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UNSW has long acknowledged that entrenched socio-economic inequality unfairly impacts access to university and career opportunities for young people from historically underrepresented backgrounds in higher education.

UNSW’s 2025 Strategy initially set a target for 15% of the undergraduate cohort to be from a low-socioeconomic background. By 2022, accelerated progress towards this target provided the foundation for a more ambitious commitment.

The Gateway Equity Target recognises that educational opportunities are heavily linked to socio-educational (school) advantage and socio-economic (home) status, with the two often interrelated.

The Gateway Equity Target explicitly measures students enrolling at UNSW who are from a low-SES background and or Gateway school. However, by including Gateway schools in the target, UNSW will support students from other equity groups who attend these schools at higher rates. These include students from Regional and Remote areas, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Migrant and Refugee (CALDMR) communities, and students who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.Ìý

UNSW has a 2025 access target for students from Low SES backgrounds (15%), Regional and Remote areas (8%) and Indigenous students (1.6%).

It is well-researched that a significant structural barrier to higher education is the ATAR, and evidence suggests that academic performance levels out across equity groups once students are at university.

In 2021, students who enrolled via the Gateway Admission Pathway performed similarly to the broader domestic undergraduate cohort in their first-year cumulative weighted average mark (WAM). They also collectively passed 93% of all subjects they undertook, the same rate as 2021’s broader domestic undergraduate cohort. This data demonstrates that, despite entering University with an adjusted ATAR requirement, students who have entered via the Gateway Admission Pathway have succeeded academically once at university.

A reinvigorated commitment to widening participation in higher education and access to UNSW necessitates a holistic plan of support across the student lifecycle. We will take an incremental and phased approach to ensure incoming students have a positive student experience that considers their specific requirements, and that academic and professional staff receive the appropriate support and resources required to develop and advance the below key components that will lead us to reach the Target.