This report covers the activities of the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre for the period 1 July 1998 to 30 June, 1999.
A considerable amount of time has been given to Y2K issues, in particular, testing schema and development of contingency arrangements. The advice of an expert institutional committee, drawn from both university and TAFE sectors, has been instrumental in moving VTAC toward Y2K readiness. To date, two progress reports have been received detailing satisfactory testing of hardware and software.
Given the specific exposure of the selection system to possible Y2K problems in that the network will be used to transfer and access institutional applicant files over the New Year period, a contingency plan has been developed to preserve continuity of the selection process.
This plan dovetails with the overall Disaster Recovery Plan covering damage to or failure of VTAC's computing infrastructure.
This year also saw the development for the first time of a formal three-year strategic plan for VTAC with annual objectives and targets covering the various areas of VTAC's operations. This greater focus on strategy and planning complements the orientation toward customer service arising from the review of operations last year. Monitoring of performance against plan has become a regular component of the Management Committee agenda.
A review of VTAC's committee structure was completed during the year. One aim of the review has been to facilitate arrangements to improve the strategic focus and process of the committee structure. The review also concluded that there was no need to substitute an incorporated model of governance, and that the existing structure facilitated an adequate representation of both university and TAFE sectors.
The distribution of the VTAC Guide through newsagents throughout Australia was an outstanding success in terms of increasing access to and enhancing the status of the selection system.
The 1999 selection and admission round was accompanied by further developments in the provision of electronic acccess for both applicants and participating institutions. The first year of web based applications proved a success. These will be enhanced in subsequent years by arrangements agreed with the Board of Studies for greater coordination of the release of VCE results and tertiary entrance ranks.
As was the case last year VTAC welcomed several new institutions to the system.
It is with pleasure that I present this report of the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre.
Ian Marshman
Chair, Management Committee