It is reasonable to say that the differences in student growth between the Australian and the UK sectors are primarily affected by two factors: the number of universities that each sector has proportional to their populations, and the institutional densities of both countries. Thus, the UK has 10% more universities than Australia and they are located closer to each other than the universities in Australia. This is an important consideration because the pool of local universities that is available to prospective students is greater for students in the UK than for students in Australia. This fact makes the UK university sector more competitive in the acquisition and retention of students. The effect of this competitiveness has manifested itself in the statistics and trends presented here.
The variability in percentage changes in the UK sector is higher than that in the Australian sector in every population and in every time period of the time series considered. Consistently the UK sector shows that changes in the size of student populations can be more severe (that is, variable) and more extreme (that is, showing values further away from the norm) than the changes observed in the Australian sector. This is true for both the domestic and overseas populations and reflects the nature of a dynamic sector. Furthermore, the median percentage changes of the domestic and overseas populations have similar trends. These findings suggest that factors affecting the student growth of the UK sector influence the sector more evenly than the factors affecting the growth of the Australian sector. The findings are indicative of a competitive market and a level playing field in the UK sector.
However, the signs of a level playing field cannot be observed as distinctly in the Australian sector precisely because of the effects of there being fewer universities and lower institutional density. The effects of these factors are more apparent in the growth of the overseas populations. The fewer number of universities in the Australian sector would allow for a greater influx of overseas students into the universities, yet this influx appears uneven across the sector. The statistical evidence suggests that some universities hold significantly larger numbers of overseas students, and hence they represent outliers in the sample of overseas populations. Furthermore, evidence showed that the increase in the average size of overseas populations from 2009 to 2010 is due to greater growth occurring in universities that are of above median size. A possible explanation for this may be the fact that a significant number of Australian universities are in regional areas. These universities may not be able to capitalize on the influx of overseas students as effectively as larger universities located in metropolitan areas.
The Australian sector has achieved remarkable growth in the domestic student population. Only very few universities have not been able achieve growth in every time period of the time series considered. We can see this in Figure 7. Understanding the factors associated with such rapid growth and its effect on the retention and progression of students is subject to further investigation, particularly in terms of the criteria for students’ entry into universities. Such rapid growth in the Australian sector may also reflect successful domestic student acquisition strategies that may interest UK universities.
Further exploration related to comparative analysis of the retention rates of the two sectors would be an interesting path to take given the statistical evidence now at hand. The evidence suggests that the UK sector is much more competitive than the Australian sector in the acquisition and retention of students. Thus, it is reasonable to say that retention strategies may also differ significantly between the sectors, and these differences may be reflected in the retention rate of the sectors. Exploring these retention rates may produce evidence to support the notion of benchmarking activities between the Australian and UK university sectors.
Please download the entire