FedUni vice-chancellor, Professor David Battersby, said the university had a goal to increase enrolment by four to five per cent each year over the next few years. 

The university had enrolled 13 per cent more students than the growth target. 

He said the enrolment target was 1300 for first year undergraduates at the Ballarat and Wimmera campuses. 

“We’ve had roughly 1360 enrolments for Ballarat and the Wimmera,” Professor Battersby said. 

“That’s a good increase on last year where we had about 1280.

“We’ve already exceeded our five per cent target on last year.”

The Gippsland campus enjoyed the highest growth. 

“Being a regionally focused university has struck a chord in students there,”  Professor Battersby said.

The campus has 479.9 full-time or equivalent students enrolled at its Gippsland campus, compared to its target of 281.25, 68 per cent higher. 

Campuses combined, the all up starting full-time or equivalent student load is 1783.7. 

“We’re now gearing up for our mid-year intake,” Professor Battersby said.

He said the university was increasing its online profile and courses offered online and by distance education.

“From mid-year, we’ll be offering 60 programs online,” he said. 

“We may have had half of that before.

“The merging of the two campuses has given us more resources and expertise online.”

Professor Battersby said there were still some challenges around postgraduate course intakes. 

“There will be more opportunities for postgraduate studies with the mid-year intake.”

Professor Battersby said postgraduate studies were a lot more variable as many courses tended to be full fee paying as opposed to government subsidised, like undergraduate course. 

“Our goal is to slightly build or maintain our postgraduate intake each year.”

He said the university was unable to say if it had met that goal until the enrolment census on August 31, including  mid-year intake into the statistic.

nicole.cairns@fairfaxmedia.com.au