A Comparative Analysis of the Student Growth in the Australian and UK University Sectors
Summary Section 1
In our investigation, we began by describing some fundamental differences between the Australian and the United Kingdom (UK) University sectors. With these
differences in mind, we proceeded to compare the growth of the sectors by modelling the average total student population size over a period of 5 years.
We then looked into the distribution of the changes in total student population size from one year to the next over the time series considered.
It followed from this analysis the necessity to look into the growth of the domestic and overseas populations of both sectors. A summary of the key statistical
findings is given below.
- The total number of students across all Australian universities combined has increased 17.1% in the last five years according to the most current data
available, which is for the period 2006 to 2010. In comparison, the total number of students across all universities in the UK has increased 4.2% over
the same period.
- Given the population of each country, the UK has 10% more universities than Australia.
- In the UK, on average, a University would exist in every 2047 kmē, while in Australia, on average, a University would exist in every 195,332 kmē
(this measurements are only indicative).
- The distribution of total student population size of the Australian sector is centred at 28,888.9, with a standard deviation of 14,061.1.
The distribution of the UK sector is centred at 18,406.8, with a standard deviation of 7,990.9. On average, Australian universities have larger student
populations and with larger variability.
- In the Australian sector, the size of the total student population increases at a rate of 1064 students per year for the average-sized university.
In comparison, the size of the total student population in the UK sector increases at a rate of 276 students per year for the average-sized university.
Both trend lines have been increasing significantly throughout time.
- The domestic rate of growth in the Australian sector is 660 domestic students per year for the average-sized university. In comparison,
the domestic rate of growth in the UK is 98 domestic students per year for the average-sized university.
- The overseas rate of growth in the Australian sector is 404 overseas students per year for the average-sized university. In comparison, the overseas
rate of growth in the UK sector is 178 overseas students per year for the average-sized university.
- The domestic populations in the universities of both sectors have similar sampling variability, but their overseas populations do not.
The standard error of the Australian sector overseas population rate of growth is four times larger than the standard error of the UK sector.
This may be related to outliers in the Australian sample.
- Further investigation showed that in the Australian sector, the average percentage change in the size of the overseas student population of universities
above the median size was 6.17%. In comparison, the average percentage change in overseas student population size for universities below the median size was
3.63%. The last time period for the Australian sector (i.e. 20092010) is the only time period (and the Australian sector is the only university sector)
where percentage changes are, on average, significantly higher for larger universities.
You can read the conculsion of our investigation here.
Data for the analysis has been obtained from the following sources:
Source Australia: DIISRTE.
Copyright Commonwealth of Australia, reproduce by permission of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.
Source United Kingdom: HESA.
Reproduced by permission of the Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited.
HESA cannot accept responsibility for any conclusions or inferences derived from the data by third parties.
