University students are being urged to take their course choice seriously, after new data revealed a dip in completion rates.

First-round offers will be issued to prospective university students in many states today, but the Federal Government has released statistics revealing only two thirds of them will graduate within six years.

Federal Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham said students needed to make informed choices about their courses.

“We continue to see around one in three students failing to complete the course they initially enrol in,” he said.

“It’s a reminder to students as they consider university offers now to think carefully about what the course is and what the university is and make sure it is a good fit for them for the future.”

The data included domestic students enrolled in Bachelor courses.

The University of Melbourne had the highest course completion rate, at 88 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, less than 42 per cent of students at the Northern Territory’s Charles Darwin University graduated.

Mr Birmingham said there were a range of reasons why a student would not complete the original course they enrolled in.

“The higher the churn and the lower the level of completion rates then the greater the cost is for students and taxpayers in terms of lost time and money,” he said.

“It really does pay for people to do their research.”

Students waiting for offers

In New South Wales, more than 50,000 will tonight find out if they have been offered a place at university.

The University Admissions Centre will release its main round offers for 2017 at 6:00pm.

The centre’s director of information services, Kim Paino, said not everyone would have a nervous wait ahead of them today.

“Lots of universities are making early offers so many of our applicants will already have an offer but having said that some of them will still be hoping for their preferred or favourite course in this main round,” he said.

– ABC