Andrew Suryanto (centre) and leaders of UNSW Artificial Intelligence Society Tarushi Nandwani,Rahul Markasserithodi,Jack Ma and Ishmanbir Singh.

AI smashed the job prospects of these Sydney students. This is how they’re fighting back

Millions of jobs have come under threat since the arrival of ChatGPT two years ago. These Sydney students choose to make friends with AI.

  • byDaniel Lo Surdo

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The new Wentworth Point High School on the banks of the Parramatta River.

The suburb with no houses gets a $160 million high-rise school

Nestled on a peninsula on the banks of the Parramatta River,the six-storey,vertical Wentworth Point High School is in one of the most densely populated suburbs in the country.

  • byChristopher Harris
Thousands of parents let students stay home with “unjustified” reasons for their absence.

9,729,900 days lost in one year:The shocking truth about our schools

A decline in attendance has been recorded in private,public and Catholic schools despite a post-pandemic uplift.

  • byChristopher Harris
A screenshot of a student holding their finger to their nose,appearing to imitate a Hitler moustache.

Outrage after uni finds salute,moustache gesture are not antisemitic

The ANU found there was no case to punish a student who appeared to give a Nazi salute,despite the deputy vice chancellor agreeing it happened “on a superficial level”.

  • byOlivia Ireland
Greens Leader Adam Bandt and Senator Penny Allman-Payne.

Greens pledge $800 in ‘back to school’ money for every state school student

The crossbench party launches its election year with a cost-of-living measure that would cost $10 billion to cover all school charges.

  • byOlivia Ireland
A battle is underway over the governance of Australian Catholic University

It’s Sydney and Melbourne versus Brisbane to decide the future of Australia’s Catholic Church

A wider battle over the future of the Catholic Church is fuelling conflict over the leadership and direction of an Australian university.

  • byJordan Baker
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Only one per cent of students from the top socio-educational quartile are enrolled in Sydney’s most popular selective schools.
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Has the plan to help more disadvantaged kids into selective schools failed? Here’s what the data says

One expert suggests providing free academic coaching for the selective school test,with just 1 per cent of students at some schools from a lower socio-economic background.

  • byChristopher Harris
PhD candidate Katherine Warwick.

Katherine will soon join an elite club. The price? Living on $87 a day

When Katherine hands in her PhD this year,she’s set to join an elite club of just 2 per cent of Australians. But it’s been a financial marathon to get there.

  • byChristopher Harris
The long-awaited audit did not identify any bureaucratic requirements which should be axed.

Managing medications,school refusers:Biggest drains on teachers’ time revealed

NSW Labor promised before the last state election to save five hours of teachers’ time each week. But a new audit doesn’t identify any tasks that can be cut.

  • byChristopher Harris
Mohamed El Brizy,principal of Sunnah Life Academy
Exclusive

‘Principal’ of Sydney ‘schooling centre’ still working with kids despite rape charge

Mohamed El Brizy’s continued involvement with the homeschooling academy comes amid concerns about an unregulated sector of the education system.

  • byClare Sibthorpe andDaniella White
Victorian teachers may be about to push for more pupil-free days.

Parents shell out billions as back-to-school costs increase

Rising expenses and tech demands leave families scrambling for ways to save on uniform and equipment costs ahead of the new school year.

  • byRachael Ward
INDEX IMAGE - NSW politicians tertiary education
Exclusive

Forty arts students and one engineer:What NSW politicians studied at uni

They attend university at a higher rate than their constituents,but when it comes to discipline,most MPs in the state opt for one of a small handful of subjects.

  • byCindy Yin
There has been a surge in educators being accused of serious offences,according to the teaching watchdog.

Private coaching entrenches school inequality

A reader asks when governments will lift funding to poorer schools.

Ellie Biddle,6,Kaiden Tee,7,and Alexander Tan,8,enjoy some play time at Camp Australia’s holiday program at Abbotsford Primary School.

School’s out but Kaiden’s happily on a steep learning curve

School holiday programs are in full swing as parents turn to outside help to keep their children entertained and active. Experts say there’s nothing to feel guilty about.

  • byBridie Smith andMadeleine Heffernan
Cash has its limitations.

These Sydney private schools will have funding cuts. They might not be the ones you expect

Some schools will lose more than $2000 in federal funding per student under a formula using their parents’ median incomes. See what will change by 2029.

  • byDaniella White andNigel Gladstone
Teacher misconduct
Exclusive

Fraud,poor performance and sexual misconduct:Why these school principals were sacked

New data shows 20 school leaders were dismissed for misconduct or failing improvement plans in 2023.

