Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 10—Education and training 425
10.27 INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS, By State and Sex—1999
Males
Commencing Indigenous students
Females
Persons
All Indigenous students
State/Territory
no.
no.
no.
no.
no.
no.
NSW 413 737 1 150 833 1 431 2 264
Vic. 109 169 278 241 394 635
Qld 268 438 706 583 903 1 486
WA 350 551 901 589 1 039 1 628
SA 118 152 270 214 350 564
Tas. 74 75 149 106 151 257
NT 155 363 518 226 558 784
ACT 30 29 59 87 77 164
Multi-State 26 83 109 49 170 219
Total 1 543 2 597 4 140 2 928 5 073 8 001
Males
Females
Source: Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, ‘Students 1999: Selected Higher Education Statistics’.
Persons
10.28 ALL INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS, By Sex—1989 to 1999
'000
Male
10
Female
Total
8
0
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Source: Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 'Students 1999: Selected Higher
Education Statistics'.
6
4
2
Measuring education in Australian Censuses—1911 to 2001
The history of the education questions in the
Census of Population and Housing provides an
interesting insight into how education was
perceived and valued in the past. Questions on
education have included: whether able to read
and write; current participation; age left school;
highest level of education; and highest
post-school education. Since Federation, various
attempts have been made to measure the level of
educational achievement in the population.
However, obtaining reliable and accurate data
proved challenging at times, particularly when
measuring highest education levels.
Prior to Federation, each colony was
responsible for its own Census collection.
To determine the degree of education in the
population, most used the categories of ‘read
and write’, ‘read only’ and ‘cannot read’. Some
used the same categories for other languages
to avoid classifying non-English speakers as
illiterate if they could not read or write in
English. There were also various attempts to
gain data on the number of people within the
population who held university degrees. For
example, in Victoria in 1891, the degrees of
university graduates were determined by the
letters placed against a person’s name. In
Western Australia in 1891, data were obtained
on university graduates through the
Householder’s Schedule, which requested
information on people who were “graduates of
any University, together with the designations of
their respective degrees, and of the Universities
at which they were severally conferred.” 1 The
Census held during the first year of Federation,