Drop-out rates in Australian universities have reached their highest level in a decade, as universities enrol record numbers of students across the country.
Up to one in five students now drop out of university, according to figures released by the federal Department of Education.
In NSW the figure is even higher at three universities, with Charles Sturt, Southern Cross and the University of New England losing between 22 and 24 per cent of their student cohort in 2014, the latest year in which adjusted student attrition data is available.
Nationally, the University of Tasmania had the highest attrition rate, with 46 per cent of students dropping out of the Hobart-based university.
In Sydney, Western Sydney University had the most significant drop-out rate of the major universities with 14 per cent of students not completing the courses in which they initially enrolled, a figure that remained below the national average.
UNSW had the lowest number of students leaving the university with fewer than 5 per cent of students departing the Kensington campus, while just under 6 per cent of the more than 40,000 students at University of Sydney opted to not pursue their chosen field of study.
The figures come as record numbers of students enrol in universities across the country. For the first time, more than one million domestic students are currently studying in tertiary institutions.
While the numbers reflect an increasingly educated workforce, they have also sparked concerns over quality and growing public student debt, set to blow out by 560 per cent over the next decade to $180 billion.
In January, Fairfax Media revealed students with Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks as low as 30 were being admitted to university, while tens of thousands of students were being enrolled below the advertised course cut-offs.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Simon Birmingham warned the sector it must take responsibility for the welfare of the students it enrolled.
"Student experiences show there's a range of factors that lead to student attrition and it is going to take concerted efforts from educators and policymakers to reduce it," Mr Birmingham said.
"Universities and higher education providers in particular must take responsibility for the students they enrol because the attrition rate has hovered around 15 per cent for the last decade."
The Grattan Institute's higher education expert Andrew Norton said the massive growth in online courses and part-time students – following the introduction of the demand-driven system – were the biggest factors driving dropout rates.
"It's not that the online course are bad. It's that when you are studying online it's because you can't get to a campus, and that's often because have work and family responsibilities. Those things are competing for your attention, making it hard to put in the required hours."
He said students with low ATARs were also much more likely to drop out, and universities had a responsibility to inform students of these risks. "Are people being told that they are taking a substantial risk of dropping out and incurring debt?," he said.
The federal government's higher education standards panel is due to hand down its recommendations on university entrance reform before the end of the year.
