Health courses and flexible double degrees are the most popular with prospective university students in Canberra for 2024 as international and domestic applications have grown.
At the Australian National University, the flexible double degree in arts, social sciences, business and science is the most popular choice by the number of offers and by student preference, followed by the flexible double degree in law.
The university made 4899 early offers for 2024 and it expects to make about 7000-8000 offers in total.
ANU deputy vice-chancellor academic Grady Venville said students who started a flexible double degree tended to see it through.
"I think they feel it helps them to be a broader citizen of the world and give them more choices in their future career and their life," Professor Venville said.
"We encourage and support students if they want to change their choices as they move through their academic career, but most people who start the flexible double degree stay in that."
She said the job ready graduates scheme, which tripled the cost of arts degrees, had a "barely noticeable" impact on student choices.
The university introduced its system of direct applications in 2019, which distributes offers based on a student's year 11 performance and predicted ATAR.
As of November 24, the university had received about two-thirds of its offers through the direct application (6766) compared to the University Admissions Centre (3203).
"For many of our students who come interstate, particularly, it gives them a much clearer picture of how they can get to the ACT," Prof Venville said.
"We also offer with early offer a place in accommodation and also notify them whether they have a scholarship."
University of Canberra pro vice-chancellor future students Chris Gartner said students were matching their choice of studies and institution to their career aspirations.
"UC's nursing, midwifery and allied health courses continue to garner much interest from prospective students, and at the same time degrees that offer a professional focus coupled with strong industry collaborations such as information technology, business management, law and accounting have seen similar interest levels," Mr Gartner said.
The University of Canberra noted an increase in applications compared the same time last year.
As of late November, the university had made more than 4000 early offers for the 2024 academic year.
Australian Catholic University interim provost and deputy vice-chancellor academic Meg Stuart said the nursing degree and the bachelor of nursing and paramedicine double degree remained the most popular and largest courses at the Canberra campus for 2024.
"The bachelor of social work and the master of social work are also doing very well this year. We've had social work in Canberra for quite some time. We've got a good reputation there," Prof Stuart said.
"And then our initial teacher education program, so the Bachelor of Education primary and the Bachelor of Education secondary are also doing very well."
ACU noticed a dip in domestic students because of the strong labour market. However, Prof Stuart said more domestic students appeared to be applying to study in 2024.
The ANU didn't see a drop in its undergraduate cohort but the postgraduate enrolments were affected by the demand for workers.
"We have noticed a downtick in our postgraduate applications for Australian students because of the high employment and that's a usual inverse sort of correlation where when employment is high, postgraduate Australian enrolments do go down," Prof Venville said.
International students also appear to be returning to Canberra in greater numbers.
"We have noted a 30 per cent increase in international student applications when compared to the same period in 2022," Mr Gartner said.
"We believe that this interest can be attributed to offshore students feeling more confident about studying in, or returning to, on campus study in Australia."
