The number of young men attending university is in free fall, with new figures revealing women now make up almost two-thirds of domestic students starting higher education. <\/p>\n
Over the past decade, the number of women studying has increased while the number of men has gone backwards, with many citing high costs of a degree as a deal-breaker. <\/p>\n
Young women are also more likely to complete uni, and hold a bachelor degree or above, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. <\/p>\n
Women accounted for about 62 per cent of students in 2024. <\/p>\n
There were 252,590 women starting higher education the same year, compared with 158,103 men. <\/p>\n
For Brad Felton, 20, from Blacktown in Western Sydney, bypassing more study, and going straight into work felt like the smarter choice.<\/p>\n
Mr Felton is working full-time as a tradie in flooring while training to become a firefighter. <\/p>\n
He said classroom-style education did not suit the way he learned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a hands-on, try-to-do-something-until-I-get-it-right person,\u201d Mr Felton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool to me was very isolating … where you got spoken at and told exactly how things had to be and what you needed to remember, and if you couldn\u2019t, you just didn\u2019t do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said at school, he was told uni was the best option, even though trades and TAFE were not discouraged.<\/p>\n
But the cost of a degree was a major deterrent.<\/p>\n
\u201cConstantly being told that we are in a cost-of-living crisis and I\u2019ll never own a home doesn\u2019t help when someone is trying to get you to spend 50 grand on a degree that you might not even want in 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the idea of immediately putting myself into debt was a strong deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Felton said earning money and learning how to support himself made more sense than taking on debt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a no-brainer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Anthony Ferraria, 24, now living in Port Stephens, went straight into university after school before changing his mind and becoming a technician.<\/p>\n
He said his school \u201cheavily implied\u201d university was the path after school, with little consideration given to TAFE or other career options.<\/p>\n
He said he did not fully understand HECS debt when he enrolled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t crippled my life, but I wish I knew the consequence of not being sure of my education,\u201d Mr Ferraria said.<\/p>\n
He said the moment he knew he would not finish came after sitting a genetics final exam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had flunked it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was more build-up from the years I was at uni, but I knew at that point that I wasn\u2019t going to see it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ferraria said he believed university remained important for research and other professions, but many young people were now focused on what would deliver a reliable lifestyle, fast. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost people are just interested in what will give them a reliable, good-quality lifestyle and most uni degrees can\u2019t deliver that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Julian Jelacic, 22, also from Blacktown, is studying a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science while working as a chef.<\/p>\n
He said university and a strong ATAR were treated as the main measures of success at school.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrades were available, but they weren\u2019t spoken about with the same prestige,\u201d Mr Jelacic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back, I think there should have been more emphasis on different pathways because success isn\u2019t one-size-fits-all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said many young men wanted a pathway where they could start earning and building a career immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, university is expensive, takes years, and doesn\u2019t always guarantee a job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This gender gap begins before students even reach university.<\/p>\n
Women applied, received offers and enrolled at university in higher numbers than males, a submission by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) to a federal inquiry into educational attainment said.<\/p>\n
UAC said more males achieved high ATARs above 98, but more females achieved ATAR results in almost every category between 45 and 98.<\/p>\n
Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success executive director Professor Shamit Saggar said the male share of university enrolment had been declining for some time across advanced economies.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the strongest predictors of university participation is success at school and here, research consistently finds that girls on average perform better than boys,\u201d Professor Saggar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis increases the likelihood of higher education participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Education Minister Jason Clare said the government wanted a better and fairer education system for \u201crich and poor, city and bush, boys and girls\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore women enrol in university than men. More men enrol in TAFE and in apprenticeships than women,\u201d Mr Clare said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is this, in the years ahead more jobs are going to require more and more skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said any decline in university participation was concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should never be about pitting students against each other \u2013 it\u2019s about making sure anyone with the ability and ambition to go to university can get there and succeed,\u201d Mr Sheehy said.<\/p>\n
Western Sydney University Vice-Chancellor Professor George Williams said reforming the \u201cunfair Morrison-era Job-ready Graduates package\u201d should be a priority if Australia was serious about encouraging more young men into university.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith nine out of 10 new jobs to be created in the next decade requiring a post-secondary education, there is a real risk that a generation of men will be locked out of the best new jobs,\u201d Professor Williams said.<\/p>\n
For young men like Mr Felton, university is still relevant, but it is no longer the only serious path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many great paths nowadays that to not look around would be stupid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of young men attending university is in free fall, with new figures revealing women now make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-789887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}