These case studies illustrate the kind of circumstances QTAC’s assessors often consider in the five categories of the Educational Access Scheme.
Read the case studies for the category or categories you are applying in. This will help you understand what supporting documents you need to supply and how to write your application. You can download example supporting documents for each case study.
Remember, the information you supply in your EAS application is strictly confidential. We never share it with anyone under any circumstances.
These individuals are fictional, but their situations are similar to hundreds of real cases our team has read over the years.
Current Year 12s
Lisa's Story (Home Environment & Responsibilities + Financial Hardship)
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Across year twelve, Lisa’s grades declined. Worried about her Mum’s health and worn out from so much paid work outside school hours, she struggled to concentrate in class and had little time for homework. When she received her final results, she knew they were well below what she was capable of.
EAS Categories
- Home Environment and Responsibilities (caring for a seriously ill family member)
- Financial Hardship (21 or younger dependent on parent)
Supporting Documents
- Home Environment coversheet including personal statement
- Support letter from doctor
- Financial Hardship coversheet
- Mother’s most recent Income Statement from Centrelink
Background
Lisa is the oldest of three siblings in a single parent family. As she was about to finish year eleven at a high school on Brisbane’s southside, her Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and was laid off from her casual job when she asked to reduce her hours. Already working part-time at Woollies to help support the family, Lisa took a second job as a swimming coach.
Across year twelve, Lisa’s grades declined. Worried about her Mum’s health and worn out from so much paid work outside school hours, she struggled to concentrate in class and had little time for homework. When she received her final results, she knew they were well below what she was capable of.
Application
After a gap year working full-time and helping her Mum recover, Lisa applied for a Bachelor of Education at a university in Brisbane. Her selection rank, based on her disappointing high school grades, was just below the threshold for entry to her preferred course and institution. But Lisa also applied for QTAC’s Educational Access Scheme.
In the Home Environment and Responsibilities category, she supplied a completed coversheet with a personal statement describing how caring for her Mum had impacted her year twelve studies, and a support letter from the family doctor confirming her Mum’s diagnosis.
In the Financial Hardship category, she was assessed based on her Mum’s income – even though she was working – because she was still under 22 and living at home. She provided a completed coversheet and a recent Income Statement from Centrelink showing her Mum was receiving the maximum rate of JobSeeker Payment.
Outcome
Lisa received an educational adjustment to her selection rank based on her EAS application. The adjustment was sufficient to secure her a place in her first preference course. She became the first in her family to attend university and she’s now well on the way to becoming a primary school teacher. She’s encouraging her younger brother and sister to pursue university study, too.
Rodney's Story (School Environment)
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Most days, by the time he got back to the farm, he was too weary to give his homework the attention it deserved. Even in the holidays, it was hard to catch up; there was always a fence or a water tower to be mended or a sick heifer to take care of. And what was the deal with having four different maths teachers during years eleven and twelve? Did that happen to kids in the city?
EAS Category:
- School Environment (Regional or Remote Schooling, Excessive Travel Time, and Frequent Teacher Changes)
Supporting Documents:
- School environment coversheet including personal statement
- School Statement
Background
Throughout high school, Rodney lived on his parents’ cattle farm about eighty kilometres south-west of Longreach in central Queensland. The drive to school in town took his Mum two and half hours as a roundtrip. But in year twelve, when Rodney got his full licence, he discovered a short cut that could bring it down to two hours and ten.
He loved his new freedom. It never occurred to him all the driving might be detracting from his studies until his new maths teachers – a young city guy fresh out of teacher’s college – asked if he’d ever consider moving into town.
While Rodney was swerving potholes and blaring the radio on his way home every afternoon, the teacher pointed out, his friends in town were already studying. As for the city kids the maths teacher had met during his recent placement in Brisbane, they had access to private tutors, heaps of choices of extracurricular sport and music activities, and dozens of museums and art galleries to visit on excursions and weekends.
Rodney said he could never leave Mum and Dad alone with all the farm work. But the teacher’s comments got him thinking.
Most days, by the time he got back to the farm, he was too weary to give his homework the attention it deserved. Even in the holidays, it was hard to catch up; there was always a fence or a water tower to be mended or a sick heifer to take care of. And what was the deal with having four different maths teachers during years eleven and twelve? Did that happen to kids in the city?
Now that he thought of it, his maths grade had slipped from a solid A to a mediocre B across senior. That was bad news if he was going to get into engineering like he planned.
