Australia
As Australia uses a Federal system of government, responsibility
for education, and admission to Technical and Further
Education colleges and undergraduate degrees at universities
for domestic students, are in the domain of state and
territory government (see Education in Australia). All
states except Tasmania have centralized processing units
for admission to undergraduate degrees for citizens of
Australia and New Zealand, and for Australian permanent
residents; however applications for international and
postgraduate students are usually accepted by individual
universities. The Australian government operates the Higher
Education Contribution Scheme for undergraduate students,
so admission is rarely limited by prospective students'
ability to pay up-front. All states use a system that
awards the recipient with an Equivalent National Tertiary
Entrance Rank, or ENTER, and the award of an International
Baccalaureate meets the minimum requirements for admission
in every state. The Special Tertiary Admissions Test is
the standard test for non-school-leavers nationwide.
In all cases, applicants must be proficient in the English
language to be considered and meet the course requirements
listed by the admitting institution.
New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory
The Universities Admission Centre accepts applications
for all NSW and ACT tertiary institutions. Applications
usually consist of standardized test results, adherence
to the university's selection criteria for the applicable
course, and a suitable application. The standard test
for school-leavers is the Higher School Certificate in
NSW, and the Year 12 Certificate in the ACT, resulting
in a University Admission Index score out of 100.
Northern Territory
The South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre accepts
applications for Northern Territory tertiary institutions.
Year 12 students are awarded the Northern Territory Certificate
of Education and must meet course requirements.
Queensland
The Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre accepts applications
for Queensland tertiary institutions. Year 12 students
are awarded an Overall Position, based on their performance
in class subjects and their schools average result in
the Queensland Core Skills Test, as well as meeting course
requirements.
South Australia
The South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre accepts
applications for South Australian tertiary institutions.
Year 12 students are awarded the South Australian Certificate
of Education, and must meet course requirements.
Tasmania
Tasmanian school leavers applying for entrance at the
University of Tasmania need to apply directly to the university.
Tasmanian school students receive a Tertiary Entrance
Rank on successful completion of the Tasmanian Certificate
of Education. Students from interstate wishing to study
at UTas may apply through either the Victorian Tertiary
Admissions Centre, or directly through the University.
Victoria
The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre accepts applications
for Victorian tertiary institutions. Applications consist
of standardized test results and meeting institutional
requirements. The standard certification for school-leavers
is the Victorian Certificate of Education.
Western Australia
The Tertiary Institutions Service Centre accepts applications
for Western Australian tertiary institutions. The standardized
test for school-leavers is the Tertiary Entrance Examination.
Austria, Switzerland, Belgium
These countries probably have the most liberal system
of university admission anywhere in the world, since anyone
who has passed the Matura may enroll in any subject field
(or even several at no additional cost) at a public university.
In Belgium as well, the only prerequisite for enrolling
in university studies is to have obtained a high-school
diploma. In both Switzerland and Belgium, medical studies
are an exception, which have a numerus clausus system
due to overcrowding. This liberal admission practice led
to overcrowding and high dropout rates in the more popular
fields of study like psychology and journalism, as well
as high failure rates on exams which are unofficially
used to filter out the less-capable students. Following
a ruling by the European Court of Justice issued on July
7, 2005, which forces Austria to accept nationals of other
EU Member States under the same conditions as students
who took their Matura in Austria, a law was passed on
June 8 allowing universities to impose measures to select
students in those fields which are subject to numerus
clausus in Germany. Starting in 2006, the three medical
universities (in Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz) did introduce
entrance exams. There are no intentions to introduce a
numerus clausus in any subject field.
