Last updated: February 2026.

Key facts (why staying engaged matters)

• National survey data indicates 46% of Australian undergraduates were considering an early course exit due to health and/or stress reasons. (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al., 2021)

• Around 20% of students leave university before completing their course. (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al., 2021)

• Retention is lower for students from regional (79.2%) and remote areas (76.6%). (ACSES Data Program, 2025)

If you are considering tertiary study in Australia, or you are supporting a young adult who is, it can be tempting to treat acceptance as the main hurdle. In practice, the bigger challenge is often staying engaged long enough to finish, particularly once the full load of study, life admin, casual work hours, health and stress, and a new environment begin to stack up.

The most recent national snapshot from the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) provides a grounded starting point. Across Australia’s main public universities, the sector retention rate for domestic undergraduates was 83.2% in 2022. ACSES also notes that students who switch universities are still counted as “retained” within the higher education system, meaning this is a national indicator of staying in higher education overall, rather than a measure of staying at one specific institution. When ACSES breaks the same snapshot down by geography, the pattern becomes especially relevant for regional and remote families. In 2022, retention was 79.2% for students from regional areas and 76.6% for students from remote areas (ACSES Data Program, 2025).

The purpose of quoting these figures is not to label anyone or suggest a particular outcome. It is to highlight something many families already sense: tertiary success is not only about intelligence or motivation. It is also shaped by whether the overall situation is sustainable, including a student’s capacity to manage weekly academic demands, the practical load of living more independently, the supports available, and the student’s ability to access those supports when needed.

When people ask, “Why would someone leave if they were capable?”, Australian policy synthesis on tertiary student wellbeing points to a consistent theme: strain is common, and it matters. A Mitchell Institute policy evidence brief published in 2021 cites national survey data indicating that 46% of Australian undergraduates were considering an early course exit because of health and/or stress reasons, and it also notes that around 20% of students leave university before completing their course (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al., 2021). The same brief frames mental health concerns as often emerging from psychological stressors in social and environmental settings. Read gently, this supports the notion that withdrawal is frequently less about capability and more about the combined load becoming hard to sustain over time (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al., 2021).

Relocation is one of the clearest examples of how that load can rise. Moving away for study often means rebuilding routines, social supports, and knowledge of services at the very moment academic demands increase. A Tasmanian comparison study by Skromanis and colleagues found that international students reported poorer satisfaction with their environment and lower perceived social support than domestic students, and they were far less likely to seek help for mental health related problems. In that sample, help seeking for a mental health problem was 17.1% for international students compared with 51.4% for domestic students (Skromanis et al., 2018). While Australia is one country, it is also vast, and moving interstate can still involve major changes in distance from family, local supports, living arrangements, and how day-to-day life runs.

Cost is part of the picture, but it rarely explains decisions on its own. A Melbourne Institute working paper analysing Australian fee reforms notes that student contribution amounts changed substantially by field of study, ranging from a 59% reduction to a 117% increase across disciplines (Yong et al., 2023). The same paper reports that student preferences do shift in response to fees, but not dramatically, which suggests that price influences choices without being the main driver for many students and families in Australia (Yong et al., 2023). A clearer way to put the implication is this: because study and career pathway decisions are rarely driven by cost alone in Australia, it becomes even more important to understand what a chosen career pathway is likely to demand week to week, and whether those associated demands are likely to be sustainable for the person over the long term.

Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, the message across this evidence is consistent. Continuing year to year is common, but not guaranteed (ACSES Data Program, 2025). Health and stress sit prominently in early exit thinking at a national level (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al., 2021). Transition load can rise sharply with relocation and reduced support networks, with Australian international student data showing how this can affect perceived support and help seeking (Skromanis et al., 2018).

For families and young adults, none of this is a reason to feel pessimistic. It is simply a reminder that persistence is shaped by the interaction between the learner and the setting, and by the value of understanding the demands clearly and planning with care during tertiary transition.

For more information about informed tertiary transition planning and preparedness: visit www.tertiarytransition.com.au to learn more about the Tertiary Transition Functional Profile, which applies a clinically informed lens across Career Pathway Fit, Capacity and Sustainability for Tertiary Study, and Independent Living Readiness.

Note: This page provides general information and is not personal advice. Figures are drawn from published Australian sources (see references) and are presented to support informed planning.

© 2026 Tertiary Transition (Tom Underhay) | Australia | Queensland