Preliminary Trends in Higher Education

Quality statement

Due to the preliminary nature of this release, it is recommended that these data are interpreted with caution. Analysis should be limited to the observation of high-level sector trends and caveated appropriately.

The annual Selected Higher Education Statistics reports continue to serve as the official source of information for departmental program administration under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA).

This data release presents preliminary year-to-date data for semester 1, 2026 and 2025 as reported by Australian Higher Education providers up to 01 May 2026, alongside final, verified data for the years 2016 to 2024. The preliminary data are based on a snapshot of live enrolments associated with units of study that have passed their respective census dates collected through the Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) system.

Preliminary data are subject to revision through the annual provider verification and quality assurance process undertaken before official statistics for each calendar year are published. This process can result in changes being made to records that flow to final official data. In addition, preliminary data may not include records that are incomplete or unavailable at the time of data snapshot. As a result, a small amount of change is expected compared to the trends of the final official data.

It is important to be aware that variations in provider data submission patterns across years, particularly those arising from variation in course census dates or provider’s pausing real-time data submissions to the department, may affect year-on-year comparisons within an academic year. However, the impact on full year data is expected to be small. To mitigate the impact of variation in census dates, snapshots of live data are taken at points aligned with peak census dates within university semesters and trimesters.

Initial Teacher Education data

Quality assurance of provider-submitted data for 2025 revealed that some existing education courses leading to teacher registration had not been reported as Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses correctly. For 2025 final verified data, these courses have now been classified appropriately and ITE will be reported more accurately. As a result, the preliminary ITE trends presented in this report are likely to underestimate the final reported values, which will reflect both underlying growth and improved identification of ITE courses.

Low SES data

Please note that preliminary full year data on low SES students are not directly comparable with final data from previous years and are not presented in this dashboard. This is because address information is less complete at this stage of collection and the data cleaning processes used for the final data have not been applied to the preliminary data. Students with incomplete address information are not assigned an SES classification in the preliminary data, which significantly but artificially, lowers reporting values.

Year-to-date data provide a more reliable basis for analysing trends over time for low SES students, as the impact of the incomplete address information is more consistent across reporting periods. Refer to the Enrolments Year to Date tab for these data.

About this release

Enrolment data, except by Broad Field of Education, are filtered to major courses only (the course with the majority of EFTSL if a student is undertaking more than one course at a provider) to measure a unique student headcount. This may undercount certain course types.

Preliminary data include active enrolments in units of study that have passed their census date. Enrolments in units with a future census date are excluded.

The preliminary trends Power BI dashboard provides visual analytics—covering details such as student headcount, equivalent full-time student load (EFTSL), course level, gender, equity status, and Broad Field of Education or discipline group at all HESA-approved providers including non-university higher education providers.

The provider level data in this release are restricted to Australian Universities (Table A and B higher education providers). These larger institutions have more frequent data reporting and more stable trends throughout the year. A summary of preliminary high-level trends, including information specific to each provider, is presented below.

Further disaggregation or custom data requests cannot be accommodated for the preliminary figures.

Preliminary trends dashboard

Breakdowns of student headcount and EFTSL by course level, equity status, special course and Broad Field of Education are available in a Power BI analytics report.

Preliminary trends in higher education student enrolments

Preliminary higher education sector trends, semester 1 year to date, 2021-2026 (01/05/2026 snapshot)

* YTD semester 1 includes all enrolments with census dates between 1/1 and 1/5
* Total enrolments and commencements include overseas students, both studying in Australia as well as at overseas campuses of Australian universities.
* Due to a cyber security incident in early 2025, the University of Notre Dame was not reporting real-time data to the department in 2025. This may result in an understatement of the headcount and EFTSL levels in the preliminary 2025 data.

