Higher School Certificate (New South Wales) Explained

The Higher School Certificate (HSC) is the credential awarded to secondary school students who successfully complete senior high school level studies (Years 10, 11 and 12 or equivalent) in New South Wales and some ACT schools in Australia, as well as some international schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Papua New Guinea. It was first introduced in 1967,[1] and is currently developed and managed by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).[2]

Structure

The majority of students undertake HSC-related courses over the final two years of high school,[3] though it is possible to undertake different study patterns over different time periods or through different teaching organisations. To be eligible for the HSC, students must:[4]

There are a large number of possible courses that students can study, totalling over 100 (including languages),[5] in a wide range of subject areas. However, schools have control over the courses that they offer students, from which they must choose.[6] The only compulsory subject area is English, with one of English Advanced, English Standard, English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D), or English Studies required for the award of the HSC. Individual schools may require their students to undertake certain courses, as is the case with Studies of Religion in many religious schools or Agriculture in agricultural schools, however, these are internal school requirements separate from HSC requirements.

Most courses offered comprise a preliminary (typically Year 11) component and a HSC (typically Year 12) component. As a general rule, the preliminary component must be completed prior to the HSC component.[7] Furthermore, each subject is designated as either one or two "units". Each unit of study involves 60 hours of indicative time in each of the preliminary and HSC courses.[8] 10 units is the minimum number of units required; however, students can attempt more should they choose.

To be eligible for the award of the HSC a student must have:[9]

Some courses have certain rules and prerequisites such as:

Further restrictions may apply in certain subject areas. Further requirements regarding study patterns apply if the student wishes to apply for a separate Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) based on their HSC performance.[10] If they do, their final ATAR mark is calculated using their best 2 units of English and 8 best other units. Extension courses, each with a value of one unit, may be included in the study program, meaning that a certain subject area may have up to four units, e.g. English (Advanced) (two units) plus English Extension 1 and English Extension 2 (each worth one unit).

Types of courses

There are two main types of courses available in the HSC: Board Developed Courses and Board Endorsed Courses.[11]

Board Developed Courses (BDCs), also known as HSC courses, have a syllabus and final exam set by NESA and may contribute to the calculation of the ATAR. They are the most common type of course in NSW and are inclusive of Life Skills courses and VET Industry Curriculum Framework courses.

Board Endorsed Courses (BECs) are developed outside of NESA (such as TAFE) and may vary from school to school in regard to content and assessment. They do not have a HSC exam and they cannot contribute to the calculation of a student's ATAR. Before they can be taught, they must be endorsed by NESA and follow NESA's rules regarding BEC courses. There are four types of Board Endorsed Courses:[12]

Assessment

For most board developed courses, a student's final mark in each subject is determined by a combination of in-school assessments conducted throughout the HSC component of the course (constituting 50% of their HSC mark) and an externally administered final exam, typically held in October or November of that year (constituting 50% of their HSC mark). For in-school assessments, schools prepare and run an assessment program for each course, in line with NESA requirements such as which course components are assessed and how they are weighted in the assessment. Schools are responsible for setting assessment tasks such as exams, assignments, fieldwork or practical activities, as well as deciding due dates. The external exam is then used to statistically moderate in-school assessment results between different schools before calculating the student's final mark in the subject, typically out of 100 for 2-unit courses and out of 50 for 1-unit courses.

For most board endorsed courses, the assessment is administered by the school and does not have an associated HSC exam. Depending on the requirement of the course, an unmoderated mark will be awarded, or the course will be marked as completed.

Award

Upon successful completion of a satisfactory pattern of study, students are awarded the Higher School Certificate by way of a testamur. NESA provides the results of all student results to the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) to calculate an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) based on their HSC performance (separate from NESA).[13] To be eligible for an ATAR, students must:[14]

The ATAR is then calculated from the best 2 units of English and the best 8 units from your remaining units, which can include no more than 2 units of Category B courses. The ATAR is then used for admission to universities across Australia.[15]

Furthermore, whenever a student has completed a board developed course, they also receive feedback regarding their results in that course, which typically includes exam results, school assessment results and the performance band in which their performance lies.[16] Each band represents a particular range of marks. For 2 unit courses:[17]

For extension courses:

Students who achieve high marks are celebrated on HSC merit lists. The four types of merit lists are:[18]

Available courses

There are two main types of courses available in the HSC: Board Developed Courses and Board Endorsed Courses.

