More Australians will start a university degree this year than ever before. 

According to preliminary data from the Department of Education, university applications for commencing undergraduate students are up 4.6 per cent and offers are up 2.5 per cent compared to the same time last year¹.

In particular, for offers: 

• Teaching is up 6 per cent¹
• Nursing is up 6 per cent
• Science is up 8 per cent
• Social work is up 19 per cent
• Engineering is up 9 per cent²

This follows the Australian Tertiary Education Commission allocating an extra 9,500 domestic places to universities this year on top of 2025 levels. 

Expanding access to university education is what the Universities Accord is all about with a target for 80 per cent of the workforce to have a tertiary qualification by 2050, up from around 60 per cent today.

The only way to hit that target is to help more people go to university and TAFE and that includes making more university places available.  

A further 16,000 fully funded Commonwealth supported places will be allocated in 2027.

Over the next decade we expect to fund another 200,000 commencing places at university. 

This is all about opening the doors of our universities wider and helping more people build the skills they need. 

As at 16 February 2026