Mapping Australian Higher Education 2023 - Overview: Setting the scene

Sep 18, 2026

Mapping Australian higher education 2023 analyzes key developments shaping Australia’s higher education sector in the early 2020s. It reviews disruptions from COVID-19, shifts in domestic student funding under the Job-ready Graduates policy, changes in enrolments, student satisfaction, and trends in attrition and subject fail rates. It also discusses rising academic misconduct and enforcement challenges, university workforce arrangements, research growth and risks, student debt dynamics, and the progress of the Universities Accord policy review.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages174

Reading Time7 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Authorship, acknowledgments and disclaimer

Overview: Setting the scene

Contents

Figures

Tables

Introduction

1 Higher education providers

2 Student selection and enrolments

3 The student experience

4 The university workforce

5 University research

Higher education finance – overview and the main revenue sources

Higher education student finance – funding per student and institution

Higher education policymaking

Benefits of higher education for the public and employers

Benefits of higher education for graduates

Glossary

Appendix A – Higher education providers offering HELP loans

Appendix B – Higher education providers not offering HELP loans

References

MAPPING AUSTRALIAN HIGHER EDUCATION 2023 Andrew Norton AUTHORSHIP, ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAND DISCLAIMER This report was written by Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy at the Australian National University’s Centre for Social Research and Methods. Suggested citation: Norton, A. Mapping Australian higher education 2023 (ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, 2023) . Mapping Australian higher education reports were published by the Grattan Institute between 2012 and 2018. Building on the previous work of Grattan staff and referees the 2018 edition was fully revised and updated to produce Mapping Australian higher education 2023. For this edition, Sam Perkins provided research assistance, student fee data was provided by Keri Ramirez, and Matt Taylor produced the HILDA analysis. Chi Baik, Matt Brown, Angel Calderon, Jonathan Chew, Gwil Croucher, Mark Warburton, Nick Ward, Peter Woelert and others provided valuable feedback on part or all of this edition. All remaining errors or omissions are, of course, the responsibility of the author. The report was edited by Shae Lalor of The Write Path. The report was designed by Giraffe. This report uses public domain data from numerous organisations. Department of Education and Australian Bureau of Statistics data is used under their Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses which permits free use with attribution. Public domain data is supplemented with special request data from the Department of Education, the Department of Social Services and Studymove. All interpretations of the data are those of the author. Figure 7 uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The HILDA project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. The findingsand views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either the Department of Social Services or the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. ISBN: 978-0-6458953-0-8 MAPPING AUSTRALIAN HIGHER EDUCATION 2023 2 OVERVIEW: SETTING THE SCENE The early 2020s were tumultuous for Australian higher education. COVID-19 restrictions forced classes online and cut international student numbers. The former government’s Job-ready Graduates policy radically changed domestic student funding. It slashed tuition charges for some students but more than doubled them for others. With fewer international students, total higher education enrolments fell between 2020 and 2021, ending a growth run that began in 1954. Total enrolments in 2021, including domestic and international students, were just over 1.6 million. Due to forced online study, a minority of domestic enrolments were enrolled as on-campus students in 2021, the first time this has happened. Student satisfaction with the social aspects of university life declined, but satisfaction with teaching quality was less affected. Attrition and subject fail rates fell for students who started university in 2020. Student surveys and university detection reveal high levels of academic misconduct. In the early 2020s, regulators and universities increased their focus on academic integrity. Contract cheating services were banned but artificial intelligence creates new enforcement problems. Universities rely heavily on casual and fixed-term contract staff. University employment practices are a key issue of the 2020s, attracting criticism from staff, politicians and workplace regulators. Low job security helped universities reduce costs after losing international student fee revenue. Staff numbers fell sharply between 2020 and 2021 before starting to recover in 2022. Until 2020, the 21st century was going well for universities. Research boomed, with huge increases in resources and outputs. Profits on international students were es

FAQs

What major events affected Australian higher education in the early 2020s?

COVID-19 restrictions forced classes online and reduced international student numbers. The Job-ready Graduates policy also radically changed domestic student funding.

How did enrolments and student experience change between 2020 and 2021?

Total higher education enrolments fell between 2020 and 2021, ending a long growth run. Satisfaction with the social aspects of university life declined, while satisfaction with teaching quality was less affected.

What does the report say about academic misconduct and enforcement in the early 2020s?

Student surveys and university detection indicate high levels of academic misconduct. Regulators and universities increased focus on academic integrity, and while contract cheating services were banned, AI creates new enforcement problems.

Sep 18, 2026

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