A growing number of universities are instead selecting their students based on interviews, portfolio work, special consideration and their performance in exams.

"We really are in a post-ATAR stage," said Swinburne University of Technology vice-chancellor Linda Kristjanson, who is also chair of the Victorian Vice-Chancellors Committee.

"The ATAR is a very blunt and imperfect instrument."

It comes as recent data released by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre showed that only one in four Victorian university courses published a clearly-in ATAR this year.

Professor Kristjanson said Victorian universities were very experienced at selecting students based on their academic potential, rather than their VCE ranking.

She said ATARs emerged at a time when universities were very different places, and only accessed by 10 per cent of the population.

"ATARs were used as a tool to ration limited places for an elite group of society. Now we expect most kids to go to university. When we look towards a future where we want more students to have access to university, the ATAR system is no longer relevant."

Professor Kristjanson has requested a meeting with Education Minister James Merlino to discuss a proposal he is considering to source future teachers from the top 30 per cent of school leavers.

The average ATAR of students embarking on Victorian teaching courses dropped to 57.35 this year, down from 63.4 in 2013.

Professor Kristjanson said a student's ATAR was strongly related to their socioeconomic status, and this could mean poor kids missed out.

"Any barriers to entry created by an arbitrary ATAR, may therefore have undue consequences on regional communities and the viability of those communities."

Her views are shared by La Trobe University vice-chancellor John Dewar, who said teacher training courses were already highly-regulated.

"I think universities should be judged on the quality of what they produce rather than what they take in."

He said minimum academic standards for teaching students would lead to a teacher workforce that lacked diversity.

"We have become obsessed with ATAR ... I'm very sceptical that simply increasing entry requirements to a level that would exclude a lot of students is going to make a long-term difference."

This year, La Trobe made offers to 1683 students through its Aspire program, an early admissions scheme that is open to domestic Year 12 students who volunteer in their community. The popular program has doubled in size since it started last year, with students receiving offers well before their ATARs are released.

Aspire students achieve very similar, if not better marks to their classmates, who are accepted into university based on their ATARs.

A spokesman for Mr Merlino said the government was engaging with the sector, including Vice-Chancellors of Victorian universities, regarding teacher education.

"The Andrews Labor government is considering a number of options that would improve the quality of teaching in both our existing workforce and our graduate teachers."

Last month, Victoria University vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins declared that clearly-in ATARs were "a meaningless piece of information".

"There is strong evidence showing that students entering suitable degrees with lower ATARs are able to match or even exceed the performance of their more highly ranked peers."