In Australia, 56.8% of people aged over 15 years had completed Year 12 schooling (or equivalent) as of 2021. This was less than Greater Capital Cities.
Attainment of Year 12 or equivalent
This rate increased from 70% in 2010 to a peak of 79% in 2018, before declining to 72% in 2019.
'' The Productivity Commission data shows that the Year 12 retention rate across all schools dropped to 79 per cent – below the pre-pandemic rate of 82 per cent in 2019, and the rate of 80.7 per cent in 2013.
Young people and school leavers
58% of school leavers who had finished Year 12 in 2021 were studying for a non-school qualification in 2022, with the majority enrolled in a bachelor degree.
School in Australia begins with six years of primary education (years 1-6) followed by six years of high school (years 7-12). Students normally begin Primary School at age 5 and finish high school around 17-18 years old.
At what age do you start and finish university? Typically you leave school or college at 18 and start and finish university at 21. There are exceptions to this, such as if you were to take a gap year or work in industry for a year. Also, your course will determine how long you are at university.
Over the past 20 years, the share of the Australian population that hold a degree at a bachelor level or above has increased by more than six times, reaching 50.8 percent in 2022. In Australia, the tertiary education sector comprises of both public and private institutions.
The Productivity Commission released its annual childcare and education services report on Thursday, revealing an average of 110,000 fewer year 12s completed high school in 2021 as COVID-19 disrupted face-to-face learning. Year 12 completions on average dropped from 1.9 million in 2020 to 1.79 million last year.
54,308 students were eligible for an ATAR. This is 533 fewer than in 2021. 48 students received the top ATAR of 99.95. Of these students, 19 were female and 29 were male; they came from a mix of government and non-government schools and studied a wide range of courses.
How many students achieve a 99 ATAR? The number of students who achieve a 99.00 ATAR differs from year to year, making up the top 1 per cent in every state. Approximately 500 students will get a 99 ATAR in states like Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
A study has found a quarter of Australian school students are not finishing Year 12, and that completion rates are much worse in remote and economically disadvantaged communities.
The legal leaving age is 17
Your child cannot leave schooling until they are 17 years old. Your child must go to a school campus (or an approved alternative) until they finish year 10.
High school retention rates have started to decline in Australia with one in four kids from a poor family likely to drop out of school before the end of Year 12. Over the past five years, national school retention rates have fallen to 80.5 per cent from 84.8 per cent.
And that confusion creates tensions that are often overwhelming. I decided to ask students in years 11, 12 and 13 what year of school they found they toughest. Year 9 came out top by a country mile, with year 11 trailing in second place.
Australia has one of the best education systems in the world. According to The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 (the largest and most diverse university ranking to date), there are as many as 13 Australian universities among the top 200 education providers in the world.
Notably, 325,171 students completed their degrees at Australia's 39 universities. and innovation, and through the skilled graduates they supply to the labour market.
Ravenswood student Maria Yang is one of the 48 students in NSW who has received the perfect ATAR of 99.95 in 2022. She could not believe it when she saw she had been given the highest rank possible this morning.
The ATAR is a number from 0 and 99.95 in intervals of 0.05. The highest rank is 99.95, the next highest 99.90, and so on. The lowest automatically reported rank is 30.00, with ranks below 30.00 being reported as 'less than 30'.
17 per cent of students received an ATAR of 90.00 or above, 33.9 per cent received an ATAR of at least 80.00 and 50.3 per cent at least 70.00. The median ATAR was 70.15 this year, slightly higher than in 2019.
The proportion of non-Indigenous students attaining Year 12 or equivalent also increased, but by a smaller amount (around 5 percentage points). As such, the gap has narrowed by 15 percentage points—from around 40 percentage points in 2008 to 25 percentage points in 2018–19 (Figure 5.1).
Few Australians pursue tertiary education beyond a bachelor's degree. Only 10% of young adults have attained a higher level degree (master's or doctoral) compared to 15% on average across OECD countries (Figure 1). Tertiary students in Australia take longer to complete their degree than average.
In 2022: 4,042,512 students were enrolled in schools across Australia, an increase of 11,795 students (0.3%) compared with 2021. the majority of students were enrolled in government schools (64.5%), followed by Catholic schools (19.7%) and independent schools (15.9%).
Australian Capital Territory
It is the smallest but most densely populated and most educated state in Australia. The main city of the ACT is Canberra, which is also the capital of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Accounting & Finance – The Most Popular Degree in Australia
The Australian National University is rated 25th in accounting and Finance worldwide, followed by the University of Sydney and Queensland.
Of Indigenous Australians aged 18–24, nearly 1 in 4 (24%) were currently studying in 2021 - 11% were attending university or other higher education, 9% were attending vocational education and training, 3% were attending secondary school, and 1% were attending other educational institutions.