Notes on the data: Education

School leavers enrolled in higher education, 2023

Policy context: Education increases opportunities for choice of occupation and for income and job security, and also equips people with the skills and ability to control many aspects of their lives – key factors that influence wellbeing throughout the life course. Young people who complete Year 12 are more likely to make a successful initial transition to further education, training and work than early leavers [1].

The acquisition of a non-school qualification increases work and employment opportunities and increases the likelihood of a financially secure future. Despite the Global Financial Crisis and the end of the mining boom impacting on the earning of early career graduates, Bachelor degree holders continue to enjoy a significant income premium over Year 12 holders [2]

References

McMillan J, Marks GN. School leavers in Australia: profiles and pathways. (Research report no. 31). Camberwell, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research, 2003.
Norton A, Cherastidtham, I and Mackey W. Mapping Higher Education 2018. Grattan Institute, 2018 [accessed 19 February 2019]. Available from: https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf

Notes: The data comprise school leavers who are identified as enrolled at an Australian university at 31 March 023. ‘School leavers’ are students who attained an Australian Year 12 qualification in 2022 in any State/ Territory through the completion of one or more Year 12 courses; may include (unless noted otherwise below) adult students, part time students and students doing one or more subjects to improve their overall score (repeating students).

The Estimated Resident Population is the population aged 17 years in 2022, as this is the age of the majority of Year 12 students at 30 June 2022. As age data at the small geographical area level are not available by single years, the number at age 17 was estimated from the number in the five-year age group 15 to 19 years.

Data have been provided by individual State and Territory tertiary admission centres. As these data were collected from each State and Territory, they may exclude people who live in one State/Territory and were enrolled in another.

The data show areas as having proportions in excess of 100%; these are clearly not accurate. The reason for this is not clear, although it may be the result of the address of the school leaver data being a postcode which is not allocated to the correct Population Health Area or Local Government Area by the correspondence files available; it may also reflect inaccuracies in the denominator (the population aged 17year), as the population is an estimate, based on a proportion of the those at age 17 years in the five-year age group 15 to 19 years from the Population Census.

Direct enrolments to universities were not included in the data collected: in 2022, these represented a small proportion of total enrolments, other than in the ACT.

Variations in data between States

Definitions vary across the States and Territories, however, the impact of any difference is considered to be small.

South Australian data represent the number of school leavers that have received and accepted an offer to a university in South Australia and the Northern Territory; however, this is not necessarily indicative of the enrolment status as they may not have enrolled at the institution by 31 March 2023.
The University of Notre Dame (NSW and WA) did not provide data for the 2023 time period, and were not included in the final data published.

For more information, please consult the relevant admissions centre as listed in the Source below.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: School leavers who are identified as enrolled at an Australian university at 31 March 2023

Denominator: Estimated Resident Population aged 17 years at 30 June 2022 (population data at June 2023 not available at time of publication)

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data from the:

Universities Admissions Centre (NSW & ACT), Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (Vic.), Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (Qld), South Australian Tertiary Admission Centre (SA & NT), Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (WA), The University of Notre Dame Australia (WA & NSW), and the University of Tasmania (Tas.).
ABS Estimated Resident Population, 30 June 2022.