Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

Purpose and further information

This section of the Compendium identifies options for students to undertake training at a university that can lead to a range of employment opportunities in areas such as agricultural research, advisory, regulatory or policy within a government agency or the private sector.

Information is also provided for courses in veterinary science, marine sciences and a range of food industry opportunities.  While the term agriculture is used throughout it covers the range of primary industries.

Students from Riverina high schools have generally chosen Charles Sturt University, University of New England and some choosing Wollongong University. There are good reasons for doing this and it is not proposed to substantially alter this arrangement.


However, with increasing numbers of students coming into the Riverina from Victoria, options to attend Victorian Universities could be considered.

Further there are universities across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia that offer different types of options for which information should be available to assist the student's decision making.


Information is provided in this Compendium on the courses offered by universities.

As with planning to undertake the VET training options, early career pathway consideration should be undertaken, with an idea as to employment options being sought.


Which University to Choose?

Students will use a number of criteria to select the university they wish to attend. These include:

  •  Career pathway chosen and alignment with courses offered by a university
  • The entry score to attend the chosen course and university
  • Remoteness from the home base and availability and cost of accommodation. This could include preferences between a city and a regional town or home base to work from
  • Family history – for example have family members attended a particular university.
  • Locations selected by school friends and colleagues
  • The availability of on-line study options and the balance between on-line and on-campus tuition
  • Reputation of the university in terms of the courses you wish to take and the opportunities for employment at the completion of the course
  • Resources and facilities available to support you study.

Universities vary enormously on the range of courses to select from, the linkages the university has with business, offering on-line courses and post graduate opportunities if desired.

Some universities have a history of developing students for a research or academic career while other have a strong vocational approach.


Information is available to assess the university most suited to your needs.  The type of information available is the global ranking of a university ( https://www.universityrankings.com.au/ )and, specifically for this Compendium, the universities with the most number of graduate and post graduate students taking agriculture and related subjects. Note, this information source can be readily investigated for career pathways other than agriculture.

There are other metrics provided below that rank universities on the basis of post degree employment, salay and general graduate feedback.  The various ranking systems are readily available via an online search. 

Ranking of Universities

There are a number of ranking systems used to assess the standing of a university globally. Many thousands of universities are assessed annually and the reports readily available.

The following are the Australian universities assessed by the QS World University Rankings for 2024, covering around 1500 universities. The ranking takes into account the academic reputation of the university, faculty student ratios, employer reputation, research impact and citations and the proportion of international to domestic student and staff.

While only one assessment tool has been reported below, there are a large number regularly used and the rankings generally do not change appreciably. Generally, if you are pursuing a research or academic career, that might have an international component, it is best to choose one of the higher ranking universities, if available.

Using the QS World University Rankings, the universities by global ranking are as follows:

Top five: Melbourne (No 14 globally), New South Wales (No 19), Sydney (No 19), ANU (No 34) and Monash (No 42)

Next five: Queensland (No 43 globally), Western Australia (No 72), Adelaide (No 89), University of Technology Sydney (No 90) and Macquarie (No 130)

Other universities that may be of interest to Riverina students are Wollongong (No 162) and La Trobe (No 242)

The university rankings website also contains information on the number of students taking undergraduate and postgraduate courses in agricultural science. In terms of undergraduate students the top three are Melbourne, followed by Queensland and Charles Sturt Universities. The next are UNE and Adelaide with Sydney University well behind in numbers of both undergraduate and postgraduate students.


Also available is information on the numbers of students who can study on-line courses. The lead in this category is Charles Sturt University with 52% of student undertaking courses on-line, followed by the University of New England.

A good metric to rank a university on is the QILT Graduate Survey.  This measures graduate feedback about the course of study, employment and salary achieved.  Using this ranking system for universities providing agricultural training the top ranking universities are Charles Sturt and Melbourne, followed by University of New England, Queensland, Sydney and Adelaide. 

Finally there is information on course completion rates. The first 10 universities in this category are Melbourne, Sydney, ANU, Monash, NSW, UTS, Wollongong, Bond, RMIT and Western Australia.

The other source of valuable information is the ATAR required to enter courses at universities.  The following site provides this information:  ATAR Scores for Uni Courses 2022 | Uni Reviews (universityreviews.com.au).  An example of the range of entry scores is 50 to 88 for arts courses, 50 to 96 for business courses and 50 to 85 for STEM courses.  It is worth reviewing this information if you have a particular course preference.

Attached is a summary of the main universities offering agriculture, veterinary science, food and science programs. In summary the key courses are as follows:

• For agriculture: Charles Sturt, Melbourne, Queensland, UNE, Adelaide and Sydney
• For veterinary science: Charles Sturt, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Adelaide