Research by the University of New Sales Wales indicates first-year university students from Queensland lag well behind those from other states on maths and physics.

Researchers John Arnold and Leesa Sidhu looked at engineering students at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra from 2007 to 2014.

“Performance of students from Queensland is significantly lower compared to other students across courses in Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A,” Professor Arnold told the ABC.

“We acknowledge that Queensland students may be learning important skills that are not being assessed in Engineering Mathematics 1A and Engineering Physics 1A.

“However, the content covered and the assessment methods in our courses are similar to those of many other Go8 [Group of Eight] universities and our Engineering degree program has been accredited by Engineers Australia.”

The study of 812 students included 286 from Queensland, and when the Queenslanders were excluded, differences between the states and territories disappeared.

The researcher say there is no reason that the academic abilities of Queensland students should be any different, and more studies on factors including age and education systems are needed.

The report comes just days after Queensland Education Minister Kate Jones announced senior students would be subjected to a new assessment and tertiary entrance system from 2018.

It will see the state scrap its Overall Position (OP) score - where students are given ranks from 25 to 1 on a bell curve - and bring in the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), in line with the other jurisdictions.

The move will see Queensland replace some of its school-based assessment with external exams.