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Herald Sun
14-06-2025
- Health
- Herald Sun
Victorian university courses with the biggest drop out rates
Victorian university students are accumulating debt for degrees they never complete, with new figures revealing one in three fail to graduate. A Sunday Herald Sun analysis of the latest national Department of Education university completion rate data for domestic students has revealed the courses students are dropping at substantial rates, leaving a portion burdened with HECS-HELP loans and no qualification. Social work and tourism and hospitality students were among the worst offenders, with more than half the cohort dropping out of their degree between 2018 and 2023. Despite incentives, education degrees had the third-lowest completion rate, with two in five students dropping out. Other courses which saw more than 40 per cent of students withdraw included computing and information technology, psychology, and humanities. Conversely, medicine degrees had the highest completion rate with only one in 10 students dropping out, followed by dentistry, rehabilitation and pharmacy. Monash University higher education expert Professor Andrew Norton said the two biggest risk factors which could lead to drop outs were weaker academic preparation and part-time study. 'In the period when the 2018 commencers were studying, we have seen increasing rates of part-time study for continuing students, more students working, and the students who are working spending more time at work,' he said. 'I think this is likely to be a key reason why we've seen some worsening attrition rates in recent years (and) is reasonably consistent with the subjective reasons given such as stress, financial difficulties, study workload or employment.' While it's not known how much money today's students lose when dropping out due to a lack of specific data, Professor Norton said the latest Grattan Institute research on the issue found most students who didn't complete their course would pay or borrow less than $10,000. 'We found most people who dropped out had modest debts but there were some with more significant debts,' he said. He added a significant portion of dropouts occurred in the first year, resulting in lower debt burdens for those students. As for the overall completion rate for each Victorian tertiary institution, the University of Melbourne had the highest completion rate with 89.4 per cent of students who started a course in 2018 graduating within six years. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Gregor Kennedy said the institution provides 'extensive academic, enrichment and wellbeing support to students'. 'The University of Melbourne has a strong focus on student connection, belonging and wellbeing, and all students have access to a wide range of activities to supplement their studies,' he said. Meanwhile, Swinburne University of Technology had the highest drop out rate with 53.8 per cent of students not completing their course. A Swinburne University of Technology spokeswoman said the institution 'absolutely recognised the need to find new and innovative ways' to support its students' individual needs. 'For some, that is the 'traditional' university experience of a three-year degree. For others, it is studying part time, over an extended period, while they continue working full-time and balancing the demands of life,' she said. Swinburne University has launched its Education Innovation Exchange which is supporting its first-year refresh project, that works in partnership with schools to address retention and attrition challenges. Overall, Professor Norton said universities have improved their focus on struggling students and sometimes factors driving attrition rates – such as competing demands on students' time – were out of an institution's control. 'We should also accept that attrition is not always bad if students change their interests or get a job that suits them,' he said. Victorian Unis fork out big cash for WorkCover claims in 2024
Sydney Morning Herald
06-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university to get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
The Age
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university will get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
Sydney Morning Herald
05-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university will get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
How Donald Trump's drastic decision this week will have sweeping immigration consequences for Australia
Donald Trump 's ban on new international students could lead to a wave of students coming to Australia who would have otherwise picked prestigious universities such as Harvard or Yale, a leading higher education expert says. The US President has stopped all student visa applications in a bid to force universities to better tackle anti-Semitism and political extremism on campus, in a move also designed to free up more places for Americans. But the move could have consequences for Australia - already the world's largest education provider per capita - claimed Professor Andrew Norton, a higher education expert at Monash University. 'If they can't go to those top American universities, they may decide that Australia is the next best option,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Education is Australia's fourth biggest export, behind iron ore, coal and natural gas and international, fee- paying students are a lucrative source of revenue for universities. Trump's decision could give universities even more choice in who they selected, but would be unlikely to create a fresh wave of migrants, given Labor is seeking to cap the number of new annual enrolments to 270,000 with Senate approval. 'I'm saying, probably not an increase in numbers but possibly an increase in quality,' Prof Norton said. 