Statistics released by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) have shown a steep rise in demand for courses at regional universities across Victoria from last year.

First preference course popularity at Mildura’s campus of La Trobe University rose by a quarter, while Bendigo saw a 38 per cent jump in interest and Shepparton’s soared by a whopping 57 per cent.

An overall 5.6 per cent increase in interest in university has seen more than 250,000 applications across Australia this year, providing relief to many struggling regional campuses.

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