VCE Drama And Theatre Studies Numbers 2005-2009

If you teach VCE Drama and/or Theatre Studies in the final two years of high school in metropolitan Melbourne or regional Victoria, have you ever wondered how many students are enrolled in these subjects and the difference between the two? Well, I did a bit of research and have a 5-year trend outlined below:

Drama	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
Unit 1	1998	2031	2361	2337	2644
Unit 2	1895	1909	2268	2279	2569
Unit 3	1500	1707	1833	1906	1910
Unit 4	1432	1641	1738	1825	1826

Theatre Studies	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
Unit 1	931	943	923	1160	1063
Unit 2	872	973	882	1144	1089
Unit 3	1053	1003	1038	1096	1161
Unit 4	1032	969	1007	1058	1101

Source: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Actual trends in the past five years indicate Unit 3 & 4 Theatre Studies numbers have remained constant, while Drama enrollments at the same level have clearly dropped each year (over 20% decline from 1910 students in Unit 3 in 2005 to just 1500 in 2009). While Unit 3 & 4 enrollments are less than numbers in Unit 1 & 2 in Drama over all five years, interestingly in three years (2007, 2008, 2009) numbers in VCE Theatre Studies have actually increased in Unit 3, compared to Unit 2.