UON Study: Students remain ambitious as decade-on study finds growing uncertainty

newy.com.au – Australian high school students are more uncertain about their futures than they were a decade ago as social, economic and environmental pressures intensify, but many remain ambitious and resilient, new research from the University of Newcastle has found.

The study, by the University’s Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, drew on more than a decade of data from NSW secondary students, parents, carers, teachers and communities, marking 10 years since the Aspirations Longitudinal Study ran from 2012 to 2015.

Researchers returned to six high schools and one central school from the original project in regional and metropolitan NSW, conducting new surveys, interviews and focus groups with teachers, parents and students.

Lead author and University of Newcastle senior lecturer Dr Leanne Fray said young people were expressing worries about the future in ways not seen in the earlier research, regardless of where they lived or their socio-economic background.

“A young Australian born in 2010 has already faced a pandemic, social isolation, cost-of-living crises, and an array of additional pressures and global instabilities,” Dr Fray said.

“We found students were not just worried about their own futures, but about society as a whole.”

Despite that uncertainty, university remained the preferred pathway, with 43 per cent of surveyed students aspiring to complete a university degree. The research also found growing appreciation for TAFE and vocational pathways across communities, from small rural lower-SES schools to academically selective city schools.

The findings included recommendations for schools, higher education providers and policymakers, including better integration of mental health programs in school and tertiary settings, stronger career education partnerships with employers and training providers, greater promotion of alternative pathways into university, and changes to funding models and community infrastructure.

Researchers said the recommendations were intended to help support the Universities Accord goal of 80 per cent of the population attaining a higher education or vocational qualification by 2050.

“What we see in this research is a generation working harder than ever to make sense of a rapidly changing world. Young people are ambitious, they are thoughtful, and they are doing the emotional and practical work required to plan for their futures. What they need now is a system that meets them halfway,” Dr Fray said.