Despite the great undergraduate expansion of the demand driven system, the 2016 attrition rate for commencing university students was 14.39 per cent, below the 14.85 per cent rate in 2005. Demonstrating universities were adjusting to the new UG population, the 2016 figure was noticeably lower than the 15.07 per cent rate in 2014.  The statistics are in federal figures newly released.

“Since 2008, the uncapped system of university places opened the doors of opportunity to nearly a quarter of a million more Australians. Keeping attrition in check while expanding access to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds was a big achievement,” Universities Australia CEO Catriona Jackson said last night.

The University of Melbourne had the lowest attrition rate in the country, 4 per cent, in 2016. Its annual attrition scores throughout the demand driven funding years were all lower than the 6.03 per cent it rated in 2005.

Other universities with attrition well below the 2016 universities average were; UNSW – 4.04 per cent, Bond U – 5.47 per cent, Monash U-5.53 per cent, UniSydney – 5.52 per cent, ANU –  7.21 per cent,  UWA – 8.37 per cent, University of Queensland – 9.01 per cent  and University of Notre Dame WA, – 9.98 per cent.

Universities that lost 20 per cent or more of their 2016 first years included; Charles Darwin U – 26.43 per cent, USQ – 25.67 per cent, Swinburne U of Technology – 23.66 per cent,  Southern Cross U – 23.37 per cent,  CQU – 23.15 per cent, Charles Sturt U – 23.14 per cent,  UNE – 22.8 per cent, Federation U – 22.47 per cent, U Tasmania – 22.06 per cent, Edith Cowan U – 21.3 per cent, and Victoria U – 21.1 per cent.