We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Parents and alumni at some of Sydney’s top private schools have increased their donations for student scholarships as institutions try to boost means-tested places and compete for high achievers.
A Herald analysis of financial reports from more than 20 schools shows scholarship and bursary budgets have grown to a total value of more than $200 million, rising almost 20 per cent over the past five years.
Newington College has increased its scholarship fund to almost $80 million under the school’s plan to offer 100 means-tested places by 2040.
Newington College has planned to increase means-tested bursaries to 100.Credit: Steven Siewert
Some of Sydney’s wealthiest schools have long harnessed the power of alumni and parents to support scholarship endowment funds. However, not all schools disclose places given or the value of scholarship funds. Scholarships are competitive and merit based, often for academics or music, while bursaries are means-tested and use a range of selection criteria.
Former school principal Paul Kidson said that as school fees rose it was “not unexpected that more families are looking for financial support” and more children sat scholarship tests.
There is no collection of centralised data on the number of school students receiving bursaries or scholarships, the total value of fee help or the average amount of the awards. In Britain, independent school sector bursaries have been tracked since 2000.
Shore School is planning for all music scholarships to be means-tested by 2025, while the selective St Aloysius College offers bursaries based on financial need alone.
About 80 students at Shore are on scholarships or bursaries, up from 49 in 2018. Shore principal John Collier said the program “gives a pathway for students whose parents wouldn’t normally be able to send their sons to the school. If we give [fee help] to those who don’t need it, we are defeating the purpose of the program.”
Shore, which has about $20 million in its scholarship fund, said it followed the historic position of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools, or GPS, and didn’t offer sports scholarships.
Another all-boys school, St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill, has increased its scholarship fund by 19 per cent to $9.1 million over the past five years.
Shore principal John Collier says the school will move all scholarships to be means-tested by 2025.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Headmaster Michael Blake said more families were “seeking additional means to support their son’s enrolment at the college given … the cost of living and the decrease in government funding to non-public schools. We expect it to continue trending in this direction.”
The school’s foundation chair, funds manager Sam Hallinan, wrote in a report to parents and alumni that the foundation contributed $1.3 million towards 105 students last year, including 29 Indigenous students and 50 from rural NSW.
SCEGGS Darlinghurst, which had about $13 million in its scholarship fund last year, has about 50 students on means-tested scholarships. Principal Jenny Allum said it planned to eventually lift that cohort to 10 per cent of enrolled pupils.
Test provider Academic Assessment Services, which runs scholarship testing for 60 NSW schools, said applications had grown by 35 per cent since 2019. Some schools assess applicants two years in advance, amid increasing competition between private and selective schools for the top students.
About 14,500 students sat the AAS scholarship tests this year. An AAS spokesperson said rising interest was due to “cost of living and the diverse array of scholarship opportunities available”.
St Joseph’s College Foundation contributed $1.3 million to support 105 students at the school last year.Credit: Nikki Short
Music teacher Jennifer Barrett said independent school music scholarships could be fiercely competitive.
“It is very difficult for those who play instruments like the clarinet or saxophone, but schools can lower the grading for more unusual instruments, like the French horn, oboe or trombone. But once you are on a scholarship, they expect you to excel at music all the way through,” she said.
“The issue is [that] most public primary students don’t have access to specialist music tuition, and their parents can’t afford classes. So the process excludes kids from accessing scholarships.”
Newington College, which announced last year that it would transition to co-education in 2026, said more than $1 million was given by the foundation to the school for scholarships last year. The co-ed move sparked an outcry from parents and old boys and prompted donors to withdraw bequests.
The college has about $79 million in its scholarship fund as part of its foundation, which was set up separately from the school in 2021.
University of Sydney education researcher Helen Proctor said many alumni from high-fee schools wanted to support wider access to more students, but the “schools are still carefully selecting those they do enrol”.
“They can be half or partial scholarships, which means the family needs to pay the balance, and are conditional upon continued performance,” she said.
Independent Schools Australia chief executive Graham Catt said donors were increasingly “conscious of the challenges in equity in education and want to ensure donations achieve outcomes for those who are most in need”.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Copyright © 2024