• Preliminary, year-to-date data for semester 1 2026 indicate that the number of students studying at Australian higher education providers is continuing to grow. Compared to the same date in 2025: 
  • total enrolments in 2026 have increased by 1.9% 
  • total domestic enrolments have increased by 3.2%, and 
  • domestic commencements have increased by 5.3%. 
• Growth in total enrolments has outpaced growth in commencements, reflecting the contribution of strong retention and changes to part-time study. Changes to policy settings and macro-economic conditions affecting international students have also influenced trends in both enrolments and commencements.  
• First semester domestic student commencements in Initial Teacher Education courses have increased by 7.7% compared to the same date in 2025, following growth of around 9% from the same time in 2024.
• Preliminary, year-to-date data for semester 1 2026 also indicate that commencements among students from underrepresented backgrounds have grown compared to the same date in 2025:
  • commencing First Nations students have increased by over 8% 
  • commencing students from low SES areas have increased by around 7%, and 
  • commencing students from regional and remote Australia have increased by over 5%. 
• Preliminary, year-to-date data for semester 1 2026 are based on a snapshot of live data taken after the peak first semester census dates have passed. These data are expected to capture about 70% of domestic commencements and over 80% of total domestic enrolments for the full year 2026.

Preliminary trends by university (Table A and B)

Domestic students, both commencing and continuing, semester 1 year to date^[1], 2022-2026, Table A and B universities (01/05/2026 snapshot).

1. Semester 1 YTD includes all enrolments with census dates between 1/1 and 1/5
2. Adelaide University commenced operating in 2026 following the merger of The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The establishment of Adelaide University has resulted in significant disruptions to real-time data reporting during its first year of operation. Consequently, there is a known level of inaccuracy in their data. Adelaide University has advised that total domestic enrolments are significantly underreported in this report, and the department recommends caution in their use and interpretation. These reporting differences are expected to reduce in subsequent 2026 preliminary data publications.
3. Avondale University became a Table B provider in 2023. Prior to this, Avondale was counted in the NUHEI data. 
4. Adelaide University commenced operating in 2026 following the merger of The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. Data from 2026 onwards are reported for the merged institution. Data for the predecessor universities cannot be added to compare with Adelaide University totals. In particular, the predecessor data do not account for duplicate students across the two universities and there have been changes in reporting patterns following the merger which impact the year-to-date trends. Data for the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia continue to be included in the overall totals presented in the Power BI report.
5. A cyber security incident in early 2025 significantly disrupted real-time data reporting for the University of Notre Dame in 2025. Consequently, there is a known level of inaccuracy in their data- total enrolments and EFTSL are significantly underreported in this report. Further disruptions to real-time reporting for some course types has impacted 2026 data which are also underreported in this report.

Domestic commencing students, semester 1 year to date^[1], 2022-2026, Table A and B universities (01/05/2026 snapshot).

1. Semester 1 YTD includes all enrolments with census dates between 1/1 and 1/5
2. Adelaide University commenced operating in 2026 following the merger of The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The establishment of Adelaide University has resulted in significant disruptions to real-time data reporting during its first year of operation. Consequently, there is a known level of inaccuracy in their data. Adelaide University has advised that total domestic enrolments are significantly underreported in this report, and the department recommends caution in their use and interpretation. These reporting differences are expected to reduce in subsequent 2026 preliminary data publications.
3. Avondale University became a Table B provider in 2023. Prior to this, Avondale was counted in the NUHEI data. 
4. Adelaide University commenced operating in 2026 following the merger of The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. Data from 2026 onwards are reported for the merged institution. Data for the predecessor universities cannot be added to compare with Adelaide University totals. In particular, the predecessor data do not account for duplicate students across the two universities and there have been changes in reporting patterns following the merger which impact the year-to-date trends. Data for the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia continue to be included in the overall totals presented in the Power BI report.
5. A cyber security incident in early 2025 significantly disrupted real-time data reporting for the University of Notre Dame in 2025. Consequently, there is a known level of inaccuracy in their data- total enrolments and EFTSL are significantly underreported in this report. Further disruptions to real-time reporting for some course types has impacted 2026 data which are also underreported in this report.