A record enrolment of 1.68 million higher education students at Australian institutions in 2024 is attended by a range of issues, including plummeting male participation, persistent strength in international student participation and a proportional decrease in mature age students.
Federal Government data released on Friday reveals there was a 4.3% increase in domestic commencements, to 413,133, although undergraduate commencements are growing at a slower rate and remain more than 5,000 FTE below pre-pandemic levels.
Government funding for enabling courses appears to have had an impact, with 14.6% growth in domestic enabling commencements to 16,718 in 2024.
Male decline continues
The number of female domestic commencing students has risent 7.3% between 2015 and 2024, while male commencements have declined 5.9%, with females now representing 62% of the commencing domestic cohort.
There is no clear policy to address the decline in male participation, in a significant, growing representation issue.
The proportion of school leavers in undergraduate commencements rose sharply by 5% to 48% over the three years to 2024, driven by a decline in mature age commencements.
Mature age plummets
Mature age commencements have almost halved between 2018 and 2024, from 61,771 in 2018, representing 21.8% of starting students, to just 32,320 in 2024 – representing just 12% of the commencing cohort.
In contrast, study remains a popular option for school leavers with 39% of 18 year-olds and 40% of 19 year-olds enrolled in an undergraduate program.
Discipline winners
There were a range of interesting changes in demand by field in the 10 years to 2024. IT was the big winner with a 91% jump in demand, up to 21,983 enrolments in 2024 (although this was only 64 students more than 2023, so further work is required to understand if growth has plateaued). Initial Teacher Education enrolments dropped 13.9% over the decade, while nursing grew 7.4%.
Agriculture, while critical to the economy, still attracts only 5102 new enrolments, while society and culture degrees attract almost 99,000 commencements, despite the Job Ready Graduates fee penalty for doing so.
Improved equity outcomes
Commencing students from under-represented cohorts have also risen over the past year, with a sharp rise in students with disabilities by almost 5,000 to 47,458. The largest proportion of students with disabilities are those with diagnosed mental health issues.
Indigenous enrolments increased 6.9% to 10,840 in 2024, but still represents just 2.6^ of the Indigenous population – indicating Closing the Gap measures are having little impact in higher education.
The attrition rate fell to 12.2% – the lowest level in a decade. This represents a sharp drop from 14.7% attrition the previous year. The Department suggested that availability of alternate pathways, changes in demographics and targeted measures to reduce attrition could be responsible.
Overall institutional impact
Andrew Norton noted that international enrolments exceeded 30% of onshore enrolments in 2024, up from around 22% a decade ago. International students now represent 35% of all enrolments in Australia, an increase of around 10% since 2015.
There has also been a significant change in domestic enrolments over the past year, with Swinburne suffering a dip of more than 600 students between 2023-24, compared to a 1,000 undergraduate commencement rise at UTS.
