Despite generally high climate awareness in Australia, the number of domestic students starting environmental, agriculture and natural science degrees has dropped over the past few years, according to new statistics.

Isla Buchan decided against enrolling in environmental studies, despite having taken Environmental Science in Year 11 and 12. She said job prospects with an environmental degree seemed “not well-known” or “emerging”. 

“It’s difficult to make a decision that you don’t know how that will affect your future. If there’s uncertainty about a particular degree or a career afterwards, it steered me away,” she said. 

Ms Buchan is a second-year Arts student majoring in Human Rights and minoring in Anthropology. She said the cost-of-living crisis added pressure to choosing a degree. 

“Obviously, university is about your future but I think — more so now than ever — you really need to be cautious of your future and insuring that you are choosing something that will provide the future that you want. And I think that stability is really important,” she said. 

Despite 12,792 more domestic students beginning their degrees in 2024 than in 2022, there were 891 less domestic students commencing Environmental, Agriculture, and related studies in 2024 than in 2022, according to Department of Education higher education statistics.

Overall, there are more domestic students starting these degrees now then there were 10 years ago but enrolments have fluctuated and Universities Australia’s 2020 report said, between 2008-2018, this was “the only discipline that has not experienced substantial increase in enrolment”. 

Bucking this trend, Sienna Forsyth is a domestic student who will start her studies in Agriculture next year. She hopes to major in Animal Production. 

“I think a lot of young people are being driven away from Agriculture because it’s advertised as a thankless job and I just think that that’s so untrue,” Ms Forsyth said. 

Though she thinks economic pressures are driving her peers away from their dream courses, she is confident in many career opportunities coming from her degree, including veterinary science, farm consultant work, government department jobs, or work with private companies. 

Hoping to run her own farm one day, Ms Forsyth sees a need for widespread understanding of the natural world and food production among young people. 

“It’s really cringy but there needs to be more warriors out there for the environment. Everyone loves to eat fresh but if no one will grow it then we are a bit stuck,” she said.

“It’s all just so important, the way that we look after the land, and ag and environmental and forestry … there’s just not enough young people who are essentially the future of the land.” 

Ms Forsyth’s love of the natural environment stretches beyond her studies and hopes of working in the sector. She translates it into art. Her photography, depicting animals and patterns in nature, was displayed at The Ian Potter Centre in the Top Arts 2025 exhibition. 

Department of Education statistics also show a drops in domestic students starting Natural Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Creative Arts studies. 

The University of Newcastle discontinued its Bachelor of Natural History Illustration in 2019, despite its connected edX course winning an award in 2017. The degree had connected the natural world, science and art, and units covered various biology, field studies and illustration topics. 

University of Newcastle’s Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lisa Wood, said: “Although the Bachelor of Natural History Illustration was discontinued in 2019, our University continues to offer alternative programs that offer similar skills (such as) graphic design, illustration, animation and interactive media.”

She said the university’s enrolments in Environmental studies, Agriculture, Natural Sciences, and Physical Sciences “between 2019 and 2023 generally aligned with national patterns”. “Enrolments in 2024 have shown renewed growth,” Prof Wood said.