Brisbane Grammar made $559K in application fees last year, with no guarantee for kids on the wait list

Brisbane’s most expensive private school has raked in more than half-a-million dollars in application fees in 2023 alone – with no guarantee of a spot for the students applying.

And despite a cost-of-living crisis, Brisbane Grammar School experienced an 85 per cent increase in applications from prospective students last year compared with pre-COVID – which will keep its wait list healthy for the next decade.

Brisbane Grammar School’s new STEAM precinct, which features 15 lab spaces of university standard, a specialised laboratory for biological dissections, art studios, a kiln room and a 300-seat open auditorium.Credit: Brisbane Grammar School

The inner-city school received about 1300 enrolment applications in 2023 – at $500 per child – up from about 700 applications four years earlier.

These details were revealed in a graph presented in the report, although the precise number of applications were not provided.

This netted the school $559,000 in non-refundable fees, according to the notes to the financial statements.

Some students, including those making bursary applications or scholarships, may have fees waived.

While there were 1300 applications last year, only about 300 students join Brisbane Grammar at Years 5 and 7, while a small number enter in other year levels.

In 2023, the school also received $871,000 in confirmation fees – a $2850 non-refundable fee payable up to three years before a student’s entry, and not deducted from tuition fees.

The school caters to about 1800 boys and received $54.86 million in tuition fees in 2023.

Chair John Humphrey said school fees were the principal source of the school’s revenue, but a stubbornly high inflation rate and general cost increases, including insurance premiums, were putting pressure on fees.

In 2023, the school limited fee increases to 4.5 per cent, Humphrey said, but they rose by 8 per cent in 2024, with the annual fee now $32,760 for high school.

“For context, we understand that our direct competitors announced fee increases in 2024 in the order of 7.5 to 10 per cent,” Humphrey wrote in the annual report.

Brisbane Grammar received $8 million from the federal government and $4 million in state funding last year.

It posted an operating surplus of $1.16 million last year.

Senior deputy headmaster David Carroll said demand for places at the school reflected its continued investment in technology and infrastructure, such as the STEAM Precinct, and strong academic outcomes across ATAR, NAPLAN testing and external academic competitions.

“Brisbane Grammar School also heavily invests in its sporting, cultural and student wellbeing programs,” he said.

In February, Brisbane Grammar opened the $80 million six-storey STEAM Precinct, with the 17,800 square metre hub combining science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics facilities.

Brisbane Grammar’s sister school, Brisbane Girls Grammar School, also reported “strong” waiting list numbers.

Across the board, enrolments in Queensland private schools have continued to rise in recent years.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the independent school sector grew 4.1 per cent in the past 12 months, with an extra 5802 students.

It marked the fifth year in a row independent school enrolments had grown at a higher rate than both the state and Catholic sectors.

Enrolments in state schools dropped by 0.22 per cent last year, and Catholic enrolments increased by 1.47 per cent.

About 16 per cent of all Queensland students are enrolled in an independent school.

Brisbane Grammar is not unusual among private schools in charging hefty application fees that are not deducted from tuition fees, but its books are particularly transparent given it is subject to the Grammar Schools Act, and required to publicly table its annual report in Parliament.