Used to be that conservative ministers got stuck into universities over attrition – made a change from sneering at humanities research

There was certainly a hurricane of harrumphing in 2018, carefully addressed by Andrew Norton, Ittima Cherastidtham and Will Mackey in a report for the Grattan Institute (CMM April 30 2018).

But now, around  ’18 appears to have been the attrition peak for domestic commencing students. New stats from the feds record attrition from the public uni system at around 12.74 per cent in 2020 down from 15 per cent in 2014.  As to the cause, perhaps the job-eating impact of Covid had something to do with it, then again, ZOOM study was hardly encouraging not especially engaged students to stay.