CoreBridgeIntelligence
CoreBridge Intelligence Executive Edition

Every university system we track, on one basis.

The public dashboards show where an institution stands. The Executive Edition reads what that position means, against the peers who set it and the markets that move it.

Four questions the free tools cannot answer.

Each of these needs two systems on one basis. Every figure below is computed from the same record the public dashboards publish; what the Executive Edition adds is the comparison, the trend and the reading.

  1. 01

    Australia is the most exposed system in the estate.

    International fee income averages 32.0% of revenue across Australia's 36 universities, against 20.7% in New Zealand. A 11-point gap in structural exposure to the same handful of source markets.

    Exposure runs 11 points higher in AustraliaInternational fee income as a share of revenue, system average, latest year.
    Australia31United Kingdom23New Zealand20Source: CoreBridge Intelligence, from Department of Education, HESA and Education Counts

    What it means. A shock in one market lands hardest on the system with the thinnest domestic cushion. The Executive Edition runs that shock against one institution's own mix.

  2. 02

    The average Australian university is 2.3× the size of its UK counterpart.

    36 Australian universities teach 1.47m students, an average of 40.8k each. 157 UK universities teach 2.77m, an average of 17.7k. A far smaller system, built of far larger institutions.

    Students per university, by systemTotal enrolment divided by the number of universities in each system, latest year.
    Australia40.8kNew Zealand23.8kUnited Kingdom17.7kSource: CoreBridge Intelligence, from Department of Education, HESA and Education Counts

    What it means. Scale is structural, not incidental. A UK peer group chosen on reputation will pair a 40,000-student Australian institution with one a third its size.

  3. 03

    9 of the ten largest universities in the estate are Australian.

    Ranked by enrolment across all three systems, the Open University leads on distance provision, and Australian institutions take every one of the nine places behind it. No national dashboard can show you this, because none of them holds the other systems.

    The ten largest universities, all systemsTotal enrolment by institution, latest year, Australia, the UK and New Zealand on one basis.
    Open University124.6kMonash University93.2kUNSW Sydney82.3kUniversity of Sydney78.8kRMIT University76kUniversity of Melbourne75.5kAdelaide University64.4kDeakin University59.4kUniversity of Queensland57.1kCurtin University56.9kSource: CoreBridge Intelligence, from Department of Education, HESA and Education Counts

    What it means. Your true size peers are not all at home. A national ranking will never surface them, and a peer group drawn from one country will mis-set every ratio you benchmark.

  4. 04

    Two source markets carry 66% of the tracked flow.

    Across the fourteen markets and five destination pipelines, China and India account for 66% of all students tracked, to 2025.

    All fourteen source markets, rankedStudents across the five destination pipelines, latest year available per market, to 2025.
    China427.8kIndia425.6kNepal102.9kPakistan65kVietnam64.4kBangladesh56.9kPhilippines33kSri Lanka28.6kIndonesia25.7kHong Kong19.8kMalaysia17.3kBhutan12.7kThailand9.9kSingapore5.9kSource: CoreBridge Intelligence, from published national statistics

    What it means. Diversification is measured against this baseline, not against a wish. The Executive Edition shows where your own intake sits inside it.

The movement underneath.

China's destinations have moved apart since 2005Chinese students by destination country, each series to its own latest year.
056.1k112.2k168.3k20052025AustraliaUnited KingdomUnited StatesCanadaEuropean UnionSource: CoreBridge Intelligence, from published national statistics
Australian exposure runs from 9% to 60%International fee income as a share of revenue, all 36 Table A universities, ranked. Dashed line is the median.
0%16%32%48%64%MurdochUniversity of SydneyRMITUNSW SydneyUniversity of MelbourneMonashUniversity of WollongongVictoriaJames CookSwinburne of TechnologyAustralian NationalUniversity of QueenslandCharles DarwinEdith CowanCurtinFederation AustraliaUniversity of Western AustraliaSouthern CrossCQUniversity (Central Queensland)University of CanberraAdelaideDeakinFlindersMacquarieLa TrobeWestern SydneyUniversity of Technology SydneyUniversity of TasmaniaGriffithQueensland of TechnologyUniversity of NewcastleAustralian CatholicUniversity of Southern QueenslandUniversity of the Sunshine CoastCharles SturtUniversity of New EnglandSource: CoreBridge Intelligence, from Department of Education finance data

What the Executive Edition holds.

Every system, on one basis.

Availability

Held by the institution, read by the people who decide.

An institutional licence with named seats, so access follows the office rather than the individual. Opening with a small number of foundation institutions.

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Every figure on this page is computed from openly licensed public data and carries its own year. Nothing is modelled. The three systems report in different currencies, so every cross-system comparison here uses counts and shares only.