‘I had to sit on the floor’: Sydney University adds thousands of extra students

The state’s richest and most prestigious sandstone university enrolled almost a thousand fewer local undergraduates in 2024 compared with five years ago.

But the University of Sydney’s shortfall in domestic students was offset by an extra 10,000 international students over the same period, with enrolments skyrocketing above 78,000 last year, according to the latest Department of Education data.

First year law student Zayed Tabish, 19, has seen students sitting on the floor in lecture theatres. Credit: Steven Siewert

First year law and arts students Zayed Tabish transferred this year from the University of NSW to Sydney, where he saw students sitting on the floor in lecture theatres.

“Early on, there was a fight for seats … It forces students online for some lectures,” he said.

He