It's a number between 0 and 99.95 that indicates your position compared with others in your group. The higher the number, the more chance you have of getting into your preferred course.
It's essentially a case of supply and demand of places. So, if there's significant demand for a particular course, only those students with the best results will be offered a place.
International students make up a different pool of applicants who pay full tuition fees and are assessed against other criteria.
"International and domestic students are assessed differently as we are drawing from different schooling systems and language requirements for international students," a QUT spokesperson said.
"There may be some changes in any given period, but these are underpinned by academic judgement on what students need to be successful in the selected course."
Just how different are the entry requirements?
It's not always easy to compare the different entry requirements for domestic and international students.
Some universities — such as the University of Sydney — clearly display the ATAR entry requirements for both domestic and international students.
A domestic student applying to study physiotherapy at the University of Sydney, for example, would be required to get an ATAR of 99.5. However, an international student would require an ATAR of 97.5.
It's a similar situation for students wanting to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney. Domestic students require an ATAR of 80, while international students require 75.
But as a university spokesperson explains, it's important to remember these students are competing for different places.
The spokesperson said there can be different requirements because of "various factors including supply and demand and limitations set by Commonwealth Government funding".
Further, a spokesperson for QUT said the entry requirements were "underpinned by academic judgement on what students need to be successful in the selected course".
Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia, said there was a global academic benchmarking document used by universities, which compared top overseas education institutions with Australian equivalents.
"Students looking at, for example, graduate nursing programs would also have to meet Australian industry accreditation body requirements," he said.
"Some universities will also assess their own tests to reassure themselves the student has met English language requirements, or the students would have to prove by academic records from a recognised education institution in their home country that they have outstanding results."
Does this happen at all universities?
The University of Sydney's website makes direct comparisons easy to do. With other universities, it's not quite as straightforward.
The University of Queensland, for example, displays entry requirements in the form of how a student's local education system measures performance.
If a student from the United Kingdom applied to study a Bachelor of Science at UQ, they would require at least an '8.5' in their British school results. For domestic students, the same degree would require an ATAR of 80.
According to the University of Western Australia, which provides ATAR-level equivalents for British students, a UK school result of 8.5 would sit somewhere between 75 and 80.
In theory, that means the entry requirement for a British student is slightly lower than for a domestic student.
UQ also uses International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) scores to assess applicants.
An international student wanting to study a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) at UQ would require an IB score of 38 (an ATAR of approximately 95.75).
A domestic student would require an IB score of 42.5 (or an ATAR of about 99).
Does this affect the number of domestic students accepted in a course?
Over the past decade — with the exception of COVID restriction years — there's been an upward trend in the number of international students attending higher education institutions in Queensland.
In 2023, there was a record high with 135,000 international students in Queensland. The largest cohort came from China, followed by India.
There's been a long-term debate over whether Australian universities are taking too many international students at the expense of domestic students.
The number of university places available to Australian students is largely determined by the level of Commonwealth funding provided.
Universities say this means that the intake of international students does not affect the number of places available to domestic students.
A University of Sydney spokesperson said domestic students "do not miss out on a place" because of international students.
"We do not reserve a certain number of places for international students at the expense of domestic students," the spokesperson said.
