[3] Serving years 9 to 13, Ashburton College has a roll of 1,284 students as of November 2024.

[1] Ashburton College is naturally zoned by the school's relative isolation (the nearest alternative state secondary school is Mount Hutt College, 35 km away in Methven), therefore does not need to operate an enrolment scheme.

The school has an effective service area of the entire township of Ashburton and much of the coastal half of Mid-Canterbury, with Mount Hutt College in Methven, Ellesmere College in Leeston, Geraldine High School in Geraldine, and the Pacific Ocean bounding the Ashburton College service area to the west, north, south and east respectively.

[citation needed] In 2008, The Education Review Office ranked the school the top in the country for the promotion of male's learning.

The primary instrument in use is a 130-year-old equatorially mounted 230mm With-Browning newtonian reflector telescope.