Senior Secondary Certificate Statistical Information 2022

Section 1: Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE)

Data source: 2022 data were extracted from the VCAA Assessment Processing System (APS) database at 4 January 2023 (Published).

If you have any concerns or comments, please contact the Data Analysis and Reporting Unit by emailing: research.vcaa@education.vic.gov.au.

Section 1

In Victoria there are two certificates of senior secondary education, they are the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). This section covers the VCE, and information about VCAL is in Section 5 (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning).

1. Victorian Certificate of Education

VCE completion is calculated on the basis of satisfactory completion of units. Refer to the VCE and VCAL Administrative Hand book for the regulations, which may be found on the VCAA website.

Table 1.1: VCE Participation and Completion, 2018 - 2022 ¹
Students	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Eligible to complete the VCE	51,999	50,292	51,162	51,746	50,602
Satisfactorily completed VCE	50,981	49,366	50,302	50,774	49,638
Percentage of VCE completions	98.0	98.2	98.3	98.1	98.1

Table 1.2: VCE Participation and Completion by Gender, 2022
Gender	Eligibles	Completions	% Completions
Female	27,000	26,498	98.1
Male	23,356	22,902	98.1
Gender X	246	238	96.7
All	50,602	49,638	98.1

The VCE (Baccalaureate) is an additional form of recognition for those students who choose to undertake the demands of studying both a higher level of mathematics and a language in their VCE program of study. Refer to the VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook for the regulations, which may be found on the VCAA website.

Table 1.3: VCE Baccalaureate Awarded, 2018 - 2022 ²
	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Number of Students	4,052	3,755	3,763	3,574	3,351

2. Unit Enrolments and Completions

2.1 VCE Units

Table 2.1.1: VCE Unit Enrolments and Completions by Unit Level and Gender, 2022
(excluding credit gained through VET in Senior Secondary Schools)
	Units Enrolled				Units Satisfactorily Completed				% Satisfactorily Completed
Gender	Unit 1	Unit 2	Unit 3	Unit 4	Unit 1	Unit 2	Unit 3	Unit 4	Unit 1	Unit 2	Unit 3	Unit 4
Female	176,202	169,977	144,090	140,505	167,400	163,267	141,584	139,151	95	96.1	98.3	99
Male	159,548	154,537	123,644	120,490	149,592	146,941	121,208	119,181	93.8	95.1	98	98.9
Gender X	1,745	1,620	1,289	1,215	1,568	1,502	1,250	1,192	89.9	92.7	97	98.1
All	337,495	326,134	269,023	262,210	318,560	311,710	264,042	259,524	94.4	95.6	98.1	99
% Female	52.2	52.1	53.6	53.6	52.5	52.4	53.6	53.6
% Male	47.3	47.4	46	46	47	47.1	45.9	45.9
% Gender X	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5

Note that the participation of those students who withdrew during the year without an outcome recorded against their unit enrolments were removed from the dataset. Section 2 (Satisfactory Completion of VCE Units) provides more detailed information of unit participation and completions by study and sequence.

Table 2.1.2: VCE Units 1 - 4 Total Enrolments and Completions by Gender, 2022
(excluding credit gained through VET in Senior Secondary Schools)
Gender	Enrolments	Completions	% Completions
Female	630,774	611,402	96.9
Male	558,219	536,922	96.2
Gender X	5,869	5,512	93.9
All	1,194,862	1,153,836	96.6
% Female	52.8	53
% Male	46.7	46.5
% Gender X	0.5	0.5

There were a total of 1,194,862 VCE unit enrolments in 2022 of 96.6% were successfully completed. With the introduction of the Northern Hemisphere Timetable (NHT) there were 793 students from 22 home schools with total 3,415 unit enrolments at units 1-4 in 2021/2022. The vast majority of NHT students were based in China.

The female completion rate was 96.9% while the male completion rate was 96.2%. Females comprised 52.8% of the total unit enrolments while male comprised 46.7%. Females comprised 53% of the total unit completions while males comprised 46.5%.

2.2 VCE VET Units

Students gain credit toward VCE VET units by successfully completing a prescribed number of hours of Units of Competence.

Table 2.2: Equivalent VCE VET Unit Credits Gained Through VET Units of Competence (UoC), 2022
Gender	Unit 1	Unit 2	Unit 3	Unit 4
Female	16,214	11,049	8,932	6,886
Male	21,133	14,772	9,362	7,103
Gender X	167	119	79	61
All	37,514	25,940	18,373	14,050
% Female	43.2	42.6	48.6	49.0
% Male	56.3	56.9	51.0	50.6
% Gender X	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.4

3. Outcomes of VCE Graded Assessment 2022

Students undertaking Units 3 and 4 sequences will in most cases participate in Graded Assessment. Section 3 (Grade Distributions for Graded Assessments VCE) provides more detailed information on the outcomes for each study where Graded Assessment is available. All VCE studies have three Graded Assessments in each Unit 3-4 sequence, while the VCE VET programs with scored assessment have two Graded Assessments.

In summary, the most awarded grade in 2022 was B comprising 15.6% of the distribution. The median grade was a B, with 56.3% of grades at a B or higher. Table 3.1 shows the number of grades awarded (N), and the percentage awarded per grade. The table includes data for both the VCE Unit 3-4 sequences and the VCE VET scored programs.

Table 3.1: Aggregate Grade Distributions All Graded Assessments, 2022
(VCE Units 3 - 4 Sequences and VCE VET Scored Programs)
Grade	UG	E	E+	D	D+	C	C+	B	B+	A	A+	All
N	3,248	5,863	16,694	35,068	62,042	86,504	108,094	113,218	112,946	103,040	80,383	727,100
%	0.4	0.8	2.3	4.8	8.5	11.9	14.9	15.6	15.5	14.2	11.1	100.0

These figures are derived from VCAA information in January and include overseas students. Students who have successfully achieved their VCE in previous years but undertook further studies in the current year are included.
The number students that were awarded VCE Baccalaureate are also included in Table 1.1: VCE Participation and Completion, 2018 - 2022 and Table 1.2: VCE Participation and Completion by Gender, 2022.

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