Writing in the University News, Professor Brown says Sydney students excel at sport, debating, theatre and community service - activities that are "fundamentally important to the student experience".

He writes: "A wise scholar once warned high achievers that the great danger was that they might go through university and only achieve a first class honours degree. I agree."

He also points out that UAI scores are not the only criterion for comparing potential students: "We accept a higher proportion of school leavers than other universities because we know that quantitative measures from school do not tell the full story of potential," he writes.

"This means that our UAI cut-offs are lower and more achievable than would otherwise be the case."

By University of Sydney