English

Being the only mandatory course for HSC, for English, students must choose between one of the English courses available to study:

[19]

Elective Courses

The following is a list of elective Board Developed Courses currently available to students.

HSIE (Human Society and Its Environment):[20]

Mathematics:

[21]

Science:

[22]

TAS (Technological and Applied Studies):

[23]

Creative Arts:

[24]

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health and Physical Education):

[25]

Content Endorsed Courses

Content Endorsed Courses (CEC) fall under Board Endorsed Courses.

[26]

Language Courses

Languages are also offered as Beginners, Continuers, Extension, Background Speakers and recently, Heritage courses.[27] Only one course of any one language may be taken, with the exception of Extension, available only to students taking the Continuers course. Due to the large number of language courses, they have been listed separately. The letters B (beginners), C (continuers), E (extension), BS (background speakers), H (heritage) indicate which courses are available for study.

From 2017, background speakers and heritage courses were renamed to In Context and Literature, affecting Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean students in those courses.

Continuers refers to languages that were studied in Year 9 and will be continued in Years 10, 11 and 12. In some cases, where a student has not studied the language in Year 9 due to not being able to, exemption may be granted to study Continuers based on cultural heritage and fluency. The School of Languages usually only does this, home school enrolments into these courses usually require the Year 9 prerequisite to attempt them.

Where the provision for language learning does not exist at the home school, the NSW School of Languages in Petersham offers all languages examinable by NESA.[28] The below list is all the languages offered by NESA that were offered in the 2023 Higher School Certificate:

[29]

VET Courses

In addition, some VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses are offered. In addition to HSC credit,[30] completion of these courses may earn an industry Certificate II. There are 13 Board Developed Courses (BDC) and 106 Board Endorsed courses (BEC).Board Developed Courses:

[31]

Board Endorsed Courses:

[32]

Life Skills

For students who may have intellectual disabilities or struggle with the standard course, there are options.[33] The eligibility is limited.[34]

The following courses have a Life Skills choice:[35]

HSC Syllabus Reform (2019)

A major HSC Syllabus reform was executed in 2019. The "new" syllabus involved the addition of "Science Extension" and "Investigating Science" as new courses. These courses were made available to students that commenced teaching in October 2018 for the cohort of 2019. The course "Senior Science" was discontinued as of October 2018. The reformed syllabus involved changes that are a move towards compulsory English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Investigating Science and Extension Science in the future.

English

Changes introduced to compulsory English discontinued the field of study "Discovery" as NESA discovered students would simply hire and pay off third party tutoring companies and/or private tutors in order to completely memorise and regurgitate essay information, in turn causing an imbalance in advantage towards the state of NSW. For the new syllabus, English questions have now become more specific, prompting on-the-spot answers in turn rigorously testing students natural English writing ability and ability to analyse and interpret unseen questions, texts and information.

Mathematics

Also included in this reform is making mathematics a mandatory HSC subject, effective starting with the HSC class of 2026.[36] [37]

Vocational equivalent

The vocational equivalent to Year 12 will change from certificate II in 2015 to certificate III in 2020 by the Council of Australian Governments, mainly because Year 12 qualification has minimal hours greater than those of a level II qualification, where they correspond more closely to the hours of level III qualification.[38] Although the completion of high school would lead to better labour market results, it is alsoestablished that a scholarly pathway is not always suited for all and that some are unaccustomed to the institutionalised nature of schools. This has led to an understanding that there should be alternatives to Year 12 completion. As such, the idea of a vocational equivalent to Year 12 is a response to this.[39] The construct of a vocational equivalent to completing a senior school certificate (denoted by the completion of Year 12) has been an attribute of government policy since the late 1990s, with a declaration stating:

"All students have access to the high quality education necessary to enable the completion of school education to Year 12 or its vocational equivalent and that provides clear and recognised pathways to employment and further education and training."[38] [40]

