Secondary school agricultural education in New South Wales: A foundation for university study of agriculture

Scott Graham
Charles Sturt University, Australia; Barker College, Australia
Jim Pratley
Charles Sturt University, Australia
David Randall
Western Sydney University, Australia
Lincoln Gill and Jeff McCormick
Charles Sturt University, Australia

Following previous analyses of enrolment and graduation patterns in secondary agricultural education in Australia (Graham et al., 2025), this paper presents a detailed study focusing on Australia's most populous state, New South Wales. It shows that Year 12 secondary student completions of both the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Agriculture and HSC Primary Industries courses have been steady over time. They are much higher in number in rural/regional areas despite the very much larger student population residing in Sydney. This plateau in enrolments, despite a significantly rising population, equates to a per-capita decrease in secondary students studying agriculture-related courses over the period 2011-2022. The number of schools offering the courses to completion in NSW has remained steady, although only 9% of Sydney secondary schools offer these subjects. Further, 17.9% of all HSC Agriculture completions in Sydney from 2011-2022 came from only two schools, and 47.9% came from just ten schools in that city. Sydney-based secondary students are also significantly under-represented in first preferences for agriculture-related tertiary degrees. Data show that whilst some of these Sydney students are preferencing agriculture courses at university in their top five, it is less likely to be first preference, compared with rural/regional student preferences. Given that so few Sydney schools offer agriculture and that those studying agriculture courses at secondary school are around ten-times more likely to first preference agriculture-related degrees than those who do not, it seems that increasing the metropolitan offerings and attractiveness of the subject at secondary level should have significant upside for higher education enrolments and graduate numbers.
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Authors: Mr Scott Graham is currently a secondary Agriculture teacher and Head of Agriculture at Barker College in Sydney, Australia, and is a PhD candidate at the Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, undertaking research into improving engagement and enrolments in secondary agriculture amongst metropolitan students. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8494-4369 Email: sgraham@barker.nsw.edu.au Professor Jim Pratley is Professor of Agriculture at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga and Fellow of the Australian Society of Agronomy. He participated in the 2020 Australian Agricultural Workforce Review, undertook the Ministerial Review into Agricultural Education and Training in NSW in 2013, and has written widely on agricultural education. He is Secretary of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture. He was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 for services to agricultural education, research and advisory. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4690-1309 Email: jpratley@csu.edu.au Mr David Randall is a former agriculture and science teacher of over 30 years with experience in agricultural curriculum development at state and national levels. He currently has a role in teaching agriculture and horticulture subjects at Western Sydney University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8848-3005 Email: david.randall@westernsydney.edu.au Dr Lincoln Gill is a senior lecturer in Technology and Applied Studies in the School of Education at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia. His research has focused on curriculum design, pedagogy, professional learning, and support and leadership for the use of educational technologies. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0393-4813 Email: lgill@csu.edu.au Dr Jeff McCormick teaches pasture and rangeland agronomy at CSU as well as postgraduate subjects on Sustainable Future Agriculture Systems. Current research includes mixed-farming systems, agrivoltaics, hard seeded pasture legumes, phalaris management and dual-purpose crops. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5216-8743 Email: jmccormick@csu.edu.au Please cite as: Graham, S., Pratley, J., Randall, D., Gill, L. & McCormick, J. (2025). Secondary school agricultural education in New South Wales: A foundation for university study of agriculture. Issues in Educational Research, 36(2), 518-539. http://www.iier.org.au/iier36/graham.pdf