Application
Rodney applied for an educational adjustment in the School Environment category. He supplied a completed coversheet with a personal statement that described how his long daily commute impacted his senior studies and listed all the teachers changes he’d experienced during senior maths.
He also asked his supportive maths teacher to complete a school statement on his behalf, confirming the circumstances.
Outcome
The EAS assessor checked Rodney’s senior schooling was done in a regional or remote area (RA3 to RA5) by looking up the school address online using the Australian Statistical Geographical Classification. Rodney was eligible for an initial adjustment based on the well-established disadvantage of attending a high school in remote Australia.
The assessor also confirmed the distance from Rodney’s home address to school and made an estimate of his daily travel time, which matched the personal statement. They judged Rodney to have experienced greater disadvantage than peers who did not have to commute. A second small adjustment was applied to Rodney’s selection rank.
Finally, the assessor read the school statement completed by Rodney’s teacher, who was able to verify Rodney had experienced three teacher changes (four teachers in total) across years eleven and twelve, with a measurable negative impact on his subject result.
A third small adjustment was applied, putting Rodney within striking distance of the selection rank he needed for a Bachelor of Engineering.
Lin's Story (Personal Illness & Disability)
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Unfortunately, though she was in regular treatment – a weekly three-hour specialist appointment for a blood infusion – her condition deteriorated across her last two years of high school. When she wasn’t skipping class to go to the clinic, she was off sick. All up, she missed more than a month in year eleven and nearly three months in year twelve.
EAS Category:
- Personal Illness or Disability
Supporting Documents:
- Personal Illness coversheet including personal statement
- School Statement
- Patient Statement
Background
Lin lived with chronic illness through her senior studies. A problem with her immune system meant she was prone to frequent, severe infections of the sinuses and lungs.
This had caused permanent lung damage, so flare ups could be really scary. She sometimes had trouble breathing because mucus had blocked her airways. When this happened, she needed urgent medical help.
Unfortunately, though she was in regular treatment – a weekly three-hour specialist appointment for a blood infusion – her condition deteriorated across her last two years of high school. When she wasn’t skipping class to go to the clinic, she was off sick. All up, she missed more than a month in year eleven and nearly three months in year twelve.
Lin’s school was supportive, offering exemptions from some assessment items and extensions on others. But she still found it hard to keep up. Between the pressure of year twelve and managing her health, she had little time or energy for anything else.
Exhausted, she stopped seeing friends on weekends and dropped out of her once-beloved yoga classes, so she could devote more time to study. Late in the year, her doctor referred her to a psychologist, who diagnosed Lin with moderate anxiety and depression. Soon, she was in treatment for her mental as well as her physical health.
Application
To support her application in the Personal Illness or Disability category, Lin supplied a coversheet, a school statement, and a patient statement.
In the personal statement section of the coversheet, she described in her own words the way illness had affected her senior studies.
The school statement, completed by a guidance officer, confirmed the school was aware of both her physical and mental health struggles. It also verified the number of days of senior schooling she had missed due to illness and the amount of help the school had been able to offer her.
Most important was the patient statement, completed by the family doctor who had been managing her treatment. The doctor corroborated Lin’s diagnosis and treatment plan for both her immunodeficiency and her depression. In the patient statement, the doctor explained the main symptoms in a simple way that QTAC’s EAS assessors, who were not medical experts, could understand. It was the opinion of the doctor that illness had severely impacted Lin’s grades in years eleven and twelve.
Outcome
Remarkably, Lin still achieved solid year twelve results, despite all the hardship she had faced. However, her selection rank was well below what she needed to get into a highly competitive Bachelor of Nursing at her first-choice institution.
With some guidance from QTAC’s contact centre, Lin made smart choices about her preferences. She listed nursing at another slightly less competitive institution as her second preference. Though still below the cut off, she was now within a few ranks. Once the EAS assessor applied an educational adjustment, Lin received an offer for her second preference course.
Berhan's Story (English Language Difficulty + School Environment)
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Berhan’s teachers were amazed by his effort and the progress of his English across years 11 and 12. They told him he should be proud just to have gained an ATAR. But they didn’t know what he could have achieved if he hadn’t missed so much schooling, or if he’d been studying in his own language. Once he got to university, he’d show them what he could really do.
