Indigenous university student success in 2013

Trend-line since 2009: an annual increase of 7.2 % p.a.

Total graduate numbers [Table 4]

Total graduate numbers are now about thirty six thousand, out of an adult population (20-49 years) of about 250,000, i.e. one in every seven adults. Two-thirds are women, so about one in every five Indigenous women is a university graduate - one in every four in the cities. 12-14 % held post-graduate qualifications.

Education Department and ABS Census figures commonly disagree, with the five-yearly ABS Census figures – which now include TAFE award-level graduations - usually around 10 % higher than the Eduation Department figures, which count all graduations while the ABS figures count only the highest level attained. So, compared with ABS figures, Education Department figures may under-estimate annual graduations by as much as 30 %.

Retention and Attrition [Taable 5]

Retention rates are confused by the phenomenon of students taking a year or more off, and then returning as 'continuing students'.

For all award-level students, retention has hovered between 73 and 82 % since 2006, with a slight fall in 2011 to 73.3 % and a healthy rise to 77 % in 2012. Generally, the higher the level of course, the better the retention rate. As well, some courses have much more status and consequently better retention rates. Factors leading to lower retention rates seem to be: lower-level courses, lower-status courses, external study, part-time study and a reliance on Indigenous-focussed courses.

Retention rates have improved by some 7 % since 2000, from a crude average of about 72 % to 77 % in 2012.

Gender Data [Table 6]

Indigenous women consistently enrol and graduate at twice the rate of Indigenous men. This has been the situation since data have been available. In fact, since the demise of sub-degree courses in the years 2000-2005, the share of male participation has declined.

Similarly, the share of male continuations has declined significantly, from a high of 37.3 % back in 1995, down to barely 33 % in 2012 and 2013. So the male share of total enrolments has also declined. Clearly, universities' publicity and recruitment programs need to focus more on encouraging male students coming through secondary schools, and young Indigenous men, to lift their sights and to enrol in tertiary courses, and thereby to provide them with more positive pathways.

Indigenous women in Australia are commencing tertiary study at about the same rate at non-Indigenous men, and at about 90 % of the rate of non-Indigenous women. 2 % of all Australian women commencing university study in 2013 were Indigenous.