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One in three students dropping out of university

One in three Australian students are not completing their university degree within six years, new figures show.

As thousands of students anxiously wait to learn whether they have received a first-round university offer, federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has released data showing about 33 per cent of students who enrolled in university in 2009 had dropped out by 2014.

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Students across Victoria receive their ATAR scores, including a Syrian refugee who started learning English two years ago and became the dux of his school. Vision courtesy Seven News.

Federation University was among 10 Australian universities with the lowest completion rates in the country, with only 52.5 per cent of students who enrolled in 2009 having completed their course by 2014. Just 65.5 per cent of Swinburne University students who started their course in 2009 had graduated six years later.

Melbourne University had the highest completion rates in the country, with 88 per cent of the 2009 cohort having completed their studies by 2014. Second in line was the University of Sydney, followed by the Australian National University.

 
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The figures are likely to generate debate about the value of taxpayer-funded student loans, which are set to cost the budget $11.1 billion by 2025-26. 

The minister released the data contained in an Education Department report on Wednesday as part of a push to increase transparency in the sector. He urged students to research their courses before enrolling and spruiked the government's Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching website. 

"To the thousands of students anxiously checking emails, text messages, newspapers and mail boxes this week to learn what your future study options might be, I urge you to take your time to understand those options," SenatorBirmingham said.

"We've heard too many stories about students who have changed courses, dropped out because they made the wrong choices about what to study, students who didn't realise there were other entry pathways or who started a course with next to no idea of what they were signing themselves up for."

The data showed that students who studied off campus, part-time and were of a low socioeconomic status were more likely to drop out.

Federation University's deputy vice-chancellor of learning and quality, Professor Marcia Devlin, said students studying at regional universities were often mature-age students with a family, juggling caring and work responsibilities.

"They therefore have slower or lower completion rates than traditional students, who are often unencumbered, child-free middle-class school leavers who either live at home free with Mum and Dad or whose family pay for them to live on campus in college. These are the typical Melbourne university students," Professor Devlin said.

"Regional universities do the 'heavy lifting' in Australia in terms of enrolling students often from low socioeconomic status backgrounds."

While students with lower ATARs were more likely to drop out, about half of students with an ATAR between 95 and 100 did not complete their course by 2014, four years after enrolment.

Only about 26 per cent of Indigenous students who started their course in 2009 had finished four years later, compared with 45.4 per cent of non-Indigenous students.

 

Girls were less likely to drop out than boys, with 48 per cent of girls finishing their course by 2014, compared with 40.6 per cent of boys.

But the trend was reversed in non-university higher education institutions (TAFEs and private colleges), where males had an average higher four-year completion rate (43.3 per cent) compared with females (36.2 per cent).

University of Melbourne acting vice-chancellor Margaret Shiel said the university's favourable completion rates reflected its intake of high quality students and ATAR requirements.

She said the Melbourne model had also given students more flexibility to "find their way", which had improved retention rates.

"The curriculum allows them to try different things," she said. "Often they find something that is more appealing and more attractive. It opens up more opportunities."

The university also has a range of support programs and activities to ensure students remain engaged.