EAS Categories:
- English Language Difficulty
- School Environment (limited access to schooling as a refugee or asylum seeker)
Supporting Documents:
- English Language Difficulty Coversheet including personal statement
- School Statement for English Language Difficulty
- School Environment coversheet including personal statement
- School Statement for School Environment
Background
Berhan was born in Eritrea in East Africa. He grew up speaking three languages: Tigrinya, Arabic, and a little English – never realising how important the third of these would become in his life.
When he was twelve, his parents encouraged him to flee the country with his older brother Jemal who, like many young Eritrean men, was facing indefinite military conscription. In neighbouring Sudan, the brothers lived in a refugee camp for four years – with limited access to formal schooling – until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees approved their application for asylum.
At 16 and 20, Berhan and Jemal were accepted for resettlement in Australia. They chose Brisbane because their aunt’s family had settled there a few years earlier and had set up a successful Eritrean restaurant. Berhan immediately enrolled in an intensive English course at a specialist local high school.
Six months later, he began year eleven at a mainstream Australian high school. While his brother studied English at TAFE and drove taxis by night, Berhan took five subjects in English, determined to qualify for university admission. He pinned a photograph of his mother and father over the desk where he studied long into the evenings. A teacher and civil servant, they had always held high hopes for their academically gifted younger son.
But Berhan found study in English challenging. His Australian teachers mumbled and used strange slang, making spoken information difficult for him to follow. Even simple questions were hard for him to formulate. And exams were stressful because written text took him far longer to process than it did for Australian students.
Berhan’s teachers were amazed by his effort and the progress of his English across years eleven and twelve. They told him he should be proud just to have gained an ATAR. But they didn’t know what he could have achieved if he hadn’t missed so much schooling, or if he’d been studying in his own language. Once he got to university, he’d show them what he could really do.
Application
Berhan was interested in international and human rights law. With the help of his school guidance officer, he applied for a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts at four different south east Queensland universities, listing his preferences in order from the most to the least competitive.
In the English Language Difficulty category, Berhan supplied a completed coversheet that included the exact date he arrived in Australia. His personal statement described the impact of his limited prior exposure to English on his senior studies. Berhan’s English teacher completed a school statement saying she believed language difficulties had prevented him from achieving results that reflected his true academic ability.
In the School Environment category, Berhan wrote a separate personal statement. Here, he estimated that he had missed about four years of schooling while living in the refugee camp awaiting a decision on his asylum claim. Classes at the camp were conducted by a handful of hard-working but unqualified teachers with limited resources and no curriculum.
The school guidance counsellor supplied a school statement. She said Berhan’s account was credible and consistent with what he had told her in their meetings across year 12.
Outcome
The EAS assessor applied a small educational adjustment in both the categories in which Berhan applied. Even in combination, the adjustment was insufficient to get him an offer at his highly competitive first and second preference institutions.
But Berhan did receive and accept an offer to enrol at his third preference university, where he went on to win a Dean’s medal for the best first year law student. He plans to specialise in immigration law and to become an advocate for other asylum seekers.
Non-Year 12s
Raquel's Story (Home Environment & Responsibilities)
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Raquel never forgot the help she received from social workers when she first fled her abusive long-term relationship. Entering her thirties, with her own life at last under control, she decided she’d like to help others in the same way.
EAS Categories
- Home Environment and Responsibilities (family conflict, legal separation, domestic abuse)
Supporting Documents
- Home Environment and Responsibilities coversheet including personal statement
- Protection order
- Support letter from a social worker
Background
Raquel, 31, applied for a Bachelor of Social Work at a regional Queensland university having not studied for many years. Parental substance abuse and domestic violence had led her to leave the family home at fifteen, abandon her high school studies without a senior certificate, and take a casual job as a hardware assistant.
After couch surfing with friends for a few months, she moved in with her new boyfriend, who was several years older than her and was close to completing his plumber’s apprenticeship. The young couple soon fell pregnant with a baby girl.
Raquel stopped work when baby Tamara was born. Over the next eight years, her partner developed a drinking problem and gradually came to exercise total control over the household. He prevented Raquel from earning her own money or seeing her old school and work friends, restricted her movement outside of their home, and sometimes backed up his threats with physical violence. After one particularly frightening incident, Raquel realised she had to leave to protect her daughter.
She and Tamara fled to a larger regional Queensland city where they were homeless for several months until they found a place in a refuge. Support staff helped her find public housing, enrol Tamara in school, and eventually gain part-time work as a medical receptionist. But it took many more years for her to secure custody of her daughter and establish financial independence from her ex-partner. Only then did she feel ready to return to study.
