Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students reach their full potential through further education pathways.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25‑34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate level III and above) to 70%.

Higher education commencement (university component), attrition, and completion rates (time series, cohort analyses - four, six and nine years)

Three measures defined as follows:

Measure 1: Number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commencing university courses defined as:

Numerator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commencing a domestic bachelor degree at an Australian university

and is presented as a number.

Measure 2: The attrition rate, defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who commenced a course in year(x) who neither complete in year(x) or year(x+1) nor return in year(x+1)

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commencing a domestic bachelor degree at an Australian university in year(x)

and is presented as a rate.

Measure 3: Proportion of people commencing university courses who complete, continue or leave over time, defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who:

• ‘completed’
• ‘are still enrolled’
• ‘re-enrolled but dropped out’
• ‘never came back after the first year’

after four years, six years and nine years since commencing a domestic bachelor degree at an Australian university

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commencing a domestic bachelor degree at an Australian university four years, six years and nine years ago

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

12 March 2025

Driver

Measure 1

A high or increasing number is desirable.

Measure 2

A low or decreasing rate is desirable.

Measure 3

A high or increasing proportion of people completing or continuing is desirable.

A low or decreasing proportion of people dropping out or not returning is desirable.

Name: Higher Education Statistics Collection

Frequency: Annual (Revised data across multiple years and measures is included in the March 2025 Dashboard update)

Documentation (links): Higher Education Statistics - Department of Education, Australian Government

Provider name: Commonwealth Department of Education

Provider area: Higher Education Analysis Section

Measure 1: 2016 (data reported back to 2008, to support Measure 3)

Measure 2: 2016

Measure 3: 2013–2016 (four-year cohort), 2011–2016 (six-year cohort), 2008–2016 (nine-year cohort)

Measure 1: 2023

Measure 2: 2022

Measure 3: 2020–2023, 2018–2023, 2015–2023

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

Measure 1: Numerator.

Measure 2: Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

Measure 3: Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100, by completion status.

Counting rules

Data are for all domestic bachelor students attending a higher education provider (university component) (Tables A and B providers only in the Higher Education Statistics Collection).

A domestic student is a student who is an Australian citizen, a New Zealand citizen or the holder of a permanent visa.

A commencing student is a student who has enrolled in the course for the first time at the higher education institution between 1 January and 31 December of the collection year.

Geographical variables are based on the location of the student (postcode or permanent home residence).

Includes (Measure 3)

• Completed – Includes students who completed a course in any year across the given time period. A student may have commenced study at one institution, but completed their study at a different institution. The award course may not necessarily be the same course that the student initially enrolled in.
• Still enrolled – Includes students who are still enrolled in the final year of the given time period. If a student had a break between the commencing year and the final year in the given time period (or if they change award courses), they would still be included in this category if they were enrolled in the final year.
• Re‑enrolled, but dropped out – Includes students who re‑enrolled after the commencing year at any point in the given time period, but were not enrolled in the final year. For example, this would include a 2005 commencing student, who was not enrolled in 2006, was enrolled 2007, but was not enrolled in 2008.
• Never came back after first year – Includes students who never re‑enrolled within the given time period after their commencing year.
• Measure 1 is the sum of the above.

Excludes (both numerator and denominator)

• overseas students
• students enrolled at non‑university higher education institutions
• people for whom Indigenous status was not stated (Data on the number of people whose Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context).

Student cohort analysis is based on the institution where the student commenced their course. Therefore, if a student commenced at a university and change to a non‑university they will be counted in the university scope.

The attrition rate calculation and cohort analysis is based on a matching process using both the StudentID and the Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number (CHESSN). If a student moves from one institution to another in the following year, he or she would be counted as retained. It is only those students who left the higher education system entirely (that is, they were no longer at any institution) that are counted as attrited.

The attrition rate counts students who commenced in year 1 and neither re-enrolled in year, nor completed in years one or two. The attrition rates are typically higher than the cohort analysis (‘Never came back after first year’) which counts students who commenced in year one then never had a re‑enrolment or completion over the cohort period (for example, in years two, three or four for the four‑year cohort analysis).

The count of commencing students used as the denominator for Measure 2 is different to the count of commencing students reported in Measures 1 and 3.

The Department of Education has suppressed numbers less than five (reported as ‘<5’) and selected surrounding cells to prevent back-calculation (consequential suppression). All suppressed numbers have been included in the totals.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• remoteness areas
• socio‑economic status of the locality
• disability status
• gender
• highest qualification achieved (Australian Qualification Framework level).