The Shergold Review of post-school pathways proposed “learner profiles” recording student achievements in and out of formal education (CMM July 24 2020)

The “shadow of the ATAR” looms over peoples’ choice of course, even when academic skills, “are only moderately linked,” the Innovative Research Universities warns in a submission to a review of what such learner profiles could include.

In contrast to the ATAR, a profile could provide universities with a sense of what study options suit an individual, which is good. The problem with profiles is that they could end up being used to compare people for courses where demand exceeds supply, which isn’t.

“A desire for comparability brings with it a tendency to standardise what is included and to prefer measurable information.

“Were the profile to become important to competitive selection decisions, it would force a counterproductive degree of standardisation that would then see schools assist their students complete the profile. Based on other experiences, the more complicated the process the more it weighs toward re-enforcing existing biases in schooling outcomes,” the IRU warns,

Gosh, just like the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.