A Statistical Analysis of the Performance of First Year Engineering Students at UNSW Canberra and the Impact of the State Where They Undertook Year 12 Study

Sep 5, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick

UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy enrolls undergraduates drawn from all Australian states and territories in line with the national population distribution. Each incoming engineering cohort completes different state-based secondary programs yet studies the same first-year engineering courses and assessments. This structure enables comparison of how secondary education systems prepare students for tertiary study. The paper analyzes first-semester outcomes in Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A for entrants from 2007 to 2014, focusing on performance differences by state of Year 12 study.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Motivation and prior work

Data set and scope

Results

Engineering Mathematics 1A

Engineering Physics 1A

A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT UNSW CANBERRA AND THE IMPACT OF THE STATE WHERE THEY UNDERTOOK YEAR 12 STUDY John F. Arnold and Leesa A. Sidhu UNSW Canberra UNSW Australia Abstract UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy is a unique institution in Australia as it attracts its undergraduate students from all Australian states and territories more or less in accord with the distribution of the Australian population. Each course at UNSW Canberra is then made up of a cohort of students who have undertaken secondary education in the different states and territories but who, at university, are undertaking the same course with the same assessment as one another. This allows some comparison to be made as to how the various state and territory secondary education systems have prepared them for their tertiary study at UNSW Canberra. In this paper we conduct a preliminary analysis of the performance of UNSW Canberra engineering students in the first year, first semester courses Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A. The results obtained thus far demonstrate that while there is little difference in performance between students from most states and territories, performance of students from one state is well below that of the others. 1. Introduction Despite its relatively small population, Australia runs seven separate education systems for its primary and secondary students within its six states and two territories. Most Australian universities draw local students primarily from the state in which they are located and so can be expected to tailor their programs to meet the knowledge base of these students. UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy draws its students from all states and territories across Australia, more or less in proportion to the distribution of the Australian population. A particular course at UNSW Canberra is therefore made up of a cohort of students who have come from most, if not all, of the states and territories. This gives a unique opportunity to analyse how well each of the secondary education systems has prepared students for tertiary study at UNSW Canberra. This is not an area that has been widely reported in the past. In 1998, Catchpole and Anderson [1] reported a comparison between the performance of New South Wales and Victorian students in first year Mathematics at UNSW Canberra and noted that students from New South Wales significantly outperformed their Victorian colleagues with the same tertiary entrance rank over the period 1995 to 1997. In their analysis of first year mathematics results at UNSW Canberra in 2006, Barry and Chapman [2] found that the student scores in a diagnostic test (which tested pre-calculus mathematics) were abetter predictor of success in first year mathematics than tertiary entrance rank alone. They also found that students having the same tertiary entrance rank scored worse in first year mathematics if they had studied intermediate rather than advanced mathematics in senior or if they had studied in Queensland rather than in another state or territory. In this paper, we consider students from all seven secondary education systems within Australia. Our analysis is based upon student results obtained in first semester first year for engineering students entering UNSW Canberra between 2007 and 2014 in the subjects Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A. Prior to analysis, the data set was carefully scrutinised to ensure that it only included students who had an ATAR and an Australian state or territory recorded as their place of residence, and who had completed Year 12 in the year immediately before beginning study at UNSW Canberra or in the previous two years, provided that they had not studied at another tertiary institution in the interim. The latter group includes all Navy students studying at UNSW Canberra who undertake a full time year of Navy tra

FAQs

What courses and student intake years does the analysis cover?

The paper analyzes first-year, first-semester Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A for engineering students entering UNSW Canberra between 2007 and 2014.

Why is UNSW Canberra considered suitable for comparing state education systems?

Students come from all Australian states and territories, forming cohorts that undertake the same university courses and assessments, enabling comparison of how different secondary systems prepared them.

What initial performance difference did the paper observe by state in Engineering Mathematics 1A?

A large number of Queensland students appear in the bottom right portion of results versus ATAR, indicating lower first-year engineering mathematics performance relative to students from other states with the same ATAR.

Sep 5, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick