The Federal Government has released its report of the demand driven university placement reform, with Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, saying the Government’s work will allow for an unprecedented skills boom to meet increased demand for a variety of labour.

 

The Demand Driven System: Undergraduate Applications and Offers report details a boom in placements since the Federal Government introduced its demand driven placement reform, recording over 150,000 additional placements offered since the reform took effect.

 

The report found that 221,765 offers were made this year, an increase by 5.5 per cent compared with the same time last year.

 

The largest growth in university offers is being seen in health (10.2%), engineering (7.8%) and natural and physical sciences (7.0%).

 

"The Government set the ambitious target that by 2020, 40 per cent of all 25 to 34-year-olds will hold a bachelor's degree or above and lift the participation levels of disadvantaged students to 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments,” Senator Evans said at the report’s launch.

 

"It is an economic imperative that we meet these targets. If we don't, we will consign ourselves to low economic growth and will not be able to compete in the future economy. This report shows we are well on our way to successfully fulfilling these goals."

 

Offers to applicants from low socioeconomic backgrounds have also shown the largest increase (5.8%) compared with offers to applicants from medium socioeconomic backgrounds (5.7%) and high socioeconomic backgrounds (4.9%).

 

The report can be found here