Cost of Education Methodology & Assumptions
The underlying data has been sourced from ‘Cost of Education Report’ that Futurity Investment Group commissioned McCrindle to conduct into the cost of education and parent experience with education in Australia. The report draws on publicly available data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Australian Curriculum (ACARA) website as well as quantitative data collected in an online survey undertaken by McCrindle in November 2024.
- The education cost calculator is designed to provide an estimate of the future total cost of education per student. It shows the variability of costs in education and illustrates the range and differences across school types and locations.
- Futurity has endeavoured to provide a reasonable basis for planning. Changes in school fees however cannot be accurately predicted. Estimates of future long-term education costs are provided as a guide only. There is no guarantee that they will represent the actual costs of education.
- The education cost calculator assumes that a child will attend formal schooling for thirteen (13) years. It assumes this starts with a preparatory program (“Prep” in most states) as the first of seven (7) years of primary schooling and is followed by six (6) years of secondary schooling.
- Futurity has not taken into account the possibility of GST being applied to education fees in the future. Estimates have been rounded to the nearest dollar amount.
- This calculator provides information of a general nature. Neither the calculator nor the report takes into account your objectives, your financial situation or needs. Before making any financial decision based on this information, consider obtaining professional advice and read the appropriate Product Disclosure Statement.
The Report and the underlying methodology, including assumptions can be accessed here.
By accessing the calculator, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and accepted the Privacy Policy, and that you have received a copy of the Financial Services Guide (FSG). Please contact us if you require a copy of the FSG to be sent by email or otherwise.
Information that you provide as part of the calculator will be used to provide you with an estimate of education fees and ancillary costs. Supplementing the calculation with your own actual fee-related data will result in a better estimate. By submitting such data, you consent to its use by Futurity for its education cost research purposes and for providing similar estimates to third parties.
Futurity Investment Group Limited, ACN 087648879, AFSL 236665
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Data collection
In November 2024, Futurity Investment Group commissioned McCrindle to conduct its annual research into the cost of education and parent experience with education in Australia.
The Cost of Education in Australia report is the collation of quantitative data collected in an online survey. The survey was sent to Australian parents with a child in school, and had quotas set for a proportionate sample across the states and territories and school stage.
Tuition fees
Where a total cost of education is given, data was used from two approaches and sources.
Estimated costs for tuition have been calculated based on publicly available data from the ACARA website which reports school fees and voluntary parent contributions. These tuition fees were analysed nationally and broken down by school sector and stage.
National ancillary costs are based on averages from the 2024 main sample of n=2385, which was controlled with quotas to ensure it was nationally representative by state. These ancillary costs were analysed using a hierarchy of school sector and stage, with no further delineation into major cities, regional, and remote areas. Data cleaning was conducted to remove extreme outlier responses. A data substitution hierarchy was adopted to account for cases where there were not enough responses to report on. The reporting for 2025 has been updated to reflect inflation changes in the past year.
Where there are state breakdowns provided for education costs (tuition fees and ancillary costs) over 13 years of schooling were broken down by state, school sector, stage and remoteness (metro areas, regional/remote).
In some cases, this total cost of education including fees and ancillaries is extrapolated across 13 years of education. To determine this estimate, a CPI of 4.8% is applied for fees in 2023 and 6.4% for 2024. Fees and ancillaries and have been extrapolated across the 13 years accounting for COI increases as follows; a 6.4% increase has been applied to 2025, 5.1% in 2026, 3.8% in 2027 and 2.5% starting in 2028 with per year thereafter. These figures are based on the Australian ABS CPI , Australia, September Quarter 2024 and RBA Statement on Monetary Policy, August 2024.
Each individual category (school sector and stage) was extrapolated according to the designated CPI at the deepest hierarchy level. All 13-year costs are based on a child starting school in 2025 with fees aggregated for 2025-2030 (Primary) and 2031-2036 (Secondary).
Graphs and rounding
Data labels on the graphs in this report have been rounded to the nearest whole number and may, therefore, sum to 99% or 101%. Any calculations where two data points have been added are based on raw data (not the data labels on the graph) which have been rounded once combined.
Disclaimer
There are limitations to the accurate prediction of changes in school fees and estimates of future long-term education costs are provided as a guide only. The actual cost of education for a particular child at any given time cannot be guaranteed.
The Report provides information of a general nature. Neither the report, nor Futurity’s ‘Cost of Education Calculator’ which sources data from the Report, takes into account your objectives, your financial situation or needs. Before making any financial decision based on this information consider obtaining professional advice and read the appropriate Product Disclosure Statement.
Futurity Investment Group Limited, ACN 087648879, AFSL 236665
January 2025