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Undergrad numbers f latten
With only a small increase in university applications this year there is some doubt about Australia reaching the bold 2025 target for graduates. By Antonia Maiolo
There has been a slight increase in the number of people applying for university places around Australia this year but some states have recorded a drop in overall applications.
Preliminary data from the federal Department of Tertiary Education shows that total applications for the 2013 academic year increased by 0.6 per cent to 229,770.
The figures show that 1400 more school leavers applied for university this year compared with the number of applications last year.
Western Australia recorded a dip in total applications of 2.6 per cent. Victoria also registered a fall of 0.9 per cent, while Tasmania had a 7.9 per cent increase in applications. NSW recorded a slight increase of 0.7 per cent.
The senior deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, Professor Peter Booth said it was understood that the school leaver population was stabilising and that there may even be a decline over the next decade in some states. This was in line with expectations, he said.
Despite estimations of significant increases, Booth questioned whether Australia could meet key participation targets laid out by the federal government in 2009, which includes 40 per cent of young people gaining a degree by 2025.“ I think it’ s a bit unclear as to whether that’ s going to be achievable or not,” he said.
“ UTS hasn’ t planned significant growth, we have repositioned our undergraduate load because of the participation structure and deregulation,” Booth said. While he was not expecting the demand to significantly expand over the next few years in NSW,“ it looks like steady demand”.
“ There’ s a bit of change internally, the non-recent school leavers tend to fluctuate a lot more and that is probably linked to labour market conditions I would guess, but the school leavers is reasonably stable,” Booth said.
Professor Bill Louden, senior deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Western Australia, said there is no longer any significant unmet demand for domestic university places in Australia.
“ From 2010 to 2012 at UWA our total enrolments grew from 22,590 to 24,435( more than 8 per cent). Other universities have grown even faster.”
But Louden doubts there is scope for further growth, especially among wellqualified candidates, adding that the drop in applications in WA could be attributed to the state’ s strong labour market.
The preliminary data published by the federal Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education also shows a 1.9 per cent increase in socio-economically disadvantaged students applying for university, an increase
Preliminary applications by statestes of 820 more applications than last year.
The government’ s target for the future decades also outlines an aim to increase the proportion of disadvantaged people gaining a degree, to 20 per cent by 2020, up from 16 per cent.
Louden said to meet key participations targets UWA increased the number of low-SES students last year by offering wellsupported access places to school leavers from schools underrepresented in the usual intake group.
He said UWA supports the government’ s goal of increasing access to underrepresented groups.
“ We want to offer a place to every student who can benefit from a UWA education, but we have to deal with the fact of social inequalities in school achievement. What is most important is that when we offer an access place we provide appropriate support,” Louden said.
Booth said this national result – a boost in low-SES students applying for university – is an“ absolute gain”.
He said the results for indigenous students in particular are very positive. Indigenous applications were up by 4.2 per cent, an increase of 100 from last year.
“ Even though it’ s only a small number its quite good, 100 more applications is a 100 more applications, a very positive outcome given what we know about their schooling and other things … we were delighted to see that,” Booth said.
The figures from the federal department also show that the strong trend of more women applying for university than men has continued, with 58.3 per cent of applications from women and 41.7 per cent from men.
This gender gap is similar to the one seen in the previous year. ■
State 2012 2013 % Change NSW 74,361 74,848
0.7 % VIC 67,599 66,959-0.9 % QLD 42,797 44,259 3.4 % WA 16,107 15,695-2.6 % SA / NT 20,937 20,958 0.1 % TAS 6,533 7,051 7.9 % Australia 228,334 229,770 0.6 %
www. campusreview. com. au February 2013 | 7