Australia’s initial teacher education (ITE) pipeline remains under pressure, with new national data showing a slight decline in commencements and a continued drop in completions, even as the school-aged population continues to grow.
The latest National Trends: Initial Teacher Education Pipeline report, released in December 2025, tracks ITE student commencements, enrolments, completions and attrition from 2005 to 2023. The publication is designed to support workforce planning by highlighting trends that may affect future teacher supply.
In 2023, 24,864 students commenced an ITE program, representing a 0.4 per cent decrease compared with 2022. Nearly half (48 per cent) of all commencing students studied either completely or partly online, continuing an upward trend from 46 per cent the previous year.
The report shows clear differences in student characteristics across program types and degree levels. Students preparing to teach in primary and secondary settings are typically younger and more likely to enter ITE via secondary schooling or prior higher education. By contrast, students studying to teach early childhood learners tend to be older and most commonly enter through prior Vocational Education and Training (VET).
Secondary programs accounted for the largest share of commencements in 2023 (33 per cent), followed closely by primary programs (32 per cent), indicating a relatively even distribution across the two major schooling sectors.
While commencements have remained relatively stable, completions continue to decline. In 2023, 16,030 students completed an ITE program, a fall of three per cent compared with the previous year. Between 2017 and 2023, completions decreased at an average rate of 2.6 per cent per year.
Over the same period, Australia’s student-aged population grew at an average rate of one per cent annually. The report notes that growth in the student-aged population has consistently outpaced ITE completions, a trend that may exacerbate existing shortages in the national teacher workforce.
Completion rates – measuring the proportion of a commencing cohort who go on to complete their program – vary significantly by study and student characteristics. Students studying part-time, online, or who are mature-aged are much less likely to complete both undergraduate and postgraduate ITE programs.
Although overall completion rates have declined over time, the report identifies some recent stabilisation. There was a slight increase in completion rates for the most recent undergraduate cohort, alongside stabilisation among recent postgraduate cohorts.
Attrition remains a critical issue across the pipeline. For both undergraduate and postgraduate ITE students, attrition is highest in the first year after commencement and remains elevated in the second year, before dropping substantially in later years of study.
The findings underline ongoing challenges for workforce planning, particularly in balancing flexible study options with improved retention and completion outcomes across the ITE pipeline.
View the full report here.
