There have been big changes in institutional demand in 2025, in fresh data showing Victoria University the biggest winner in application growth between 2024 and 2025.
HE policy guru Andrew Norton noted the changes, after spying data quietly dropped by the Department of Education last week.
Professor Norton analysed data from the previous 2025 intake, and found that there were significant changes in application demand evident across the system, with Victoria University receiving 2,800 applications more than the previous year – will above the next biggest beneficiary of popular selection, the University of Sydney. At the other end of the scale, Charles Sturt University, ANU and Adelaide were down on previous years.
On a discipline level, all non-STEM fields attracted fewer applications in 2025 than they had in 2010, with a notable plunge in the creative arts.
Interestingly, while school leaver numbers trended upwards, “The proportion of school leavers with ATAR applications data has declined since 2021 from 95% to 87%”. The number of low-ATAR applicants has declined at the same time; indicating that secondary students who are less academically-inclined are preferencing vocational education and/or unscored year 12 options.
VU Vice-Chancellor Adam Shoemaker said the 2025 growth reported was consistent with what they had seen internally – reflecting some changing enrolment patterns.
Because VU has intakes in February and also April, they were seeing a significant increase in students who had decided other study options were not for them, and had jumped on board a Block Model degree in the April intake – which would still register as a Semester 1 enrolment as it is before the census date, Professor Shoemaker said.
The opening of VU’s vertical campus in Melbourne’s CBD and a range of other moves to continue to refine and define courses had proven a winner, with overall enrolments across the dual sector institution rising more than 20% over three years to just over 52,000 students enrolled, he said.