'We've not necessarily got the most academically ambitious students - they may go to Harvard or other universities like that.' Donald Trump 's ban on new international students could lead to a wave of students who would have picked prestigious universities such as Harvard or Yale coming to Australia instead, a leading higher education expert says It is understood university chancellors met in Canberra on Wednesday, where fears were expressed about potentially being swamped with applications from international students who would have otherwise gone to the US. In the US, international students are only legally allowed to work on campus in jobs related to their field of study. In Australia, they can work 30 hours a week and if they are a studying a masters degree, they can bring a spouse to Australia with working rights. To get a student visa, an overseas applicant needs a Confirmation of Enrolment to prove they have enrolled at an accredited Australian university. More than half - or 55 per cent - of overseas students come from China, India , Nepal, the Philippines and Vietnam. Australian universities have long favoured overseas students, who pay fees upfront unlike local students, who pay off degree through a Higher Education Loan Program. Salvatore Babones, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Sydney, said international students were often enrolling to study in Australia to get work visas, giving universities a lucrative revenue stream. 'If they need to make some money, they can just give out more visas, get some more students in - it's become morally corrupt,' he said. Prof Babones said led to students coming to Australia on student visas just to earn some money to send home. 'Their goal is to be in Australia earning money, delivering for Uber Eats or driving Ubers,' he said. This was more common at less prestigious universities outside the Group of Eight - the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, the University of Adelaide, Monash University and UNSW Sydney. 'Once you go below the Group of Eight, they're fundamentally work visas,' he said. 'Universities are empowered by the government to give out visas - it's relatively easy to get a visa to be an international student at a public university; it's very difficult to get a visa to be an international student at a language school.' International students make up half of the University of Sydney's enrolments but for some degrees such as communications and business, that rises to 90 per cent. 'Masters degrees are now dominated by international students and if you want to create a new masters program, you have to present a business case to your university of how you would attract international students,' he said. 'The reason is not that Australia has such fantastic post-graduate education - the reason is that masters students can legally work 30 hours a week during the semester; they can work full-time out of the semester. 'More importantly, for masters students they can bring their families so partners of masters students can work full-time.' This had seen Nepalese students make up eight per cent of enrolments, making it the third biggest source of Australia's international students after China and India. 'Nepal's a poor, mountainous country in the middle of nowhere,' he said. 'Why are there so many thousands of Nepali masters students in Australia? Because they can bring their family. By paying for a single masters degree, they get two people access to the Australian labour market for four years. 'It's simply a low-wage work scam - there's no way that Nepal can afford to send so many students here to do masters degrees; they borrow the money in Nepal - a lot of it's loan sharking.' Prof Babones said a reliance on overseas students led to diminished teaching standards, with Queensland University of Technology last year admitting in its annual report that 46 per cent of international students had dropped out. 'This diminishes the pedagogical environment, it kind of makes a mockery of the mission of the public university - the point of having an education program here in Australia is not to service clients from China,' he said. 'The purpose is supposed to meet Australia's workforce needs and to meet Australia's educational needs but it's reached now, ridiculous proportions in some ways.' Australia was last year home to 1.1million international student enrolments - from high school to universities and vocational education. That figure included those who switched courses or degrees, and counts some students multiple times. Maurice Newman, a former Macquarie University chancellor, said Trump was simply trying to open up more places for local students, as Australian universities continued to favour more international students for the revenue stream, particularly from China. 'Clearly, you get more money from foreign students which makes it likely some places for Australian students will not be available,' he said. 'When I was at Macquarie, what I was trying to do was reduce our dependence on foreign students - it's just putting too many eggs in one basket. 'What President Trump is looking to do is to open up more places for Americans to go to Ivy League and prestigious universities, which for the time being appear to have been overlooked for higher paying, presumably foreign students.' David Llewellyn-Smith, the chief strategist with MacroBusiness, said universities were relying on revenue streams from overseas students to cope with a shortfall in federal government funding. 'The government should put a lot more money into universities and they should put a cap on foreign students like Donald Trump is doing,' he said. 'A bunch of our university foreign intakes are way too high and it's dramatically changed the way the universities are taught. 'You're debasing education quality to make a dollar for those universities, which in the long run doesn't deliver you the kind of high quality and sophisticated workforce you need for a productive economy - in the long-run you're actually doing yourself harm.' The large influx of overseas students made up a large proportion of the 437,440 migrants who came to Australia on a permanent and long-term basis in the year to March, worsening the housing crisis. 'These are the externalities that the universities don't want you to talk about - there are huge costs to all sorts of things,' he said. But Prof Norton said universities were now voluntarily restricting their overseas intake, given the large numbers who arrived in 2023 and 2024, as Labor tried to legislate with the Greens a 270,000 annual cap on new enrolments. 'The total number will stay high even if the commencing numbers start to decline again, because we've just got this huge stock of people,' he said. 'The universities fear what might happen next and we have seen drops in visa applications for this year and I think it's because the universities are voluntarily holding back rather than going above the so-called indicative cap. 'We may not be able to capitalise on the fact that people who want to go to the United States won't be able to go to the United States.'
