Despite negative expectations, the value of education as an export for Australia grew 6% in 2025.
The value of Education as an export for Australia grew 6% to $54.998 billion in 2025, an all-time peak figure, from $51.895 billion in 2024, from an Australian Bureau of Statistics release on 30 April 2026.
Education in 2025 was Australia’s fifth largest export, behind Iron Ore, Coal, Natural Gas and Gold. Education as an export for Australia is no longer more valuable than Gold.
Education in 2025 was the third largest export for NSW, the largest export for Victoria, the third largest export for Queensland, the second largest export for South Australia and the largest export for ACT.
Detail is in the paper ExportsAustraliaStates2025 by Alan Olsen.
In 2025, 46.7% of 25 to 34 year olds in Australia had at least a bachelor degree, because 53.3% of young women are graduates and 40.0% of young men are graduates.
Gender differences are apparent on a number of other measures.
Of 136,699 Bachelor degree completions by Australian university students in 2024, 61.0% were women and 38% were men. This gender split means that 60% more women than men are completing Bachelor degrees.
At the other end of the higher education experience, there were 6,445 research higher degree completions (PhD or Masters by Research) by Australian students in 2024. 56% were women and 44% were men. This gender split means that 28% more women than men are completing research higher degrees.
Detail is in the paper The Gender Agenda by Alan Olsen.
The number of international students in Australian universities hit an all-time peak in 2024.
There were 495,652 international students in Australian universities in 2024, an all-time peak, from 453,796 a year earlier in 2023, and higher than the pre-pandemic 453,833 in 2019.
The 495,652 international students in 2024 made up 32.7% of the 1,513,706 students in Australian universities, an all-time peak proportion, from 31.0% a year earlier and higher than the figure 30.6% in pre-pandemic 2019.
Across the 42 universities in 2024, the proportion of international students ranged from 5.7% to 57.4%.
Detail is in the paper Students 2024 by Alan Olsen.
