Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances 2016

Home State / Interstate

The majority of applicants (87.3%) applied to study in their home state in 2016. In total, there were 39,554 interstate applicants nationally, many of whom also applied in their home state.

The proportion of home state applicants was largest in South Australia (89.3%) and Victoria (87.6%), followed by Tasmania (87.3%). Applicants residing in the ACT (65.5%) and NT (57.7%) were more likely to apply interstate in 2016.

Table : Applicants by state and territory of permanent home residence, 2016*

State/territory of university	State of permanent home residence
	NSW	Vic.	Qld	WA	SA	Tas.	ACT	NT
NSW	82.4%	2.5%	5.2%	5.0%	2.2%	3.3%	17.5%	7.9%
Vic.	3.1%	87.6%	2.3%	6.6%	2.6%	6.1%	5.0%	10.3%
Qld	2.8%	0.9%	83.3%	2.5%	0.9%	1.5%	2.4%	6.4%
WA	1.7%	0.8%	0.8%	80.2%	0.7%	0.4%	1.5%	1.3%
SA	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.7%	89.3%	0.4%	0.5%	12.7%
Tas.	3.4%	1.5%	2.2%	2.3%	1.6%	87.3%	2.5%	2.3%
ACT	2.4%	0.2%	2.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.5%	65.5%	1.1%
NT	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%	1.6%	2.5%	0.5%	0.3%	57.7%
Multi-State	3.5%	5.4%	3.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	4.7%	0.4%

*An applicant is classified as an ‘interstate’ applicant if he/she applies for a place at a university that is not in the state or territory in which the application was made. There may be cases, however, where ‘interstate’ applicants apply to study in their state of permanent home residence. For example, a NSW applicant applying to study at the NSW campus of the University of Tasmania will be recorded as an ’interstate’ applicant.
Non-metropolitan applicants were more likely to apply interstate compared with metropolitan applicants (15.5% compared with 10.1% respectively). This is consistent with their need to move to attend university.
The likelihood of applying interstate appears to be positively related to Year 12 achievement. Only a small proportion of Year 12 applicants with an ATAR of 80 or less applied interstate (2.2%). This compares with 3.5% for applicants with an ATAR between 80.05 and 90.00 and 7.2% for applicants in the highest ATAR band (90.05 or more).
These figures are consistent with interstate applicants’ focus on a limited number of high demand courses. For example, Medical Studies attracted a large number of interstate applications. Just over one fifth (21.8%) of all interstate applicants applied for a course in Medical Studies. By contrast, Medical Studies accounted for only 1.8% of applications from home state applicants.

5.