Teacher education students are happy with the quality of their courses, according to the new edition of the annual AITSL survey

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership combines survey data to report annually on the state of teacher education. Key findings in the new analysis include:

Teacher education student numbers grew by 30 per cent between 2006 and 2015. Growth picked up as demand driven funding kicked in but remained in-line with overall enrolments, holding at 6 per cent of total enrolled students.

There was UG retention of 77 per cent, 1 per cent lower than the mean for nine undergraduate programmes.

Commencing students who entered a course on the basis of ATAR of 81 or higher had an 84 per cent retention rate, 5 per cent higher than the all-ATAR entrants while 73 per cent of teacher education commencers with ATARs under 50 continued their course. There was a 75 per cent retention rate for people not admitted on an ATAR.

Over ten disciplines, undergraduate teacher education’s 62 per cent for completion/still studying over six years, was fourth, 12 per cent behind health.

Of recent undergraduate degree completers 82 per cent were satisfied with their course, in line with the 2015 all-programmes figure.

In 2015 94 per cent of new teachers with an undergraduate degree were employed, with 70 per cent teach full-time.