When Uni Sydney and UNSW were the harbour city’s HE super powers they competed to spin school leaver first preferences as a sign of superiority

Now not so much, what with there being less duopoly and more big five. The Universities Admission Centre reports Uni Sydney leads first preference applications for next year, with 18.11 per cent of UAC applications, UNSW follows at 15.83 per cent, UTS is at 13.92 per cent, Macquarie U 11.62 per cent, Uni Newcastle has 11.55 per cent.