Can You Stop Your Name Appearing on an HSC Merit List?

Yes. You can ask the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to prevent your name from appearing on its HSC merit lists by requesting a privacy flag on your student record.

If you make the request before HSC results are released, NESA says your name will not be published in its merit lists or provided by NESA to media outlets and organisations that award prizes for HSC achievement.

If your name is already published, you can contact NESA’s Privacy team and request removal from its published list. However, this does not guarantee that your name will disappear from newspaper articles, school websites, archived pages, or other independently published copies.

The process depends on when you make the request. Here is what you need to know.

01What is an HSC merit list?

NESA publishes HSC merit lists each year to recognise students who achieve outstanding results.

There are four main merit lists:

For most HSC courses, the highest performance band is Band 6. For Extension courses, it is E4.

The published merit lists identify students by their name, school, and course. NESA also provides these lists to selected media outlets.

Importantly, appearing on a merit list is a form of public recognition. It is not the same as having your complete HSC results or ATAR published.

If you are unsure about the differences between these results, read tutorgum’s guide to HSC Marks, Performance Bands and ATAR: What Each Means.

02How to stop your name appearing before HSC results are released

The most straightforward option is to request a privacy flag from NESA.

A privacy flag tells NESA to keep your details confidential for the purposes of its merit-list publication and associated recognition programs.

According to NESA’s published instructions, you need to:

1. Email NESA Student Records at [email protected].
2. Provide your full name.
3. Provide your NESA student number.
4. Attach photo identification to verify your identity.

NESA’s 2026 Rules and Procedures guide specifies these requirements.

The 2026 guide, section 7.3: Recognising your achievement, explains how to request the flag.

When should you submit the request?

Timing is important.

NESA’s 2027 Rules and Procedures guide explicitly states that privacy flag requests should be submitted before HSC results are released.

For the 2026 HSC cohort, the published results release date is Wednesday 16 December 2026.

The 2026 guide provides the request process but does not specify a separate cut-off date on its privacy page. If you are a 2026 student who wants to avoid publication, the sensible approach is to submit your request as soon as possible and ask Student Records to confirm that the flag will be recorded before results are released.

If you are completing the 2027 HSC, follow the 2027 Rules and Procedures guide, which expressly specifies the before-results-release requirement.

Do not wait until you see your name on a merit list. By then, the information may already have been distributed.

What should your email say?

You can keep your request straightforward.

To: [email protected]

Subject: Request for HSC privacy flag – [HSC year]

Dear Student Records,

I am writing to request a privacy flag on my NESA student record.

I do not wish for my name to appear on NESA’s HSC merit lists or to be provided by NESA to media outlets or organisations for HSC achievement recognition.

My details are:

Full name: [Your full name]

NESA student number: [Your NESA student number]

I have attached photo identification to verify my identity.

Could you please confirm receipt of my request and whether the privacy flag will be active before the release of my HSC results?

Kind regards,

[Your name]

Only send your identification documents to the official NESA address. Check the current NESA instructions before submitting your request.

It is also worth keeping a copy of your email and any response from NESA. This gives you a record of when you submitted the request.

03What does a privacy flag actually prevent?

A privacy flag affects how NESA publishes and shares information for HSC achievement recognition.

NESA states that students with a privacy flag will not have their names:

• Published in NESA’s HSC merit lists.
• Provided by NESA to media outlets.
• Provided by NESA to organisations awarding prizes or other recognition for HSC achievement.

However, there is an important distinction between public recognition and the administration of your HSC results.

A privacy flag does not mean your HSC results become completely confidential or that UAC stops receiving your results.

NESA still shares relevant student information and HSC results with organisations involved in administering the education system.

For example:

• UAC: NESA provides student details and HSC results to the Universities Admissions Centre for ATAR calculations.
• Your school: Your principal and relevant school-system officials can still access your results.
• TAFE NSW: NESA also shares relevant student information with TAFE NSW.

