Our University will complete the century with a student population of 14,536, of whom 12 per cent are from overseas, 22 per cent are postgraduate, and 51 per cent are female. Of our postgraduates, more than 11 per cent are undertaking a higher degree by research -- among the highest proportion in the 'Group of Eight' Australian research-intensive universities.
The median age of the student population at 20 years is lower than might be expected in most institutional profiles, but it reflects the University's policy (directed by the Commonwealth) that it should recruit its undergraduate students predominantly from amongst school leavers. Hence, 66 per cent of undergraduates are school leavers, whereas the national average is only 42 per cent.
The academic quality of our students continues to distinguish us from our competitors. In the last year of the century we enrolled 75.6 per cent of the State's top five per cent of school leavers; while at the output end, 80 per cent of the 1998 cohort of graduates and diplomates were (at the beginning of 1999) either engaged in full-time work or further study.
The exceptionally high academic performance of students is in part a consequence of the University's admissions processes which at both undergraduate and postgraduate level are carefully controlled and based on objective measures of abilities.
The raw data give an inadequate account of the vibrancy of the student population which produces national exemplars in sport, in the arts, in science and in creative research, and contributes significantly to University governance through membership of numerous committees. The development of our University has been built on a successful partnership with the Guild of Students which has at times been challenging, but always productive.
Our University is committed to maintaining a system which is accessable to all who have the capacity to benefit from a high quality university education. The decline in public expenditure on the sector (which appears unlikely to change in the early years of the new decade) has required the University to look to new ways of maintaining accessibility, in particular the development of an expanded portfolio of scholarships and bursaries available to different categories of students.
The Guild itself has been threatened by the consequences of voluntary student union legislation, which was enacted by the State Government five years ago. It is a fair reflection of the quality and energy of the student body, that the Guild has survived cuts in the order of 75 per cent to its membership base and hence to its income. With help from the University, its business operations are now in order and it is well positioned to recover some of its strength in the next decade.
The Australian component of the student body is predominantly drawn from within the State. In coming years, there may be some increase in student mobility between states, particularly so if the suite of scholarships released by the University in 1999 prove to be an attraction. The reality of our geographical isolation is that the student body will continue to be predominantly West Australian. For this reason we have a strong commitment to a policy of internationalisation, which will both bring increasing numbers of overseas students to our University to study and share their cultural experiences, and provide opportunities for domestic students to spend some time studying in another country as an accredited part of their course. | 