When we think of a traditional uni student, you might picture someone young who is studying full-time. Maybe they have some casual work, but their main occupation is being a student.

Universities systems are certainly set up based on this assumption. This means processes, support and funding are skewed towards supporting full-time students.

But uni students increasingly study part-time. Typically, these students take one or two classes per semester or less than 75% of a standard study load.

This group are more likely to be older, have demanding paid jobs and have significant caring responsibilities.

And unis have not adapted to meet the needs of this group. We know part-time students are more than twice as likely to drop out of university than full-time students.

In a report released today, I investigate how universities can better support part-time student success.

What do we know about part-time students?

In 2026, more than 360,000 Australian students enrolled in university part-time, making up 35% of all domestic students. Just over half of these students were enrolled in an undergraduate course.

We know many of these students study part time because they need to, not because they want to.

In my report, a survey of almost 1,000 part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students, found 73% studied part-time because they needed to work. In follow-up interviews with 80 students, respondents also noted caring responsibilities were........

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