The recent sale of the Lutheran Vatican in North Adelaide that housed their theological seminary, the closure of two indigenous tertiary colleges or faculties, and continuing merger of theological colleges beings the question – are there any green shoots despite all this decay? How are those places that train our ministers going? Are they losing students.
Numbers are hard to find, but here are a few that The Other Cheek has discovered. Overall Australia’s mtheological colleges are shrinking. (Please feel free to add more info in the comments and I will update this story.
The theological education sector is dominated by consortia – umbrella organisations the combine colleges that maybe more familiar.
The largest is the Australian College of Theology, just under a quarter of Australia’s theological students, It includes most of the larger evangelical colleges such as Sydny Missionary and Bible College, the Baptist’s Morling College, Melbourne School of Theology, Brisbane School of Theology and Ridley Melbourne.
In 2023 its Equivalent full-time student load (EFTSL) was 953 with 2,530 students.
The ACT Annual Report describes a 5 year trend of decline. “Enrolments declined by approximately 5% in 2019, and 2.5% in 2020. There was a decline of 9% in 2021, followed by a significant decline of 13% in 2022. In 2023 there was a 9.1% decline in enrolments for the year for AQF [Australian Qualifications Framework regulated] courses, and an 8.1% decline for all courses.”
But as the report points out the effect was uneven across the ACT colleges. The Bible College of SA – which has just turned 100 – has seen steady student numbers.
| Semester | Equivalent Full Time Enrolment |
| 2024 S1 | 34 |
| 2023 S2 | 40.25 |
| 2023 S1 | 35.5 |
| 2022 S2 | 31 |
| 2022 S1 | 33.75 |
| 2021 S2 | 41 |
| 2021 S1 | 41.5 |
| 2020 S2 | 38.5 |
| 2020 S1 | 39.5 |
The University of Divinity, is a consortium that includes Uniting, Anglican, Salvation Army and Lutheran colleges. It is the second largest consortium of theological colleges. UD Annual reports show a decline in enrolments from 2020.
| 2019 | 663.2 EFTSL |
| 2020 | 666.6 |
| 2021 | 616.76 |
| 2022 | 562.97 |
| 2023 | 487.99 |
| 2024 | 510 Forecast |
A note about the drop in enrolments 2022-2023 points out that one college left the UD. This was Stirling College which megrged with Australian College of Ministries to form one national Church of Christ College and came under the umbrella of the Sydney College of Divinity.
As with ACT, we can find an enrolment uptick within the UD system. The Anglican St Francis College, Brisbane is an example. The 2024 Southern Queensland Synod papers contain these stats
| 2019 | 22.750 EFTSL |
| 2020 | 27.25 |
| 2021 | 32.75 |
| 2022 | 22.50 |
| 2023 | 18.43 |
| 2024 | 19.56 (as of February) |
Moore Theological College, the Sydney Anglican diocese’s college is a stand alone institution. It details student numbers that show a rising trend in the last few years. These are headcount figures, but the college only permits part time study in the first year.
| 2019 | 395 (Headcount) |
| 2020 | 387 |
| 2021 | 420 |
| 2022 | 424 |
| 2023 | 415 |
| 2024 | 440 |
Update: Moore student numbers in degree courses were released at the Sydney Anglican Synod. They show a major increase. The number of students in a Bachelor of Theology or Bachelor of Divinity courses is in this table, male and female
| First Year | 23f 60m |
| Second Year | 15f 45m |
| Third Year | 13f 38m |
| Fourth Year | 7f 36m |
tAlphacrucis, the large Pentecostal College has campuses around Australia, but is far broader than a theological seminary – with ambitions to be a full university. It is a stand-alone institution, it does not belong to a consortium.
The 2022 Commonwealth Education Department data gives Alphacrucis a headcount of 3008, of which 2407 were studying in the “society and culture field”, and a EFTSL of 1506. The Society and Culture EFTSL was 1147. By comparison, the 2019 Society and Culture EFTSL was 1329. (In this report we will use Commonwealth data where we don’t have direct numbers from the colleges, but it is published two years behind. In the case of Alphacrucis, it’s other fields of education and management are counted separately, so we can safely assume “society and culture” means theology and related subjects.)
| 2020 | 45 |
| 2021 | 66 |
| 2022 | 53 |
| 2023 | 66 |
| 2024 | 64 |
| Society and Culture EFTSL | |
| 2019 | 1329 |
| 2020 | 1193 |
| 2021 | 1268 |
| 2022 | 1147 |
Sydney College of Divinity (SCD), a smaller consortium includes among others, Planetshakers, Australian College of Ministries and two Greek Orthodox Colleges
The Other Cheek has not been able to find SCD annual reports so once again will use government data. (If anyone can give us a link to annual reports we’ll update!)
| Society and Culture EFTSL | |
| 2019 | 527 |
| 2020 | 446 |
| 2021 | 512 |
| 2022 | 341 |
Main Image: Moore College