On 1 January 2009, the school leaving age was raised to 17 (having previously been 15 and then 16). Education is compulsory for all children until age 17, unless they are working or undergoing other training. The majority of students stay on to complete their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). School education is the responsibility of the South Australian government, but the public and private education systems are funded jointly by it and the Commonwealth Government.
The South Australian Government provides, to schools on a per student basis, 89 percent of the total Government funding while the Commonwealth contributes 11 percent. Since the early 1970s it has been an ongoing controversy that 68 percent of Commonwealth funding (increasing to 75% by 2008) goes to private schools that are attended by 32% of the states students. Private schools often refute this by saying that they receive less State Government funding than public schools and in 2004 the main private school funding came from the Australian government, not the state government.
There are three public and three private universities in South Australia. The three public universities are The University of Adelaide (established 1874), The Flinders University of South Australia (est. 1966), and The University of South Australia (est. 1991). The three private universities are Carnegie Mellon University – Australia (est. 2006), University College London’s School of Energy and Resources (Australia), and Cranfield University. All six have their main campus in the Adelaide metropolitan area: Adelaide and UniSA on North Terrace in the city; CMU, UCL and Cranfield are co-located on Victoria Square in the city, and Flinders at Bedford Park.
The public universities also have other campuses in the metropolitan area, around the state, inter-state, and overseas.
Metropolitan campuses include:
Adelaide: The Waite at Urrbrae; Research Park at Thebarton; and The National Wine Centre in the Adelaide Park Lands.
UniSA: Magill Campus (Magill); Mawson Lakes Campus (Mawson Lakes); and Parafield (Parafield).
Rural and regional campuses include:
Flinders: The Flinders University Rural Clinical Schools at Mount Gambier, Goolwa and Renmark; and The Lincoln Marine Science Centre at Port Lincoln.
Adelaide: Roseworthy Campus near Roseworthy.
UniSA: Campuses at Mount Gambier and Whyalla.
Content from this page is drawn from Here.
