Health on the rise but students turning off IT in first round of university offers

2 months ago 13

Health courses are surging in popularity among Victorian teens awaiting a university offer, with society and culture, management and commerce still students’ study areas of choice.

There are 47,170 year 12 graduates who will receive first-round offers from Victorian universities, TAFE institutions and independent tertiary colleges on Tuesday, with further offers to study in 2026 to be made in January and February.

Celia Pompeani, this year’s dux at Coburg High School, is one of thousands of Victorian teens who will get university offers on Tuesday.

The fastest-growing area of study is health, which includes nursing and biomedical science, with 9587 students receiving offers to study it next year, up 0.5 per cent from last year’s number, and comprising about 17.6 per cent of all offers.

Society and culture courses remain the biggest area of interest for prospective students, with 10,936 offers and a 20.1 per cent share of all offers, while management and commerce represents 16.5 per cent of offers.

Information technology had the largest drop in interest, with 2125 offers, down 0.9 per cent from last year. This is a continuing trend, as offers dropped from 5.3 per cent in 2023 to 4.5 per cent in 2024.

But education courses continue to boom, bolstered by government incentives, with 2440 offers – representing 4.5 per cent of the total – made this year. Architecture and building, as well as management and commerce, also had a slight boost in offers.

Extensive data on the first-round offers, featuring students, offers and courses, will be available at theage.com.au from 2pm on Tuesday.

There will be 1770 offers released on Tuesday to international students studying an Australian year 12 curriculum, a 10 per cent increase from the 1604 offers made in December 2024. More will be offered in January.

Celia Pompeani, who was this year’s dux at Coburg High School, said she felt a little nervous on Monday as she waited for offers to be sent.

The 18-year-old is part of the growing tide of students wanting to study health, and has applied to the University of Melbourne to study biomedicine.

Pompeani hopes to study biomedicine at the University of Melbourne.

When she received her ATAR score, she was so shocked she restarted her computer to check again. Expecting a score of 95, she received 99.15.

“Honestly, I just wanted something that reflected the amount of work that I put in throughout the year,” she said.

One thing Pompeani is looking forward to when it comes to studying is meeting people who share her interests.

“Once I start talking about biology, I won’t stop. I want to be in a learning environment where other people also want to talk about biology. They’re just interested and want to be there,” she said.

Health, society and culture and education are popular university courses among this year’s VCE graduates.

Pompeani said she liked the University of Melbourne’s approach when it came to studying different areas of biomedicine before having to narrow her focus, and was excited about its biomedical precinct.

“I don’t know exactly what I want for my career, but I want to learn as much as possible,” she said.

“I mean, even if I don’t get in the course I wanted to, for me, there are other pathways and other options. There’s always another way around it.”

Students who don’t receive an offer or who change their mind about their course can still change their preferences before the January round by logging into their VTAC account before 8pm on Tuesday.

Those who don’t get their first-round offer could still get into their preferred course in the second round. The next round of offers will be made on January 13, with more offered in February, which will be made to both year 12 and post-school applicants.

The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre said any students who needed support could contact their schools, tertiary institutions and VTAC Connect, which has help lines open until 8.15pm on Tuesday.

VTAC chief executive officer Teresa Tjia said students’ hard work was reflected in the offers they would receive on Tuesday.

“Celebrate this achievement with family and friends over the new year and share your excitement about the course you’ve chosen,” she said.

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