Tertiary education in Australia is formal education beyond high school in Australia, consisting of both government and private institutions and divided into two sectors; Higher Education (provided by universities and other Higher Education Providers (HEPs)) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) provided by government-owned TAFEs & private Registered Training Organisations (RTO). The Commonwealth Government's Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) classifies tertiary qualifications into 10 levels: level 1 to 4 vocational certificates (I - IV); level 5 diploma; ; level 6 associate degree and advanced diploma; level 7 bachelor degree; level 8 bachelor with honours degree & graduate certificates and graduate diplomas; level 9 for master's degree; and level 10 for doctorates.

Most universities are government owned and mostly self-regulated. For other institutes (VETs, i.e. TAFE & RTO) there are two national regulators for tertiary education for registration, recognition and quality assurance of both the "provider institutes" as well as the "individual courses" provided by the providers. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 5 or above. Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 1 to level 6.

For admission into Australian institutes, Australian & New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents, are considered "domestic students" regardless of whether their prior education was in Australia or overseas. All others are considered "international students". Domestic students need to apply only once to the TACs (State-based unified Tertiary Admission Centre) of the relevant state for admission to all the universities within that state, which grant admission based on the ATAR-based "Selection Rank" (SR). Those students with International Baccalaureate (IB), both domestic and international students, must apply to the "Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres" (ACTAC) which calculates an Australia-wide ATAR-like national rank called "Combined Rank" (CR). Domestic students usually pay far less in subsidised-fees compared to international students. Additionally, domestic students are entitled to Australia's publicly funded universal health care insurance scheme Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and various social security welfare payments & benefits, e.g. Austudy Payment, Youth Allowance, etc., to meet living expenses. International students are not entitled to these benefits. All international students apply individually to each university, and most international students are self-financed non-subsidised full-fee paying students.

There are 43 universities registered in Australia (including 37 public universities, four private universities, and one international private university). Many Australian universities have formed several network groupings, such as the Group of Eight (8 leading universities which receive two thirds of the government research grant funding awarded to all universities), the Australian Technology Network (ATN), Innovative Research Universities (IRU), the Regional Universities Network (RUN), and more.^{[failed verification]}

Australia is well known for high quality education, most of the universities are government owned, and they rank very highly on the global rankings. Australia is ranked 4th (with Germany) in the OECD by international PhD students destination after the US, UK and France. Australia has a comparatively high proportion of international students as a percentage of students enrolled, at 26.5% in 2018. Australia has the fifth-highest number of foreign students worldwide.

56% of the 462,033 international students enrolled in Australia are from five nations; China (23%), India (16%), Nepal (10%), Colombia (4%) and Thailand (3%) with an enrolment ratio of 50% in Higher Education (229,833), 35% VET (162,193), 11% ELICOS (English language course) (50,246), 2% Schools (19,704) and 2% Non-Award (8,057). In 2022, 69% of Australians aged 20–64 had a tertiary qualification, and 24% had multiple qualifications. Among all ethnic groups in Australia, Indian Australians are the most educated group in Australia with 54.6% having a bachelor's or higher degree — more than three times Australia's national average of 17.2%.

The first university established in Australia was the University of Sydney in 1850, followed in 1853 by the University of Melbourne. Prior to federation in 1901, two more universities were established: the University of Adelaide (1874) and the University of Tasmania (1890). At the time of federation, Australia's population was 3,788,100 and there were fewer than 2,652 university students. Two other universities were established soon after federation: the University of Queensland (1909) and the University of Western Australia (1911). All of these universities were controlled by State governments and were largely modelled on the traditional British university system and adopted both architectural and educational features in line with the (then) strongly influential 'mother' country. In his paper Higher Education in Australia: Structure, Policy and Debate Jim Breen observed that in 1914 only 3,300 students (or 0.1% of the Australian population) were enrolled in universities. In 1920 the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) was formed to represent the interests of these six universities.

The 'non-university' institutions originally issued only trade/technical certificates, diplomas and professional bachelor's degrees. Although universities were differentiated from technical colleges and institutes of technology through their participation in research, Australian universities were initially not established with research as a significant component of their overall activities. For this reason, the Australian Government established the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in 1926 as a backbone for Australian scientific research, which still exists today.