These are separate administrative processes. A privacy flag does not prevent them.

Will you lose the opportunity to receive an HSC award?

There is one important trade-off.

NESA states that if you choose not to have your name published in a merit list, you will not be eligible to receive awards associated with that recognition.

For example, requesting a privacy flag means you cannot assume you will still be eligible for recognition awards connected to appearing on the First in Course or other HSC merit lists.

This does not automatically determine your eligibility for every unrelated scholarship or award offered by a university, school, or external organisation. Those programs have their own requirements.

If a particular award matters to you, check its conditions before requesting the privacy flag.

04What if your name is already on an HSC merit list?

You can still contact NESA.

The process is different once your name has been published.

NESA’s HSC results and privacy information specifically directs students who want to be removed from a published merit list to contact its Privacy team.

The relevant email address is:

[email protected]

In your email, explain that your name appears on a published HSC merit list and that you would like NESA to remove it.

It is helpful to include:

• Your full name.
• The year of your HSC.
• The name of the merit list.
• The course in which your name appears.
• A link to the published entry.

You should clearly ask whether NESA can remove your entry from its own website.

NESA’s published instructions provide this contact pathway, but they do not guarantee a particular removal outcome or specify a standard processing time for these requests.

What about newspaper articles and other websites?

This is where the distinction between NESA’s publication and independent copies becomes important.

Suppose your name appears on NESA’s Distinguished Achievers list. A newspaper then republishes the list in an article, and your school shares the article on its website.

You now have information appearing in three places:

1. NESA’s official merit-list webpage.
2. The newspaper’s independently published article.
3. Your school’s website or social media account.

Contacting NESA about its own webpage does not automatically remove the other two copies.

NESA provides merit lists to selected media outlets, but those outlets publish and maintain their own content. Once information has been independently republished, the publisher controls its own copy.

If you want those copies removed, you should contact the relevant publisher separately.

For example:

• For a newspaper article, contact the newspaper’s editorial or privacy team.
• For a school newsletter or website, contact the school administration.
• For another website, use its published privacy, correction, or removal contact process.

You can explain that you have requested removal from NESA’s official merit list and ask whether the publisher will also remove its copy.

However, each organisation makes its own decision under its applicable policies. You should not assume that NESA can delete material from another organisation’s website, search results, archives, or screenshots.

05Two worked examples

06Questions and solutions

Question 1

A student completing the 2026 HSC does not want their name appearing on NESA’s merit lists. Their results have not yet been released.

Which NESA team should they contact, and what information must they provide?

Solution 1

The student should contact NESA Student Records at [email protected] and request a privacy flag.

They must provide their full name, NESA student number, and photo identification.

This is the procedure specified in NESA’s 2026 Rules and Procedures guide.

The student should also ask NESA to confirm that the flag will be recorded before the release of results. For the 2026 cohort, results are scheduled for 16 December 2026.

The key distinction is that the student is requesting a privacy flag before publication, rather than asking NESA to remove an entry that already exists.

Question 2

A student has already received their HSC results, but the merit lists have not yet appeared on NESA’s website.

They email Student Records requesting a privacy flag.

Can they assume their name will be excluded from the upcoming merit lists?

Solution 2

No. They cannot assume the late request will be accepted or processed in time.

NESA’s 2027 Rules and Procedures guide explicitly states that privacy flag requests should be submitted before HSC results are released.

The 2026 guide specifies the request process but does not state a separate cut-off date on its privacy page.

The student should contact Student Records immediately, explain that results have already been released, and ask whether a privacy flag can still be applied before the merit lists are published.

The tempting assumption is that the student has until the actual publication of the merit lists. However, NESA’s published timing guidance refers to the release of results, not simply the date the lists become publicly available.

The student therefore needs confirmation from NESA rather than relying on the gap between results day and merit-list publication.

Question 3

A student discovers their name on NESA’s published Distinguished Achievers list.

The student also finds an online news article containing the same entry.

They want both removed.

What should they do?