  • byLucy Carroll andNigel Gladstone
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Opinion

How the bank of nan and pop is making our polarised school system even worse

Cashed-up grandparents are driving private education fees ever higher. It’s just another degree of stratification for our dysfunctional school system.

  • byJordan Baker
The executive pay bill of universities has been revealed.
Exclusive

Highest university executive pay packets revealed as crackdown looms

Institutions are spending more on top management staff and almost 200 people are taking home salaries of $500,000 or more a year.

  • byDaniella White
**AFR FIRST USE** Generic gen23 exam test high school certificate education students testing hsc. Photographed at Northern Beaches Secondary College Freshwater Snr Campus in Sydney on June 20,2024. Photo:Dominic Lorrimer
Editorial

Better oversight of HSC top achievers’ private coaching needed

Sydney’s estimated multimillion-dollar private tutoring industry is continuing to grow but a lack of regulation means its impact on the education system is difficult to assess.

  • The Herald's View
Students in exam.
Exclusive

HSC coaching ‘devalues’ selective schools as one college claims quarter of top maths marks

The rise of private coaching centres risks undermining mainstream schooling and the Higher School Certificate,experts say.

  • byLucy Carroll andCindy Yin
Too many high-fee private schools are failing to deliver adequate academic results for their students.
Editorial

Sydney’s wealthiest schools growing further out of reach

The city’s middle-class families,already hit by rising costs of living,face another nasty shock as our high-fee private schools increase the costs of entry.

  • The Herald's View
Top HSC students share their university choices.

The hardest university degrees to get into,and the ones where ATARs are falling

Top HSC students share their university choices – including one for whom it’s just a back-up until he can get into an American institution.

  • byDaniella White andNicholas Osiowy
Kambala in Rose Bay is among the nation’s most expensive schools and charges in excess of $50,000 for year 9.
Exclusive

Sydney private school fees eclipse $51,000 for year 12

A survey of 30 independent schools shows fee increases of an average of 7 per cent as staffing costs skyrocket.

  • byLucy Carroll
Coalition frontbencher Sarah Henderson and an ad for migration and education agents.
Exclusive

Senior Liberal headlines event for student visa agents before tanking migration bill

Coalition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson headlined an event for migration agents and private colleges in the weeks before tanking Labor’s high-profile student caps bill.

  • byNatassia Chrysanthos andPaul Sakkal
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Opinion

Planning for schools must be front and centre of government policy

NSW has a history of inadequately planning for the state’s school infrastructure needs.

  • byThe Herald's View
How density might double:An artist’s impression of masterplans and rezonings finalised for TOD-accelerated precincts.
Exclusive

This Sydney school is full and turning students away – before 3255 new homes are built nearby

Just 10 years after a new north shore public high opened,it is over capacity.

  • byAlexandra Smith
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HSC science dux Yeshaya Ram,Chinese and French dux Thomas Collins,English ace Grace Costigan and Warren Song,first in extension 2 maths.

The HSC subjects in which more students get better marks

The HSC scaling report belies the notion that doing easier courses is the path to success. See how every course scales in our searchable list.

  • byCindy Yin
A student claims the school council has breached its duties under the terms of its charitable trust by planning to admit girls.

The boy who is suing his private school

The student alleges the school’s governing council contravened the terms of a 19th-century charitable trust by implementing its plan to admit girls.

  • byChristopher Harris
 Sienna Zhang

HSC students receive university offers:Search our database for cut-off scores

Use our interactive database to search for university and college courses throughout Australia in 2025 and their minimum entry requirements.

  • byCraig Butt,Christopher Harris andCindy Yin
Methodist Ladies’ College graduate Kate Zhang is waiting on a commerce offer.

Teens eye teaching,commerce and health in first-round university offers

A record 47,500 year 12 graduates will learn their university pathway today with the fastest growing study area management and commerce.

  • byNoel Towell
Epping Boys High students receiving their HSC results. The school was a top-performing comprehensive school in mathematics.

The state’s top schools for HSC mathematics revealed

Epping Boys High had its highest share of maths students achieving marks above 90 on record,while Abbotsleigh and Meriden were among the top private all-girls schools.

  • byLucy Carroll andNigel Gladstone
One of the animals at the Eco Hub at Corrimal High School.

‘Horrific acts of animal cruelty’:Dozens of chickens killed at NSW high school

NSW Police are investigating after 29 birds were slaughtered south of Sydney.

  • byEryk Bagshaw
St Clare’s College in Waverley achieved a higher HSC success rate than Kincoppal Rose Bay.
Exclusive

The low-fee Sydney schools that outrank expensive rivals in the HSC

Schools including St Clare’s in Waverley and Parramatta Marist High are outperforming high-fee private schools.

