These are the year’s most popular university degrees

Business at University of Technology Sydney is the most applied for degree outside of medicine so far this year with almost 900 prospective students putting it as their first preference.

But health continues to dominate as the favoured field of study among early bird applicants for 2024, according to data from the Universities Admissions Centre.

UTS business student Ishaan Senathi. He chose the degree due to its good reputation among employers.Credit: Jessica Hromas

UNSW’s medicine degree is again the most applied for course, followed by the joint medicine program at Western Sydney University and Charles Sturt University. Bachelor of Business at UTS is the third most popular as of the close of early bird applications on September 30.

Four of the top 10 courses are medicine degrees, while combined law degrees at UNSW and University of Sydney also feature.

Sydney University has the state’s most popular arts degree, with 615 first preferences, while UTS has the only nursing course on the list.

The statistics, based on the preferences of more than 62,800 applications, show 25.7 per cent listed a health course as their first preference, while 20.6 per cent listed a society and culture course as their first preference.

Ishaan Senathi is a business student at UTS and said he chose the degree due to its good reputation among employers.

He believes its popularity can be attributed to industry links and a lower ATAR score than commerce degrees at University of Sydney and UNSW, making it more accessible.

“In high school you don’t really get exposed to a lot of what the different universities are like so you kind of go for which names are recognisable – University of Sydney, UNSW or UTS,” he said.

“Especially in the business world – when you look at a big name that’s where they came from.”

There’s been a slight drop in early bird applications, with about 650 fewer than to last year. It follows a 4.7 per cent drop the previous year.

Australian National University higher education expert Andrew Norton said it was in line with a downward trend in university participation over the past few years.

“None of our data sources here are perfect, but all are suggesting that people are at least deferring their university studies to a later date,” he said.

“I would say the stable labour market is the main reason. Historically, there has always been a group of people that if they could get a full-time job, they would. But if not, they will go to university.”

More than half of female applicants listed their first preference course in either health (31.3 per cent) or society and culture (24.2 per cent). In contrast, popular fields of study for males included health (18.6 per cent), engineering and related technologies (16.7 per cent), management and commerce (16.0 per cent), and society and culture (15.7 per cent).

Less than 4 per cent of females chose an engineering and related technologies degree as their first preference, while 9.5 per cent chose a degree related to management and commerce.

Just 1.7 per cent of females chose an information technology course as their first preference, compared to 8.7 per cent of males.

The UAC applications do not include students who apply directly through universities, including those who have applied for early offers.

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