Solution 3

They should contact NESA’s Privacy team at [email protected] and contact the news publisher separately.

The request to NESA should identify the relevant merit-list entry and ask whether it can be removed from NESA’s website.

The second request should go directly to the newspaper, identifying the article and asking about its removal.

These are separate publications controlled by different organisations.

NESA’s results page specifically invites students who want removal from a published merit list to contact its Privacy team. However, that does not establish that an independently published newspaper article will also be removed.

A successful request to one organisation does not automatically produce the same result with another.

Question 4

A student wants to request a privacy flag but also wants to receive an award associated with being named First in Course.

They also believe that applying for a privacy flag will prevent UAC from receiving their HSC results.

Are either of these assumptions correct?

Solution 4

No. The student cannot assume they will retain eligibility for an award associated with merit-list recognition, and the privacy flag will not prevent UAC from receiving their results.

NESA explicitly states that students who choose not to have their names published in merit lists are not eligible for awards associated with that recognition.

This means the student needs to consider whether the privacy benefit is more important to them than the associated public recognition and awards.

However, UAC’s role is separate.

NESA provides student details and HSC results to UAC for ATAR calculations. A privacy flag does not cancel this administrative process.

The mistake is treating a privacy flag as a complete opt-out from the HSC information system. It is specifically intended to restrict publication and sharing for achievement recognition, not to prevent the normal processing of HSC results.

Question 5

A student requested a privacy flag before their HSC results were released. NESA confirmed that the flag had been applied.

After results day, the student’s name does not appear on NESA’s official merit lists.

However, their name appears in a local newspaper article and in an online school newsletter, both of which identify their HSC achievement.

The student concludes that NESA must have ignored the privacy flag.

Is that conclusion justified? What should the student do?

Solution 5

No. The appearance of the student’s name in independently published material does not, by itself, establish that NESA ignored the privacy flag.

There are several possible sources of the information, and the student needs to distinguish between them.

Step 1: Check NESA’s official publication.

The student has already established that their name is absent from NESA’s merit lists. This is consistent with the privacy flag having been applied.

Step 2: Establish where the other publications obtained their information.

The newspaper and school newsletter may have obtained the information from different sources.

For example, the school may have independently chosen to recognise the student’s achievement. The newspaper may have obtained information from another source or from material published before the privacy arrangements were finalised.

The presence of the name does not establish which explanation is correct.

Step 3: Ask NESA to investigate the information-sharing question.

The student can contact NESA’s Privacy team and ask whether their details were supplied by NESA to the relevant media organisation or award provider despite the confirmed privacy flag.

This is different from simply asking for removal. It asks NESA to clarify how the information was disclosed.

Step 4: Contact each independent publisher.

The student should separately contact the newspaper and school, asking for their respective entries to be removed.

Step 5: Keep the two issues separate.

If NESA confirms that it correctly applied the privacy flag and did not provide the information to the publishers, that does not automatically require those publishers to remove their own material.

Equally, if NESA identifies an error in how the information was shared, that is a separate matter for NESA to investigate.

The important reasoning is that the same information can appear in several places without every publisher obtaining it from the same source.

A privacy flag controls the information NESA publishes and shares for the specified recognition purposes. It does not create a universal deletion mechanism for every organisation that independently publishes a student’s achievement.

07What should you do next?

If you want to prevent your name appearing on an HSC merit list, the best approach is to contact NESA Student Records before your results are released and request a privacy flag.

If your name is already published, contact NESA’s Privacy team and request removal from its official merit list. If other organisations have independently republished your details, contact them separately.

For the latest requirements, check the official NESA HSC merit lists page, the 2026 Rules and Procedures guide, or the 2027 Rules and Procedures guide, depending on your cohort.

You can also find NESA’s contact details and broader privacy information on its Privacy at NESA page.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to understanding the difference between having your HSC achievement recognised publicly and having your results processed for official purposes. A privacy flag can help with the first, but it does not remove the second.