Executive Summary – Australian Education Providers Q1 2025
Introduction
The education sector continues to showcase standout performers in Q1 2025, with Holmesglen Institute and TasTAFE maintaining long-running leadership in Overall CX, Agent Mastery, and Accessibility. Holmesglen has now topped the sector for Overall CX for seven consecutive quarters, while TasTAFE’s near-perfect 99.0% Accessibility score was the highest nationally across all contact centres assessed.
Despite these top-tier results, sector-wide CX performance has declined for the third quarter in a row, falling to 4th place overall. Historically, Q1 has proven to be a challenging period — and 2025 was no exception, with Accessibility scores dropping significantly during peak enrolment activity. Meanwhile, Agent Mastery remains a work in progress, with the sector ranked 6th of 7, and specific behavioural gaps emerging around call control and the ability to clearly educate customers.
With leading providers showing what’s possible, the challenge now is to lift the sector’s baseline — ensuring consistently high service across more institutions, especially during high-demand periods when great experiences matter most.
Top Performers
✅ Best Overall CX Performer – Holmesglen Institute, VIC (68.4%)
Holmesglen Institute extended its unbeaten run, leading the sector for the seventh consecutive quarter with a CX score of 68.4%. Their consistent performance continues to set the standard in education sector customer experience.
📈 Top Accessibility Performer – TasTAFE, TAS (99.0%)
TasTAFE delivered a near-perfect Accessibility score of 99.0% — their highest result to date and the best nationally across all contact centres assessed. This marks their seventh consecutive quarter leading the sector for Accessibility.
⭐️ Best Agent Mastery – Holmesglen Institute (66.4%)
When it comes to delivering high-quality, human-led conversations, Holmesglen Institute continues to lead — now six quarters in a row at the top of the Agent Mastery rankings. That said, the gap is closing, with TAFE QLD not far behind on 58.3%.
💡 Industry Insight:
The education sector remains a standout for Accessibility, ranking second across all industry sectors in Q1 2025. However, Agent Mastery continues to lag — with the sector placing 6th of 7 — highlighting ongoing challenges in equipping frontline staff with the soft skills and conversational behaviours that underpin great phone experiences.
Biggest CX Challenges
📉 Seasonal Slump in CX Performance
Despite leading the nation in Overall CX as recently as Q3 2024 with a score of 64.5%, education providers have now declined for three consecutive quarters — slipping to 4th place in Q1 2025 on 57.3%. This trend isn’t new: Q1 2024 also recorded the sector’s lowest-ever score (56.8%), suggesting that the start of the academic year may consistently challenge service levels. The primary driver of the drop was a sharp fall in Accessibility, down from 90.4% in Q4 to 79.3%, pointing to potential resourcing shortfalls during peak demand periods.
🎛️ Struggling to Stay in Control
Part of the Impact competency, Control reflects how well agents manage conversations with confidence, efficiency, and transparency. Education providers ranked last across all sectors for this behaviour in Q1 2025 — and for the second consecutive quarter. This signals a broader challenge in managing calls with structure and authority, leading to interactions that can feel uncertain or meandering from the caller’s point of view.
📚 When Educators Struggle to Educate
Perhaps ironically, Education Providers ranked 6th out of 7 sectors for the Educate competency — a key part of Agent Mastery focused on empowering customers with relevant, easy-to-understand information. This competency assesses an agent’s ability to clearly explain next steps, remove confusion, and build customer confidence. For a sector built on learning, the challenge here isn’t subject matter knowledge — it’s the ability to communicate it effectively in real time, over the phone.
🏆 Key Wins
🎯 Consistent High Performers Set the Pace
Holmesglen Institute and TasTAFE have become fixtures at the top of the sector. Holmesglen has now led the sector for Overall CX for seven consecutive quarters and Agent Mastery for six, while TasTAFE continues to dominate in Accessibility — achieving a near-perfect 99.0% this quarter, the highest result of any contact centre nationally.
📞 Accessibility Remains a Strength
Despite a dip this quarter, the education sector still ranked second overall for Accessibility, showing that most providers continue to offer fast, simple access to a live agent — a critical advantage during high-stakes enrolment periods.
🧠 Rebounding in Agent Mastery
After dipping to 47.6% in Q4 2024, the education sector saw a modest lift to 49.4% in Q1 2025 — a positive sign after a period of decline. While still ranked 6th out of 7 sectors, the result suggests some stabilisation in soft skill performance and a potential turning point for sector-wide improvement.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence for Australian Education Providers
A huge congratulations to the top-performing Australian Education Providers in Q1 2025 who have raised the bar for contact centre performance.
Based on real-world mystery shopping interactions, these results reflect how well providers are handling new enquiries from prospective students — delivering experiences that are timely, professional, and focused on helping people take their next step in education or training.
It’s a fiercely competitive space, and those leading the way are doing more than answering calls — they’re building trust, reducing effort, and turning interest into enrolment through service excellence.
68.4%
61.2%
58.9%
50.0%Quarterly Trend
Overall CX
Australian Education Providers
The Overall CX Score is the most important metric in our benchmarking program – a single, weighted score that reflects how easy it is for customers to reach a contact centre and the quality of the experience once connected.
As the defining measure of customer experience, the Overall CX Score blends Accessibility (30%) and Agent Mastery (70%) to reflect both access and impact – with a greater emphasis on the agent’s role in shaping outcomes. Penalties are applied for major breakdowns to ensure a true picture of performance from the customer’s perspective.
Key Metrics Trend – Australian Education Providers (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for Australian Education Providers:
- Overall CX – A weighted composite score reflecting the end-to-end customer experience, factoring in accessibility, agent quality, and call handling efficiency.
- Accessibility – The ease of reaching a human agent.
- Agent Mastery – The quality and effectiveness of agent conversations.
Overall CX
This is the headline metric – representing the total customer experience across every stage of the call journey. It’s calculated using a weighted combination of the Accessibility and Agent Mastery scores, providing a holistic view of how well Australian Educations are delivering end-to-end service during key public interactions.
Accessibility
This measures how easily and quickly community members can reach a real person. It includes navigating phone menus, clarity of options, queue times, and whether callers successfully speak with a representative. Higher scores reflect smoother, more ratepayer-friendly access experiences.
Agent Mastery
This evaluates the quality and professionalism of frontline service. It includes how well Education contact centre agents greet, listen, and respond to public enquiries – from rates and rubbish to local events – with empathy, clarity, and accuracy. It’s a direct measure of agent capability during important service conversations.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards that power these assessments.
Call Centre CX Quadrant – Australian Education Providers Q1 2025
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how well a selection of Australian Education Providers compare in Accessibility (ease of reaching a live agent) and Agent Mastery (quality of customer interactions).
Striking the right balance is no easy feat – some Educations offer fast and easy access but fall short in agent skill or engagement, which can undermine the overall experience.
Others may deliver strong agent interactions but frustrate customers with long wait times or difficult menu navigation before help is even reached.
The top-right quadrant represents CX best practice – Education Providers that make it both easy to get help and deliver high-quality conversations once the conversation begins. 📊⚡️
