Abstract
<jats:p>In 2023, a major review of Australian higher education (Australian Universities Accord) advocated sectoral equity and growth, including the expanded participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other underserved students. Central to increasing growth through equity is the secondary school pipeline, given the high proportion of commencing university students who transition directly from secondary schools. Within the school sector, an under-researched area is the practice of streaming, or tracking, whereby senior secondary students are typically divided into either vocational or higher education pathways. There are other more visible forms of streaming such as school type (e.g., public, Catholic, independent) but the division between vocational and higher education pathways is less formal and not captured well in systems data. This paper aims to examine the scale and equity implications of senior secondary streaming across multiple Australian jurisdictions, with particular attention to its relationship to higher education access. Drawing on available school and postsecondary data across multiple states and territories, we find that the practice of streaming is extensive, that groups such as Indigenous students are highly over-represented in vocational streams, and that very few students in vocational streams transition directly to higher education. The findings have implications for higher education but also for the school and vocational sectors and the future of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).</jats:p>