Figure 3： The number of domestic and international postgraduate (MSc and PhD) student commencements over the previous five years for 12 and 13 reporting universities, respectively.

In the five-year period 2019-2023, 304 students graduated with a PhD in astronomy or astrophysics - almost double that of 10 years ago, and continuing a doubling trend from 2005 (83 graduates). More than a quarter of these graduates move directly into Australian industry - an increase of 19% on the previous decade. There is high demand in industry for the technical skills and quantitative analysis expertise that astrophysicists possess. 26 per year. International commencements averaged 40 per year and appeared to be maintained at that level in 2019. In terms of hands-on student training, 66% of survey respondents identifying as PhD candidates use national or university facilities (such as ATCA, Murriyang, and AAT) for their research, slightly higher than the proportion for the non-PhD cohort (53%). This supports anecdotal evidence that access to these resources is critical for training and research development,