regarding advanced standing, which you should check carefully.

AQF Qualifications Pathway Policy

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Qualifications Pathway Policy aims to maximise the credit that students can gain for learning already undertaken and enhance student progression into and between AQF qualifications. For further information, visit the Australian Qualifications Framework website.

Deferment is when your institution gives you permission to delay starting your course. Deferment is for a fixed period, usually six months or one year.

All deferments are granted subject to the course being offered the following semester or following year. Some institutions will only let you defer in special circumstances.

How do I defer?

When you receive an offer to enrol in a course, information included with your offer will explain how to apply for deferment. You may have to accept the offer before you can defer.

Most institutions will ask you to provide a statement to explain why you wish to defer and what you'll be doing during this period.

Once your deferment has been granted, you'll receive written confirmation of your deferment from the institution concerned. This will also give instructions on how to take up your deferred course.

If, at the end of the deferment period, you decide you’d like to be considered for other courses, you can complete a new UAC application and include these course preferences. If you receive an offer to one of the new courses, you can then decide whether to accept the offer or take up your deferred course.

Can my offer lapse?

Yes. If you undertake degree studies or certain levels of TAFE study other than NSW HSC courses during your deferment period, your offer at many institutions will lapse. You'll need to re-apply through UAC and declare all of your studies. Check with each institution for specific policies.

Institutions make offers at different times of the year, depending on the course. They don’t make offers to every course in every offer round. So if you don’t get an offer in one offer round, it doesn’t mean you won’t get an offer in a later round.

How we notify you

Semester 1 (or trimester 1)

If you don't receive an offer at all for a semester 1 (or, where relevant, trimester 1) course, we'll advise you of this by email after:

• January Round 2
• February Round 1
• February Round 2
• March Round 1.

You won't receive an email from us if you received an offer in any round up to and including these rounds.

If you receive an email from us after, say, January Round 2 and don't change your course preferences for February Round 1, we won't send you another email if you're unsuccessful again in February Round 1.

Semester 2 (or trimesters 2 and 3)

Most offers for semester 2 are made in June and July; offers to courses starting in trimester 3 might be made in later rounds. If you don't receive an offer at all for a semester 2 (or, where relevant, trimester 2 or 3) course, we won't contact you but you can check the status of all your preferences by logging in to your application.

Reasons for not getting an offer

Unfortunately, UAC can't give you detailed information about why you didn't receive an offer; only the institution can do this. However, if you log in to your application and check your course preferences, you'll see a message explaining the status of your assessment for each preference.

If you are not eligible to receive an offer to a particular course preference, you will be given a short reason for this; for example:

• you have not satisfied admission requirements
• you have not satisfied course prerequisites
• you do not meet English language requirements.
  

If you’ve met the basic admission requirements, this message will be: 'You are competing with other applicants for an offer.’ If the course start date has passed and you didn't receive an offer, it means that there were other applicants who were more competitive than you and they were offered places in that course ahead of you.

All course preference status explanations

(If you're a Year 12 student, an unsuccessful SRS application has no effect on your UAC undergraduate application.)

Back-up study options

When you apply, you'll be asked if you'd like to receive information about alternative study options should your application be unsuccessful. If you select ‘Yes’, you may be contacted by institutions (including some not included in your preferences) with details of other available study options. You can opt out of receiving this information by logging in to your application.

UAC also recommends that, when you choose your course preferences, you include a 'back-up' course; that is, a course you are confident you'll be offered a place in and will be happy to study if you miss out on offers for your higher preferences. For example, you could include a diploma course in a similar area of study as your preferred degree course. You could then use your diploma studies as a stepping-stone to the degree.

Many students enrol in a course with a view to transferring into another course after completing a year’s study. A typical example is completing one year of a general degree (such as Arts) and then transferring to a more specialised degree (such as Arts/Law).

Transfers such as this are possible but very competitive, and you usually need to achieve excellent results in your first year. Each institution has its own requirements for transfers and you should check with the relevant institution for more information before you enrol.

In most cases you're not actually transferring; you're withdrawing from one course and applying for entry to another. You usually need to submit a new application through UAC for the new course.

If you are transferring to another course in the same admissions period (eg transferring to a new course in the new year) you don't need to reapply because your application is still active – you just need to change your preferences. Then, if you get an offer you can formally withdraw from your current course. It’s important to do this in order to avoid additional HECS fees or absent fail results on your academic record.

Read our news story: How to transfer to a different degree