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3. 2011 HSC Media Guide
4. Big picture

Big picture

In 2011...

• 72 391 students are enrolled in at least one Higher School Certificate course.
• 537 candidates are enrolled in HSC courses outside of NSW, including in international schools in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia.
• HSC written exams are being held over 18 days between Monday October 17 and Friday November 11. There are 117 different exam papers. The first are Business Studies and Classical Greek Continuers, and the final, Hospitality, and Design and Technology.
• There are more than 760 HSC exam centres in Australia and around the world. More than 740 of these are in New South Wales.
• Of the 72 391 students enrolled in this year’s HSC, 35 044 or 48% are male and 37 347 or 52% are female.
• Most HSC candidates in NSW come from metropolitan areas: 42 366 against 29 488 in the Board's non-metropolitan regions.
  Enrolments by NSW region, Board of Studies regions
• English 67 880 students are enrolled in at least one HSC English course.
  These courses include: English Standard, English Advanced, English as a Second Language, English Extension 1, English Extension 2, English Life Skills and English Studies.
  English is the only compulsory HSC subject.
• Maths 55 103 students are enrolled in at least one HSC maths course.
  These courses include: General Mathematics, Mathematics, Mathematics Extension 1, Mathematics Extension 2, Mathematics Life Skills and Mathematics Applied.
• Languages 6398 students are enrolled in at least one HSC language course.
• Life Skills 1625 students are enrolled in at least one HSC Life Skills course.
• Science 33 008 students are enrolled in at least one HSC science course.
  These courses include: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Environmental Science, Senior Science, Science Life Skills and Laboratory Skills.
• VET 22 800 students are enrolled in at least one HSC Vocational Educational and Training or VET course. Of these, 19 917 are enrolled in one or more of the VET curriculum frameworks.

Note The numbers above can differ from total course enrolment numbers as a student, for example, can be enrolled in more than one course from a particular subject area or be undertaking an accelerated study program.

15 individual courses with the largest number of students enrolled

*Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

Enrolment by course

10 individual language courses with the largest number of students enrolled

Language course eligibility

Five languages with the largest number of students enrolled

Enrolment by language course

Five individual VET curriculum frameworks with the largest number of students enrolled

VET courses focus on workplace skills. Enrolment by VET curriculum frameworks

Note These statistics are based on a Board of Studies NSW audit, 1 September 2011.