What students want

UAC's Student Lifestyle and Learning Report 2026 reveals a wish list from more than 20,000 Year 12s about how universities and other higher education providers can help them move from school into further study.

Clarifying job outcomes and salaries

Students rate employment highly but say they cannot see the full picture.

• Sixty-nine per cent list graduate employment outcomes as one of the most important factors when choosing a course.
• Yet only 8% say they understand in detail the career or employment outcomes for the courses they are considering, and a further 33% say they just know the basics.
• Half of students (50%) say typical starting salary information for graduates is missing from current course information, and 41% want clearer information on career outcomes after graduating.

Showing what a typical week looks like

The number one gap in course information is the timetable and workload.

• Seventy per cent of students say seeing a sample workload and draft timetable for a typical week would make them more confident in their study choices and help them compare options across institutions.
• More than half (56%) want more detail on how courses are taught and assessed, and 51% want a better sense of course difficulty or level of challenge.

Helping students manage the balance

Students expect to combine work and study, and they are already in the workforce.

• Balancing study with work or other commitments is now their top uni concern: 65% are worried about the juggle, up 6 percentage points since last year, compared with 58% who are concerned about paying tuition and other study costs.
• When it comes to campus services, 63% say they would like employment services available, and 58% want timetabling and class selection support to help them fit study around work.

Building AI skills

Students know AI will shape their future jobs and expect courses to keep up.

• One in three students (33%) expect their course to teach practical AI skills in their discipline, while another 34% expect AI to be covered generally but without specific skills training.
• At the same time, 20% have not used any AI tools in the past month and 36% have used AI less than once a week, showing a wide spread of experience and an emerging skills gap.

Download the Student Lifestyle and Learning Report 2026 to explore the data and student insights behind these findings.