  • byLucy Carroll andNigel Gladstone
A proposed new rule is causing division at Sydney University

The radical proposal that could end Sydney Uni’s proud history of rebellion

A new rule to enforce a more civil discourse on campus has been backed by the university. It’s caused alarm within.

  • byDaniella White
Kambala Head of English Greta Beaumont with HSC students Evangeline Chu,Sasha Van Onselen,Ansalee Desai,Gabriella Gamerov,Jessica Allen-Waters,Stephanie Harvey-Fros and Sophie Regan.

The top schools for HSC English revealed

Eastern suburbs private girls’ school Kambala was the best school for the subject in the 2024 HSC. Here’s how they did it.

  • byChristopher Harris andNigel Gladstone
Artificial intelligence can help uni students write essays. But is that such a bad thing?
Opinion

To AI or not to AI? How chatbots can help revive the university essay

Artificial intelligence could help in writing essays,but only if we take the time to reconsider their history and real purpose.

  • byHuw Griffiths
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The Coalition has given its strongest signal yet that it will target rich city universities - such as Sydney,Melbourne,UNSW and Monash - with its own student caps.

Coalition doubles down on promise of student caps,but still doesn’t say how

The Coalition has given its strongest signal yet that it will target rich city universities such as Sydney,Melbourne,UNSW and Monash with its own student caps.

  • byNatassia Chrysanthos
Warren Song,Yu Tong Duong and Julia Zheng,from James Ruse Agricultural High School,all received 99.95 ATARs.

Meet every student who got 99.95 in this year’s HSC

One Sydney private boys school claimed one-quarter of the 51 perfect ATARs.

  • byLucy Carroll,Mary Ward andRicky Blank
Visa applications from overseas students have halved compared to July and August last year.
Exclusive

Go-slow visas to provide quick fix for ballooning international student numbers

Labor will issue a go-slow on student visa processing once universities hit a certain number to get around Peter Dutton’s decision to block its student caps bill.

  • byPaul Sakkal andNatassia Chrysanthos

The schools that surged up the HSC rankings – one by 220 places

When the new principal was appointed in early April,this Sydney high school was struggling with an urgent need to fill more than a dozen vacant teaching positions.

  • byLucy Carroll
(L-R) Yeshaya Ram,Tom Collins,Grace Costigan,and Warren Song who were First In Class in their HSC exams,revealed on Tuesday.

HSC results 2024 as it happened:NSW year 12 students receive marks,ATARs

The day has come. Join us as we celebrate the Class of 2024 as they receive their results this morning. Follow our live coverage.

  • byAnthony Segaert andAngus Thomson
Menai High school student Isaac Warwar opens his ATAR results on Wednesday 18th December,2024.
1:39

Menai High school student opens his ATAR results

Menai High school student Isaac Warwar opens his ATAR results on Wednesday 18th December,2024.

The island and North Sydney captain Minh-Tam Dinh.

Inside the island study camp where North Sydney Boys plotted their HSC success

On a warm November day last year,students took a train an hour north to the Hawkesbury River and boarded a creaky ferry to Milson Island. There,they built their ‘secret little academic weapon’.

  • byChristopher Harris andAnthony Segaert
Menai High’s Lily Thompson is delighted with her marks this morning.

‘One of the worst sleeps of my life’:Class of 2024 receive HSC results and ATARs

Lily Thompson took on some of the HSC’s most difficult subjects,and is thrilled with her band 4s and 5s,while her classmate Isaac Warwar was shocked by his ATAR.

  • byChristopher Harris
HSC 2024 top schools

North Sydney Boys goes back-to-back atop the HSC rankings

The race between North Sydney Boys and James Ruse was close,while a private school has surged into third.

  • byLucy Carroll,Nigel Gladstone,Christopher Harris,Nick Newling andAnthony Segaert
HSC Students across the state have opened their ATAR results after the UAC website crashed.
1:30

Students from NSW react to their 2024 ATAR

HSC Students across the state have opened their ATAR results after the UAC website crashed.

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HSC 2024

How your school ranked in the 2024 HSC

See the top schools and look up your school in our interactive list.

HSC 2024

The 2024 HSC honour roll:Every student with a top band listed

Search by student or school to see who received a mark above 90 per cent.

Menai High School student Lily Thompson opens her HSC results on Wednesday,December 18,2024.
1:25

Menai High School student opens her HSC results

Menai High School student Lily Thompson opens her HSC results on Wednesday,December 18,2024.

Crowds throng Adelaide’s streets during the Fringe Festival.

Adelaide,Perth blend environmental bliss with educational opportunity

Adelaide is home to three universities and great cultural attractions,while hitting the books,then beach,is easy in the WA capital.

  • byCaroline Zielinski