Raquel never forgot the help she received from social workers when she first fled her abusive long-term relationship. Entering her thirties, with her own life at last under control, she decided she’d like to help others in the same way.
Application
Raquel applied for EAS in the Home Environment category as part of her QTAC application. She wrote a long personal statement describing all of the hardships she had experienced as a teenager and young adult. As evidence, she supplied a protection order against her ex-partner and a support letter from a social worker who was aware of her background.
However, Raquel was unable to list any completed qualifications in her application. Her incomplete secondary studies did not give her a selection rank and she had no post-secondary study. Unfortunately, since she had no selection rank, an educational adjustment was not the way for her to access tertiary study.
Outcome
Upon reading Raquel’s documents, the EAS assessor recognised she had experienced profound educational disadvantage across her whole life. The assessor arranged for Raquel to receive a Pathways phone call.
Based on the advice she received, Raquel changed her preferences to include a Tertiary Preparation Program. No selection rank was required for entry and all course fees were covered by the Commonwealth government.
She was disappointed not to gain direct access to her first-choice course but recognised she would be much better prepared for university after a year of preparatory study.
Tom's Story (Personal Illness or Disability + Home Environment & Responsibilities)
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Tom battled depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for four years during the drawn-out divorce proceedings. Slowly, through connecting with support services and veterans’ groups, his mental health improved. He returned to part-time work and met a new partner. Aged 33, he finally felt ready to study again.
EAS Categories
Personal Illness or Disability, Home Environment and Responsibilities
Background
Tom joined the Australian Defence Force immediately after completing his Queensland year twelve studies. He served in the army for nine years with multiple deployments in Afghanistan in high-risk combat roles.
By age 28, his body was showing signs of wear. Chronic back pain and a recurrent left knee injury had begun to reduce his mobility, and his hearing was impacted by severe tinnitus. For years, Tom’s wife had been urging him to request a discharge so he could spend more time with their two young children. But it was not until his doctor said he had a traumatic brain injury from repeated exposure to bomb blasts that he finally agreed to return to civilian life in Townsville.
Tom had tertiary selection ranks for both his secondary schooling and military service. He readily gained admission to a Bachelor of Business at his nearest university. But returning to study proved tougher than expected. His impaired memory and concentration frustrated him, and assessment deadlines made him anxious. At home, uncontrolled bursts of anger put strain on his marriage.
In his first semester, Tom managed a bare overall pass, but later in the year, when he missed multiple assignment submissions, stress overwhelmed him. Tom disappeared on a solo fishing and camping trip for more than a month without formally withdrawing from university. He ended up with a year of failing tertiary study on his academic record. Little more than a year after he left the army, his wife announced she would be moving out of the family home.
Tom battled depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for four years during the drawn-out divorce proceedings. Slowly, through connecting with support services and veterans’ groups, his mental health improved. He returned to part-time work and met a new partner. Aged 33, he finally felt ready to study again.
Application
Tom’s recent experience mentoring younger veterans from his support group had given him an interest in studying psychology. But he was nervous his past failing study would stop him receiving an offer. When his target university told him they could not ignore the failing grades on his record, he contacted QTAC for information about EAS.
In the Personal Illness or Disability category, Tom supplied a cover sheet with a personal statement. The statement listed his various physical injuries and mental health conditions and described their impact on his last attempt at study.
He also supplied a patient statement, completed by his general practitioner, which specifically confirmed each of the diagnoses. QTAC advised Tom that this recent doctor’s summary was all they needed; there was no need for him to supply years of past medical records.
In the Home Environment and Responsibilities category, Tom provided a separate cover sheet and personal statement, which described how separation and divorce had impacted his last attempted study. As evidence, he supplied the final divorce order. Since this was dated four years after his failing bachelor study, Tom also sent QTAC correspondence between his lawyer and his wife’s lawyer, which proved that the process of legal separation had begun during the impacted study.
Outcome
Together, EAS adjustments in the two categories Tom applied in helped him gain admission to a Bachelor of Psychology at his preferred institution.
On his second attempt at bachelor study, Tom actively sought out university support services. Based on his diagnosed conditions, he was put on an access plan, ensuring his learning needs were communicated to his lecturers and allowing him flexible assessment deadlines.
Now nearing the end of his degree, he is working as a research assistant to an academic who investigates returned soldiers’ experiences transitioning to civilian life.