This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: History educators around the world have expressed concerns about declining history enrollments in schools and universities over the past few decades. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and United States, some experts and commentators have even gone so far as to describe it as a subject "in crisis." History educators are concerned that if fewer young people study history, they will miss out on important knowledge that helps them understand the present.
They're also worried students will have fewer opportunities to develop critical-thinking and communication skills. So what do senior history enrollments look like in Australian high schools? And is it cause for concern?
Our research, published in the Journal of Curriculum Studies, suggests educators shouldn't jump to the "crisis" conclusion, at least for the time being. In our research, we tracked the number of students studying history at the Year 12 level across all states and territories from 2009 to 2024. Our study focused on Year 12 enrollments in modern and ancient history, as these are the two main history subjects in the Australian Curriculum and across most states.
We found that history enrollments overall have not kept pace with the growth of Year 12 populations. This has led to a gradual decline in senior secondary history enrollments. This means fewer students are continuing to study history in Year 12 than before.
This drop in popularity appears more significant when we look at the trend over a longer period. A 2003 report indicated that Year 12 participation in history in 1993 was around 21%, dropping to about 18% by 2001. We estimate that by 2024, the proportion of Year 12 students overall enrolled in ancient or modern history was down to 14.7%.
It's important to note that there are limitations to calculating the proportion of Year 12 students studying history over time. For example, the data doesn't indicate how many students are taking a Year 12 subject in Year 11. It also doesn't include other history subjects that are offered only by particular states.
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