Statistics for 2017 have been released, only four months late. Award-level Indigenous commencements at uni have increased by 8.7 % on 2016 figures, to 7297 students, and enrolments by a massive 10.7 %, to 19,200. Graduate numbers rose by 10.9 %, to 2,527. Post-graduate students make up about 20 % of all enrolments and graduations. These are federal Education Department figures, which may be under-estimating real numbers by 20 %.

To put these figures into perspective, the number of 20- or 22-year-old Indigenous people is around 14,000. So the equivalent of more than half of such age-groups are participating at universities each year. Not exactly Third-World numbers.

Since 2007, Indigenous commencements have risen by 120 %, or roughly a steady 8 % each year. Total graduate numbers are now approaching 60,000, or one in every seven Indigenous adults. Indigenous women continue to outnumber Indigenous men by two to one at universities, even if many are more likely to be encumbered with children. At current rates, it is very likely that there could be a hundred thousand Indigenous university graduates by 2025, or one in every five or six adults - one in four of all adult Indigenous women, one in eight of all adult Indigenous men.

The most outstanding universities in 2017 were Charles Sturt, Newcastle, QUT and Griffith. From 2007 to 2017, the best performing universities in relation to Indigenous students and graduates were Charles Sturt, New England, CQUniversity, Griffith, QUT and Tasmania.

Universities which persist in trying to channel Indigenous people into Indigenous-focussed courses have stagnated, while others which focus on encouraging Indigenous students to enrol in whatever courses they prefer have flourished.

I suspect that the major reason for such healthy growth has been the role-model effect of previous graduates and as more Indigenous students graduate, future numbers growth may snowball rather than slow down. I also suspect that many universities are ‘turn-stile’ universities, with Indigenous people enrolling on their own initiative rather than with the encouragement or involvement of Indigenous university programs or staff, beavering away on their own careers in ‘Indigenous research’.

That sounds like good news. From what I've heard, the indigenous populations have an undercurrent culture of abuse towards their own populations. Not matter the critisms of universities and higher learning are, one thing int Hem is the culture to put a stop to abuse. This is a good thing for more of that population to go to colleges and universities and potentially change that part of their culture.

Hi Joe,

Education brings new opportunity, and therefor better outcomes. Growth in indigenous learning with go a long way to improving the lot of disadvantaged people.

A while back I was talking with a nephew, university educated/qualified, he is a male Councillor in the Queensland prison system. He works a lot with Islander and Aboriginal blokes, The life stories of many of these guys is so horrendous its a wonder they reach the age to go to jail. None of them got an education, no job skills, totally alienated in society, some very hard bastards among them indeed. Successes are few and far between, but there are those that do turn around, a few.

Good news NNN while it is true please know whites have failed to other than harm any move toward better out comes
We are no better the the once United states in the way we treated our first people.
Paternalistic often driven by the belief their only future was in being bred out of existence.
last night on the TV channel put aside for such people a family I know well had center stage in a town not far away their treatment over the last one hundred years was horrific

Loudmouth, I do not dispute the figures, which are cause for hope, but I would like a link to the source please. I tried googling obvious terms, such as Education Department and Indigenous but cannot find the report containing the data you cite.

Hi Barry,

The data is/are available on: https://www.education.gov.au/selected-higher-education-statistics-2017-student-data

The bare data is there if you look for it, there isn't any special report, and if my suspicions about the Indigenous elites is on the mark, there never will be. Except maybe for a well-out-of-date grizzle about how nothing's changing, using figures from 2006, no matter how much incredible sweat and tears they put into caring for their own people. That sort of self-serving BS.

To re-iterate: annual commencements exceed 50 % of an equivalent age-group, and have done so for some years now. With post-grad enrolments making up about 20 % of commencements, this suggests that about the equivalent of 42% of an age-group commences uni study these days. And increasing by 6-8 % p.a. More than 17,000 Indigenous people were enrolled in standard award-level courses at uni last year, also rising around 8-10 % p.a. In 2017, more than 2,500 Indigenous students graduated from uni, making a combined total now of nearly sixty thousand. Ed. Dept figures may be under-estimating real totals by 20-25 %.

Over the years, I've put together a database, some of which goes back to 1989, of commencements, continuations, enrolments, graduations, half-year data, gender data, institutional data, etc., and it's available from me at: joelane94@internode.on.net

Joe