• Psychology ranked as most popular career choice for school leavers, according to survey of 45,000 high school students
• A Charles Sturt Psychology academic suggests increased interest in profession could be due to multiple reasons
• More females than males indicated an interest in the profession, which follows with national trends of current registered Australian psychologists

Australian school leavers appear to be choosing psychology as their top career choice that experts are labelling as a desire to fill critical shortages in the industry, based on personal experiences.

Year13 surveyed 45,000 Australian high school students who indicated psychology was the top profession of choice, ranking as the 17^th most popular choice for male students and the top of the list for females.

Clinical psychologist and Associate Professor with the Charles Sturt School of Psychology in Wagga Wagga Gene Hodgins said the increased interest in the profession could be attributed to a number of reasons.

“I think it is a mix of more adolescents being exposed to psychology subjects in high school, more adolescents being clients of psychologists, a decrease in stigma around discussion of mental illness and psychology being an interesting area to study,” he said.

“There has been a concerted effort to increase the availability of mental health services for adolescents over the last 10 years in recognition that the age of onset of many psychological disorders is childhood/adolescence/young adulthood.”

As of September 2024, of the more than 40,000 registered psychologists in Australia, 80 per cent were female, so Professor Hodgins said he was not shocked to see more females being drawn to the profession than males.

Charles Sturt has seen an increase in enrolments over the last 4 years in the Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) online course, as well as applications for postgraduate psychology courses.

Professor Hodgins said the psychology workforce has not been able to keep up with the demand for services created from the decreased stigma and increased recognition of mental health which has led to more people seeking help.

A provisional psychologist has completed the first four years of training and is provisionally registered while they complete the two years of practical training. A psychologist has completed six years of training and is fully registered.

Professor Hodgins said the industry shortage might also result from the bottleneck after the fourth year of training.

“At the moment, we have more students applying for fifth- or sixth-year psychology training courses than there are places to train them,” he said.

“While for those who complete their training it means there are very good job prospects, for people in the community seeking psychological help it can be very dispiriting coming against endless waitlists and lack of available services.”

Professor Hodgins said the effect of the bottleneck is amplified in rural and regional Australia due to fewer practicing psychologists in those areas. Figures by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show there are 109.6 full-time equivalent psychologists per 100,000 population in major cities compared to 64.6 in inner regional areas, 47.4 in outer regional, 42.2 in remote and 31.1 in very remote areas.

“Ways to address the situation include clearing the HECS debt of rural psychologists, incentives for working in rural areas and more university places in regional universities,” he said.

Charles Sturt University offers the Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) and Bachelor of Psychology as undergraduate options and postgraduate options in Psychology, such as a Graduate Diploma of Psychology, Master of Professional Psychology, Master of Psychological Practice and Master of Clinical Psychology.

Professor Hodgins said Charles Sturt offers accredited courses that allow graduates to then complete their provisional or registrar training to become registered psychologists and clinical psychologists.

“We offer 100 per cent online training in these courses that allows students much more flexibility to complete their university psychology training,” he said.

“Charles Sturt University is also a regionally-based university that provides training for health professionals in regional Australia, with such graduates more likely to then work in regional or rural Australia.”