More disadvantaged students heading to university

News bulletin: 16 June 2009

The 2009 On Track report looks at where our 2008 school-leavers are now. The data shows that the number of school-leavers from disadvantaged areas going on to university has increased.

The Victorian government’s annual student destination survey, On Track, was launched on Monday 15 June by Parliamentary Secretary for Education Steve Herbert. The launch was at Epping Secondary College, which had a 16 per cent increase of school-leavers going on to university this year.

Of government school students going on to university, one third are now from the lowest socio economic groups compared to 27 per cent last year.

The snapshot of the class of 2008 shows that the number of students enrolling in university directly from school has jumped from 43.9 per cent last year to 45.6 per cent in 2009.

The proportion of government school graduates attending university has also increased from 35.6 to 37.3 per cent.

More than 36,000 school-leavers took part in the survey, which was compiled by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

The survey also shows:

• the number of students who went on to further education and training after school remained at 71.7 per cent
• the number of students who entered TAFE has remained at 18 per cent
• 89 per cent of rural students who deferred a tertiary place are now in jobs
• the number of students who started an apprenticeship or traineeship has dropped from 9.8 per cent to 8 per cent
• the number of students in part-time work has risen from 6 per cent to 7.7 per cent, while the number of students in full time work has dropped from 8.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent.

For more information, see: On Track