Tertiary education in Australia

The University of Melbourne, Melbourne.
Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Canberra.
The University of Sydney, Sydney.
The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Brisbane: Moreton Bay Campus
Australian National University, Canberra.

Tertiary education in Australia is formal education beyond high school in Australia, consisting of both government and private institutions and divided into two sectors; Higher Education (provided by universities) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) provided by government-owned TAFEs & private Registered Training Organisations (RTO). Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), the Australian national education policy, classifies tertiary qualification into 10 levels: level 1 to 4 vocational certificates (I - IV); level 5 & 6 undergraduate diploma and advanced diploma; level 6 associate degree; level 7 bachelor degree; level 8 bachelor honours degree & graduate certificates and graduate diplomas; level 9 for master's degree; and level 10 PhD.

Most universities are government owned and mostly self-regulated. For other institutes (VETs, i.e. TAFE & RTO) there are two national regulators for tertiary education for registration, recognition and quality assurance of both the "provider institutes" as well as the "individual courses" provided by the providers. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 5 or above. Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 1 to level 6.

For admission into Australian institutes, Australian & New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents, are considered "domestic students" regardless of whether their prior education was in Australia or overseas. All others are considered "international students". Domestic students need to apply only once to the TACs (State-based unified Tertiary Admission Centre) of the relevant state for admission to all the universities within that state, which grant admission based on the ATAR-based "Selection Rank" (SR). Those students with International Baccalaureate (IB), both domestic and international students, must apply to the "Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres" (ACTAC) which calculates an Australia-wide ATAR-like national rank called "Combined Rank" (CR). Domestic students usually pay far less in subsidised-fees compared to international students. Additionally, domestic students are entitled to Australia's publicly funded universal health care insurance scheme Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and various social security welfare payments & benefits, e.g. Austudy Payment, Youth Allowance, etc., to meet living expenses. International students are not entitled to these benefits. All international students apply individually to each university, and most international students are self-financed non-subsidised full-fee paying students.

There are 43 universities registered in Australia (including 37 public universities, four private universities, and one international private university). Many Australian universities have formed several network groupings, such as the Group of Eight (8 leading universities which receive two thirds of the government research grant funding awarded to all universities), the Australian Technology Network (ATN), Innovative Research Universities (IRU), the Regional Universities Network (RUN), and more.

Australia is well known for high quality education, most of the universities are government owned, and they rank very highly on the global rankings. Australia is ranked 4th (with Germany) in the OECD by international PhD students destination after the US, UK and France. Australia has a comparatively high proportion of international students as a percentage of students enrolled, at 26.5% in 2018. Australia has the fifth-highest number of foreign students worldwide.

56% of the 462,033 international students enrolled in Australia are from five nations; China (23%), India (16%), Nepal (10%), Colombia (4%) and Thailand (3%) with an enrolment ratio of 50% in Higher Education (229,833), 35% VET (162,193), 11% ELICOS (English language course) (50,246), 2% Schools (19,704) and 2% Non-Award (8,057). In 2022, 69% of Australians aged 20–64 had a tertiary qualification, and 24% had multiple qualifications. Among all ethnic groups in Australia, Indian Australians are the most educated group in Australia with 54.6% having a bachelor's or higher degree — more than three times Australia's national average of 17.2%.

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