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Media Release
University enrolments reach record level
4 October 2007
New statistics released today by the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, show a record number of students at Australian universities.
The 2006 Higher Education Students Statistics summary report shows there were 984,146 university students enrolled in 2006, almost 27,000 more than in 2005.
“The continuing growth in student numbers demonstrates the effectiveness of the Howard Governments 10-year commitment to higher education through the $11 billion Backing Australia’s Future reforms and other initiatives, which will provide around 50,000 new Commonwealth supported places by 2011,” Minister Bishop said.
“Domestic student enrolments have risen by 8,500 to 270,313 new enrolments in 2006. Domestic undergraduate students at public universities continue to take advantage of Australian Government financial support. In 2006 more than 97% of these students were Commonwealth supported with only 2.5% choosing to take a full fee paying place.
“Overseas students continue to recognise that Australian universities offer a world-class educational experience, with a total of 250,794 students enrolled to study both onshore and offshore in 2006, an increase of 4.7% on 2005.
“The summary report shows a 5.8% increase in Indigenous student enrolments between 2005 and 2006, with a trend towards undergraduate and postgraduate courses, rather than enabling and non-award courses.
“New enrolments in the National Priority Areas of nursing and teaching and in medicine continued to increase sharply between 2005 and 2006 due to the creation of extra Australian Government supported places. Between 2001 and 2006, there was a 46.7% increase for nursing students, 17.4% for teaching students and 63.5% for medical students.”
A summary analysis of the 2006 Higher Education Students Statistics is available from: http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/stats_collections. Detailed tables will also be available on the site shortly.
Media Contacts:
Minister Bishop’s Office: Tory Vidler 0414 228 727
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Media 02 6240 7300
Non-media 1300 363 079
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