Brazil
Admission to Brazilian universities requires a secondary
school diploma (Diploma de Ensino Médio) or equivalent,
and a satisfactory performance in a competitive entrance
exam known as Concurso Vestibular. Most top state-funded
universities have a limited number of places for first-year
students, which are filled for each individual major by
ranking the respective candidates' scores on the Vestibular
in descending order. Contrary to other countries, extracurricular
activities, secondary school grades and interviews play
no role in admissions, which are based solely on Vestibular
scores. Each university is free to determine the format
and syllabus of its own Vestibular exam, but the exam
consists generally of two parts: a preliminary Part I
with multiple-choice questions on the core secondary school
subjects (Portuguese Language and Literature, Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, and Geography) and
a more specific Part II consisting normally of three or
four write-in exams. A Portuguese Language/Literature
exam including a student-written essay is required of
all candidates at Part II, irrespective of their intended
majors. In addition, candidates also take two or three
exams in subjects that vary according to their intended
course of study. For example, for prospective engineering
students, Part II normally includes Mathematics, Physics,
and Chemistry exams, whereas a prospective Law student
would have to take History and Geography, and Medical
School-bound students take Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
Critical reading ability in a foreign language (usually
English) is also tested, normally at Part I of the Vestibular,
but it represents a very small percentage (usually less
than 10%) of the overall exam. Candidates must generally
achieve a minimum cutoff score in Part I (known as nota
de corte) in order to be eligible to take Part II exams.
The cutoff score varies for different majors as it depends
on the number of first-year places available for each
field of study. Finally, admission to certain majors like
Architecture, Drama, Fine Arts, and Music also normally
requires additional specific skills tests and auditions.
Canada
Post-Secondary Application Service of British Columbia
(British Columbia), Ontario Universities' Application
Centre (Ontario).
China
A standard national exam given each summer is required
for each student. The exam covers common school topics
such as math, language, history, science, etc. Better
institutions require higher scores for admittance. The
required score also varies by province (students in more
competitive provinces, like Jiangsu, need higher scores
than students from less competitive areas such as Tibet).
Finland
See Numerus clausus in Finland
Germany
Prospective students who have passed the Abitur may decide
freely what subjects to enroll in. However, in some popular
subject fields such as medicine or business administration,
students have to pass a certain numerus clausus — that
is, they cannot enroll unless they have scored a minimum
grade point average on their Abitur.
One should distinguish two types of higher education
institutions in Germany, the universities (including Technische
Hochschulen) and the Fachhochschulen (polytechnics). A
prospective students who has passed the Abitur is qualified
for admission to every German university, with the exception
of very few new degree programs, where additional entrance
examinations were recently introduced. A Fachhochschule,
in contrast, often requires from the student the completing
of an internship to qualify for admission.
There is also a second German school leaving exam, which
qualifies the prospective students for admission to higher
education in Germany, the Fachhochschulreife, often called
Fachabitur in colloquial usage. An internship is already
part of the Fachhochschulreife itself, therefore a Fachhochschule
requires no additional internship from the student. However,
most universities do not accept this qualification for
admission. An exception are universities in the German
state of Hesse, who accept this qualification since 2004
for admission to Bachelor's degree courses, but not to
the traditional German Diplom degree courses.
A scholarship is an award of access
to an institution, or a financial aid award for an individual
student scholar, for the purpose of furthering their education.
Scholarships are awarded based on a range of criteria
which usually reflect the values and purposes of the donor
or founder of the award.
Scholarships may be classified into the following primary
groups.
Merit-based - financial aid for which financial need
is not used to determine the recipient. The recipient
may be determined by students’ athletic, academic, artistic
or other abilities. The actual monetary value of the scholarship
may be negligible, the scholarship being meant to motivate
the student and promote the study of the subject. However,
this is not always the case and the largest scholarships
are almost always merit-based.
Athletic - In the U.S. and other countries athletes who
perform well in various athletic endeavors are offered
athletic scholarships.
Need-based - financial aid for which the student and family’s
financial situation is a primary factor in determining
the recipient. Usually such scholarship will cover all
or part of the tuition and may even cover living-costs.
Very often even need-based private scholarships require
the awardees to be distinguished students, as the deed
founding the award may include a phrase like: “for the
studies of founder's favourite subject in founder's favourite
institution of higher education for a talented youths
of limited means from founder's home town/county/state
etc.“
Ethnicity-based - financial aid where applicants must
initially qualify by race, religion, or national origin.
After filtering the applicants based on their ethnicity,
additional factors are taken into consideration to determine
the final recipients.
Institutional-based - scholarships awarded by a specific
college or university (institution) to a student planning
to attend that institution.
General - Other scholarships which are awarded for a variety
of reasons which do not fall into one of the above categories.
These may be for reasons of the student's association
with the objectives of the sponsoring organization. For
example, some corporations give scholarships to their
employees' children
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