Students obtaining Australia Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) scores as low as 30 are being admitted into NSW universities to study some of the best tertiary degrees in the state.

An exclusive Fairfax Media investigation revealed that some students were being placed into degrees such as business, teaching and engineering, with marks of up to 40 points below the cut-off levels.

The revelations were found within the 2016 admissions figures from the University of Sydney, UNSW, Macquarie University and Western Sydney University.

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An ATAR is obtained by year 12 students after they complete their final studies.

There are more than 50,000 NSW students that graduate from high school each year.

Universities establish an ATAR cut-off they believe to be the minimum academic standard required for a specific course. The supply and demand for a degree can influence these figures.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said that reputations were on the line and there should be no excuse for these actions by the universities.

“I’m annoyed that universities are taking students with such low marks out of self-respect for their own university,” Mr Piccoli said.

“For universities that are concerned about their rankings internationally to be taking in students with such low ATARs is not a good look. I know they have funding pressures, but that is no excuse.”

All four universities did not to comment on individual student applications.

A UNSW spokeswoman told Fairfax Media that students were “validly admitted through alternative entry schemes” and said the current ATAR rankings was “far from perfect measure of academic potential”.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the University of Sydney said that some of its students were admitted though its Indigenous opportunity program.

The WSU and Macquarie said the data took into account students that were disadvantaged.