Thousands of Illawarra high school leavers are set to be notified of their Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) results this Friday.
When this happens many of these students are expected to revise their university preferences.
This comes a week after the University Admissions Centre (UAC) released its preference statistics for 2019.
The statistics released on December 5 “are a snapshot in time, provided at a very early stage in the annual student application and enrolment cycle when preferences change daily”.
A University of Wollongong spokesman said the report showed the size of the domestic student market in 2019 had declined by over 3600 students due to population changes.
“These statistics show the UOW’s market share of first preferences has risen from 6.89 per cent (4637) at the same time last year to 7.09 per cent (4613) this year as the number of first preferences has remained stable in a shrinking market,” he said.
“International applications for study in 2019 are trending upwards.”
The spokesman added it was too early in the annual student application and enrolment cycle to provide meaningful breakdowns by courses or faculties for 2019.
“Reliable statistics on 2019 enrolments will not be available until after census date on 31 March, 2019.”
Year 12 applicants tend to include more course preferences than other applicants, often listing the maximum five picks.
Applicants can change their preferences at any time but most changes happen after the release of the ATAR, which falls on December 14.
Based on figures from previous years, UAC expects about 20,000 of these students to change their preferences after receiving their ATAR.
