Header

Australia School to University Transition

SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY TRANSITION: A 2019 report from Engineers Australia found that women continue to be underrepresented in the engineering profession. Australian women have the capacity to study engineering, but they do not choose to enroll in university engineering programs. From 2013 to 2017, about 2,000 young women apply for places in university engineering courses compared to over 12,000 applications from young men. Yet, in 2018, there was a sharp increase in young women’s applications, such that applications from young women surpassed 2,800. Similarly, an increase in the number of offers made to young women also increased in 2018 with 2,622 of young women applicants receiving offers. Of these young women that received offers, 1,837 of them accepted in 2018. Further, that is not to say that young women received offers solely to address gender inequities, but these young women are highly qualified as observed by their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) scores. That is, these young women that are offered places in university engineering courses tend to have the highest proportion of high ATAR scores among all university applicants, which speaks to their strong academic background. For instance, among these particular young women, over 58% of them had ATAR scores over 90 while among young men with university engineering course offers, less than 40% of them had ATAR scores over 90.

Applications, offers, and acceptances of places in university engineering courses, by Gender, 2010-2018

Applications offers and acceptances of places in university engineering courses by Gender 2010 2018
Source: Engineers Australia (2019). The Engineering Profession: A Statistical Overview, Fourteenth Edition.

australia school to university transition 2
Source: Engineers Australia (2019). The Engineering Profession: A Statistical Overview, Fourteenth Edition.


Additional Resources