More Australians are choosing to study teaching, with new national data showing a continued lift in applications and university offers for undergraduate teaching degrees in 2026.
According to figures released by the federal government, applications to study undergraduate teaching in 2026 have increased by 6.5 per cent, while domestic undergraduate university offers are up 6.3 per cent.
The rise follows two consecutive years of strong growth, with domestic commencements in teaching degrees jumping nine per cent in 2025 and 10 per cent the year before.
Minister for Education Mr Jason Clare said the latest figures marked a clear turnaround after enrolments in teaching degrees declined prior to the current government being elected.
“When we were elected the number of people studying teaching was going down. Now it’s going up,” he said.
The growth in offers is expected to translate into another strong intake of new teaching students this year, at a time when schools across the country continue to face workforce shortages.
Mr Clare described teaching as “the most important job in the world” and said the increase reflected coordinated action across governments to make the profession more attractive and sustainable.
Measures cited include pay rises for teachers, efforts to reduce workload, Commonwealth Teacher Scholarships worth up to $40,000, and the introduction of paid professional placements to ease the financial pressure on teaching students.
“This is a team effort,” Mr Clare said, pointing to collaboration between the Australian Government and state and territory governments.
He also highlighted the commencement this year of what the government has described as the most significant reforms to teacher training in a generation. The reforms include changes to core course content aimed at strengthening graduate teachers’ skills in literacy, numeracy and classroom behaviour management.
“We’re now starting to see this turn around,” Mr Clare said. “That’s why we are tackling the teacher workforce shortage with teaching scholarships, reforms to teacher training and paid prac for teaching students.”
The data is drawn from the Department of Education’s Higher Education Statistics Collection. The 2025 figures are preliminary and subject to change, with final data expected in the third quarter of 2026.
