| The Australian National University (ANU) is located in Canberra, Australia. The University is one of the country's largest and most respected. They currently have enrolled over 9000 students undertaking both under-graduate and post-graduate studies.
The University has a particularly good reputation in the areas of law, economics and commerce, science and the arts.
Nearly all courses at the ANU are covered by HECS (The Higher Education Contributions Scheme). This means that students may either pay their fees up-front with Government subsidisation, or defer their payment (a Government loan) until they earn enough money.
International students pay considerably more than their Australian counterparts, and cannot be covered by HECS, as they are not Australian tax payers.
Despite the ANU's excellent reputation and high number of well-qualified staff, the University has comparably low entry requirements. The UAI, or Universities Admission Index varies from course to course. Here is a rough guide:
Economics, arts, science, commerce: 73 required (ie top 27% of population)
Psychology: 80
Law: 94
Actuarial Studies: 88
Engineering: 90
To demonstrate the difference in entry requirements, take the Bachelor of Commerce degrees at the ANU and The University of New South Wales UNSW as an example. At UNSW the requirement is 94.35 and as shown above, it is a mere 73 at ANU.
This difference can be attributed to one thing only: demand. All UAI requirements for all courses at all universities are determined based on the expected demand for the course. UNSW is a well respected university in Sydney, a city with a population of approximately 4,000,000. The ANU is in Canberra, a city with a population of 300,000.
The fear for the university is that if demand falls too far, then the Australian Federal Government will not be obliged to contribute as much funds, which may result in a lowering of education standards.
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