'Deakin defies drop in uni applications'

From the Australian Newspaper website this morning:

"AN aggressive marketing campaign by Deakin University has helped buck a decline of school-leaver interest, making it the only campus in Victoria with a significant increase in undergraduate applications.

Final first-preference data for commonwealth-supported places obtained by The Australian shows applications to Victorian universities were down 3.1 per cent on last year to 57,021, with most of the state's tertiary institutions suffering a drop..."

Read the full article here. The media release regarding the same on the Deakin website further states "Deakin demonstrated strong growth in Science and Technology courses, with demand strong from both school leavers (first preferences were up 25 per cent) and other applicants (up 19 per cent)."

Whilst the few people I spoke with at Deakin were reticent when asked for more details (which is fair enough), it's great to see the good work they are doing. Seeing growth in enrolments when there is a continued (worrying) decline across the industry is truly something to tip your hat to.

OTHER NEWS

Whilst on the topic of university enrolments, we (Microsoft Australia) hosted a site visit from the USyd run "National Computing Science School" (NCSS) in the Sydney Office last Monday, showing off alittle bit of software and talking to students about where a career in technology can take them (which is essentially anywhere). NCSS is a great idea - basically, University of Sydney get a whole bunch of talented high school students from around the state, teach them some skills and show them how cool it can be to study IT and go on to work in the industry. It was great to meet up with the organisers from USyd, and such a cool group of young peeps. Hopefully we helped a few of them make up their minds to go on to a rewarding career in the industry. If any of the organisers or attendees are redoing this, I'll see you all on Sunday for the closing ceremony.