A new paper looking at Victorian universities confirms that we have a multi-tiered higher education system dominated by large, well-resourced institutions.
Frank Larkins has run the ruler over the financial activities, enrolments and staffing of eight Victorian universities, using data available up to 2025, with some fascinating results, published here.
The surprise is not that the Victorian market is dominated by Monash and Melbourne, but the breadth of their domination, and the size of the gap between them and the smallest universities – in particular Federation, Victoria and La Trobe.
The big two represent 55% of all income received by Victorian universities in 2025, compared to VU’s 5% and Federation’s 2%.
Monash enrolled 21% of students in 2024 (93,159) RMIT 18% (75,976) and Melbourne 17% (75,5130 while Federation represented 2%, VU 8% and La Trobe 9%. Furthermore, while Monash and Melbourne grew by 33% and 28% respectively between 2015 and 2024, Federation went backwards, while La Trobe and Deakin both reported a decline in domestic coursework enrolments over the decade.
Melbourne increased its staffing numbers by almost double the rate of its student growth – with staff growing by more than 50% between 2015 and 2024, to represent 30% of all Victorian university staff. Across the State, academic staff numbers increased by 37% and non-academic staff by 27%.
On a revenue level, there were significant differences in total revenue (Monash $3.96b revenue vs Federation $330m), but a different story in terms of net result as a percentage of total income, with VU leading the pack, posting a 16.2% return, compared to 0.6% return at Melbourne and -9.9% at Federation U.
This is a very interesting comparison of the differing scale and fortunes of universities within just one State. While Education Minister Jason Clare has been clear that he wanted to see differentiation across the sector in terms of specialisations and different education models, it is clear that the sector is also differentiated in other ways.