Impact on Adolescents

A NSW Health report found that 1 in 11 adolescents who committed suicide had experienced significant levels of HSC-related stress.[41]

Abolition of the HSC ATAR has been called for by some teachers, principals, academics, and university chancellors. It has been suggested that the ATAR system associated with the completion of the HSC is a major cause of mental health issues amongst young people.[42]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Changing places . 2008-11-17 . Sydney Morning Herald . Sydney . 2004-05-12 .
  2. Web site: NESA . 2022-11-01 . Agency information guide NSW Government . 2023-10-09 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  3. Web site: 2023 HSC students overview . NSW Education Standards Authority.
  4. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . Choosing HSC subjects . 2024-11-19 . NSW Government . en-AU.
  5. Web site: HSC facts and figures . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  6. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . 2023-08-14 . HSC courses NSW Government . 2024-11-19 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  7. Web site: Study of Preliminary and HSC courses . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  8. Web site: ACE Manual: ACE 8064 Study of Preliminary and HSC courses: units of study and indicative time . 2024-11-19 . ace.nesa.nsw.edu.au.
  9. Web site: 2024 Rules and Procedures guide . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  10. Web site: Australian Tertiary Admission Rank . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  11. Web site: Place in the curriculum and course types About the curriculum NSW Curriculum NSW Education Standards Authority . 2024-11-19 . curriculum.nsw.edu.au.
  12. Web site: ACE Manual: ACE 6005 Board Endorsed (BECs) Higher School Certificate courses – categories . 2024-11-19 . ace.nesa.nsw.edu.au.
  13. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . 2023-08-14 . Getting your HSC results NSW Government . 2024-11-19 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  14. Web site: Engagement . Universities Admissions Centre Marketing and . Who gets an ATAR? . 2024-11-19 . Universities Admissions Centre . en.
  15. Web site: Engagement . Universities Admissions Centre Marketing and . Australian Tertiary Admission Rank . 2024-11-19 . Universities Admissions Centre . en.
  16. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . 2023-08-14 . Understanding your HSC results NSW Government . 2024-11-19 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  17. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . 2023-08-14 . Data glossary NSW Government . 2024-11-19 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  18. Web site: Authority . NSW Education Standards . 2023-02-28 . HSC merit lists NSW Government . 2024-11-19 . www.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  19. Web site: English Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  20. Web site: Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  21. Web site: Mathematics Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  22. Web site: Science Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  23. Web site: Technological and Applied Studies Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  24. Web site: Creative Arts Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  25. Web site: PDHPE (Personal Development, Health and Physical Education) Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  26. Web site: Content Endorsed Courses – list of courses . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  27. Web site: Board of Studies News.
  28. Web site: Home - NSW School of Languages . 2024-05-05 . nswschoollang.schools.nsw.gov.au . en-AU.
  29. Web site: Languages Stage 6 . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  30. Web site: TAFE NSW at high school (TVET) - TAFE NSW. www.tafensw.edu.au. 2019-11-03.
  31. Web site: Higher School Certificate Board Developed Courses . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  32. Web site: 2023 Stage 6 VET Board Endorsed courses . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  33. Web site: Life Skills . NSW Education Standards Authority . 11 February 2024.
  34. Web site: Collaborative curriculum planning . NSW Education Standards Authority . 11 February 2024.
  35. Web site: Course options . NSW Education Standards Authority . 11 February 2024.
  36. Web site: Maths to be compulsory for students . NSW Education Standards Authority . 26 January 2024.
  37. Web site: Meacham . Savannah . Maths to become compulsory for NSW Year 11 and 12 students . 9 News . 26 January 2024.
  38. https://www.lsay.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/181510/Executive-summary.pdf Executive summary - The vocational equivalent to Year 12
  39. https://research.acer.edu.au/lsay_research/42/ Assessing the value of additional years of schooling for the non academically inclined
  40. Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs 1999, Goal 3.6
  41. Web site: Suicide & risk-taking deaths of children & young people. 2003. en. 2019-08-07.
  42. Web site: Stress is taking a disturbing toll on year 12. Should we do away with exams? . 2018. en. 2024-01-16.

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