Australia’s government has vowed to fund more university places next year on the orders of its new higher education steward.

Education minister Jason Clare said the Australian Tertiary Education Commission had allocated an extra 9,500 domestic places in 2026, boosting this year’s intake by about 4.1 per cent.

It comes on top of a 4 per cent increase to higher education commencements last year, according to Clare. “More people are starting a uni degree than ever before, and that will go up again next year,” he said.

The government has also announced the locations of the latest tranche of its university study hubs. Two will be in remote islands – Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean, and Kangaroo Island south of Adelaide – with a third in Tasmania and a fourth in the Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Northam.

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Three others will be in outer suburban areas of Sydney and Brisbane, including Fairfield, which adjoins Clare’s western Sydney electorate. “We’re building study hubs across the country to bring uni closer to where people live,” he explained.

“Nearly half of young people in their 20s and 30s in Australia have a degree, but not in the outer suburbs and not in the regions. We know study hubs work. The evidence shows that where study hubs are, university participation goes up.”

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The extra 2026 places will be welcome news to universities that cannot satisfy local demand. Others, however, are well below their 2025 quotas – reflecting a disjointed picture of thwarted ambition in some regions of Australia, and disinterest in others.

Participation rates among school-leavers have trended down in recent years yet observers worry that the sector might not have capacity to accommodate a looming demographic bubble.

Shadow education minister Julian Leeser highlighted a gender disparity in university enrolments. “While the data tells a story of the stunning success in women’s education, it also tells of the decline in men’s education,” Leeser told parliament.

“Student numbers are recovering from the pandemic, but men are less likely to commence higher education than they were 10 years ago. In 2015, 168,000 young men started their higher education journey. By 2024, that number had dropped to 158,000. Our national population increased by almost 3.4 million over the same period.

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“What’s driving this trend? Is it a trend we will see continue into the future?”

Clare said the key lay in combating geographical disparity. “Opening the doors of our universities wider to more people from the suburbs and the regions isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s what we have to do,” he said.

“Otherwise, we won’t have the workforce we need and the economy will be stuck in second gear.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com