Between 2006 and 2016, Australia provided settlement opportunities to more than 145,000 humanitarian migrants. Despite the breadth of services offered by government and third-sector institutions, they remain amongst the most vulnerable population groups in Australian society.

An important channel for humanitarian migrants to successfully integrate into mainstream society is participation in the local education system and, particularly, higher education. Yet individuals from humanitarian-migrant backgrounds face multiple and unique barriers to education participation and success, over and above those faced by other migrant groups.

Few studies to date have empirically examined the ties between humanitarian-migrant status and circumstances and higher education participation and attainment in Australia. This report fills this significant gap in knowledge.

This report provides novel analyses of recent survey and administrative data sources using state-of-the-art statistical methods. It systematically queries two data sources that—despite being ideal to examine humanitarian migrants’ interactions with the Australian education system—remain severely under-utilised for such purposes.