Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances 2016

Regionality

Share of Applicants

In 2016, just under one quarter of domestic applicants (24.3%) (excluding WA TAC applicants data), were from non-metropolitan areas (regional and remote areas). This is lower than their share of the working age population 15 to 64 year olds (28.6%)⁸, demonstrating that people from non-metropolitan areas are under-represented in the pool of domestic applicants. 74.5% of applicants were living in metropolitan areas, higher than their share of the working age population (71.4%). The remaining 1.1% reported overseas addresses or had invalid or missing postcodes.
Under-representation of non-metropolitan residents translates into lower participation at university. In 2015 (latest published enrolment data), non-metropolitan students accounted for 20.8%⁹ of all domestic undergraduate student commencements, compared with their population share of 28.6%. Recent ABS estimates show that the non-metropolitan share of the 15 to 64 year old population was lower in 2015 at 26.9%¹⁰.

Applicants

Growth of applicants from metropolitan areas (excluding WA TAC applicants) was higher than the growth of applicants from non-metropolitan areas (1.7% as opposed to 1.6%) in 2016.
Table : Applicants by region (excluding WA TAC applicants)*, 2015 and 2016

Region	2015	2016	% Change
Metropolitan	240,573	244,620	1.7%
Non-Metropolitan	78,611	79,869	1.6%
Australia**	322,779	328,219	1.7%

* Applications made through WA tertiary admission centre are excluded due to the ‘half-year’ Year 12 cohort effect, but applications made directly by WA residents are included.

** The Australia total includes data that could not be coded to a region.

Offers

The number of metropolitan applicants who received an offer increased by 0.9% in 2016 compared with a increase of 0.8% for non-metropolitan applicants.
Table : Applicants receiving offers by region (excluding WA TAC offers)*, 2015 and 2016

Region	2015	2016	% Change
Metropolitan	200,523	202,351	0.9%
Non-Metropolitan	68,470	69,031	0.8%
Australia**	271,646	273,951	0.8%

* Offers made through WA tertiary admission centre are excluded due to the ‘half-year’ Year 12 cohort effect, but applications made directly by WA residents are included.

* The Australia total includes data that could not be coded to a region.

However, non-metropolitan applicants were more likely to receive an offer compared with metropolitan applicants in 2016 (86.4% and 82.7% respectively).


Figure : Offer rates by region (excluding WA data)*, 2015 and 2016

*Applications and offers made through WA tertiary admission centre are excluded due to the ‘half-year’ Year 12 cohort effect, but applications made directly by WA residents are included.

Acceptances

Despite their higher offer rate, non-metropolitan applicants are less likely to accept their offer compared with metropolitan applicants in 2016 (78.1% and 72.8% respectively). This pattern was also observed in 2015. As noted in Chapter 5, non-metropolitan applicants were more likely to defer their offer compared with metropolitan applicants.

State and Territory

Tasmania recorded the largest proportion of applicants from non-metropolitan areas (99.4%) in 2016. By contrast, 70.3% of applicants in Queensland were from metropolitan areas.
Figure : Share of applicants by region and state and territory, 2016


In all states and territories except the ACT, non-metropolitan applicants were more likely to receive an offer compared with metropolitan applicants in 2016. The largest gap in offer rates between non-metropolitan and metropolitan applicants was recorded in Tasmania (94.6% compared with 80.0% respectively).


Table : Offer rates by region by state and territory (excluding WA TAC data)*, 2015 and 2016

State/Territory	2015			2016
	Metropolitan	Non-Metropolitan	Total	Metropolitan	Non-Metropolitan	Total
NSW	85.4%	87.2%	85.7%	84.4%	87.1%	85.0%
VIC	78.8%	81.9%	79.4%	80.3%	82.9%	80.8%
QLD	85.8%	89.5%	86.9%	87.2%	89.4%	87.8%
WA	79.3%	83.0%	79.4%	85.5%	89.4%	85.7%
SA	79.8%	82.4%	80.3%	78.9%	83.5%	79.7%
TAS	81.7%	92.8%	92.8%	80.0%	94.6%	94.5%
ACT	86.4%	80.6%	86.3%	86.5%	80.6%	86.2%
NT	82.6%	76.5%	76.7%	57.5%	75.7%	75.9%
Australia**	82.7%	86.4%	83.5%	83.4%	87.1%	84.2%

* Applications and offers processed through WA tertiary admission centre are excluded due to the ‘half-year’ Year 12 cohort effect, but applications made directly by WA residents are included.

** The Australia total includes data that could not be assigned to a region.

Field of Education

Compared with metropolitan applicants, non-metropolitan applicants were more likely to apply for courses in Health, Education and Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies courses in 2016. On the other hand, Management and Commerce and Natural and Physical Sciences courses were more popular among metropolitan applicants.
Figure : Proportion of applicants by region and field of education, 2016

Type of University

Compared with metropolitan applicants, non-metropolitan applicants are more likely to apply to RUN universities (5.0% compared with 20.3% respectively). On the other hand, metropolitan applicants are more likely to apply to Go8 universities (25.2%) compared with non-metropolitan students (12.1%). A higher proportion of non-metropolitan applicants (19.4%) apply to IRU universities compared with metropolitan applicants (12.4%). In contrast, a lower proportion of non-metropolitan applicants (9.6%) apply to ATN universities compared with metropolitan applicants (20.6%).
Table : Applicants by region and type of university, 2016

Type of university	Applications		Share of applications (%)
	Metropolitan	Non-metropolitan	Metropolitan	Non-metropolitan
Group of Eight	64,450	9,921	25.2%	12.1%
Australian Technology Network	52,773	7,889	20.6%	9.6%
Innovative Research Universities	31,791	15,888	12.4%	19.4%
Regional Universities Network	12,813	16,650	5.0%	20.3%
Total*	255,634	82,035	100.0%	100.0%

Note: This table excludes data that could not be coded to a region.

*Total includes applications for universities that are not aligned with a university group.

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