More Australians started a university degree this year than ever before.
New Semester 1 data for 2026 from the Department of Education shows a 5.3 per cent increase in Australian students starting a university degree compared to the same time last year.
That includes more students from disadvantaged backgrounds:
- Students from the regions and the bush were up 5 per cent.
- Students from poor backgrounds were up around 7 per cent.
- First Nations student commencements were up more than 8 per cent.
Commencements were also up in some of the professions Australia needs most:
- Teaching is up 7.7 per cent.
- Health (including nursing and midwifery) is up 6.6 per cent.
- Social Work is up 15.7 per cent.
- Engineering is up 10.5 per cent.
- Clinical Psychology is up 9.8 per cent.
- Science is up 6.8 per cent.
The Government has been working to open the doors of our universities wider.
That’s what the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill that is in the Parliament right now is all about.
It will mean an extra 230,000 university places and an extra $3.6 billion of funding for universities over the next decade.
The Government has also introduced Commonwealth Paid Prac for the first time for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students.
This year the Government announced Paid Prac will be expanded to an extra 10 courses for students training to be frontline health workers.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:
“More Australians are going to uni than ever before.
“This means more teachers, more nurses, and more engineers. More of the skills Australia needs.
“The Universities Accord says that by 2050, 80 per cent of the workforce will need a tertiary qualification.
“The only way to hit that target is to help more people go to university and TAFE.
“That’s what the reforms we are rolling out are all about.”
