UTS Info Day 2025

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Applying to UTS information session. In this session, we'll go through how to apply to UTS, our different entry schemes, the different admissions pathways to UTS, how you can manage your offers, and at the end, we'll also go through some frequently asked questions. If you still have any questions, feel free to stay back for our live Q&A session following this presentation. So just to start off, these are the new courses we have from 2026, and applications for these are currently open. Okay, so we'll first go through how to apply to study at UTS. So applications for 2026 are now open through the University Admission Centre, commonly known as UAC. UAC is open to all applicants and considers all merit and equity-based schemes. And we'll go through what this means in the presentation as well. So once you've created your UAC application, you can pick up to five preferences. So these are courses that you'd like to study. They're ranked from the order from your most preferred course. So this is your first preference all the way down to your fifth preference. And this is important because UAC uses a system that looks at your preferences in order. So we always recommend that you list your courses from your most preferred preference at the top. So you only need one preference to submit your application, but we always recommend to fill up all five. This just means that if you miss out on your first preference, that you will have backup options ready. You can also change your preferences just before and after each offer round. So just keep in mind that changes close right before and after the offer round, and then it reopens once that's done. You can also check the UAC key dates as this has all the deadlines that you'll need to know. Just a tip, if you're interested in a particular course, we recommend that you make it your first preference because popular courses tend to fill up quite quickly and once they're full, that's it. We don't make any more offers. Okay, so once you've filled out your standard application on UAC, you can then apply for our entry schemes. UTS has a range of schemes that can help you boost your application, because we know everyone's situation is different and some circumstances should be considered. This could include your academic performance in specific year 12 subjects, if you have a particular interest in a certain study area, if you've experienced any educational disadvantage, or if you identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. So what are entry schemes? Entry schemes look at different adjustment factors and you can add extra points to your ATAR or other qualification ranks that you might have to what's created to call a selection rank. UTS then considers your application to study for a course based on your best selection rank. So some schemes could allow you to receive an offer based on other criteria other than your ATAR and you can apply for and receive adjustment factors for more than one entry scheme. Okay, so we'll now go through the various different schemes that we have. At UTS, we have a scheme called Inputs, and this is our educational access scheme, and this one is open for all our applicants. This scheme recognises the difficult challenges or long-term disadvantages that could affect your studies and your ability to achieve the ATAR that you need for your preferred course. If you apply for this scheme and you're eligible, then you'll be awarded 10 adjustment points towards your selection rank. So some of the disadvantages could include school environment, home environment, personal disadvantage or socioeconomic disadvantage. So for this scheme, there's no hard deadline, but you'll need to have applied by the 18th of November to have been considered for December round two, which is our main round. The link for this scheme will appear after you've completed your standard UAC application. So next we have the school's recommendation scheme, which is our equity-based scheme for our current year 12 students. This scheme aims to support students who have the potential to succeed at uni, but might not be able to receive an offer based on your ATAR alone. So to be eligible for this scheme, you need to apply and also be eligible for either a socio-economic disadvantage, school environment or financial hardship under our Inputs Educational Access Scheme. For 2026, this scheme is now closed. So any eligible students would have received either the conditional or unconditional offer on the 13th of November. So if you received a conditional offer, you'll receive your unconditional offer on the 23rd of December after you've met the minimum requirements, which is outlined in your offer letter. Just remember though for this scheme, if you have the conditional offer, to keep the preference in your UAC application in order to receive that unconditional offer. Next, we have the Year 12 subject scheme. This is for current Year 12 students or If you've completed U12 last year and took a gap year, so you'd be eligible for this scheme. So this scheme awards a maximum of five adjustment points based on subjects that you would have studied during your HSC, how well you did in those subjects and whether they're relevant for the course that you're applying for. So if you've also completed your IB or U12 interstate, you can also check the UAC website because this has a list of the equivalent subjects that could qualify for this scheme. If you're eligible for this scheme, the points are automatically added to your UAC application, so you won't need to make a separate application. So we also have the Elite Athletes and Performers Scheme, and this is for anyone who's year 12 or tertiary studies may have been impacted because you're either performing or competing at a national level representing your school or your state. Last year, we also expanded the criteria to include more performer categories. So to apply for this one, you'll need to provide information about your schooling and performing commitments and submit a statement from your school or coach or anyone that could verify your participation. Applications for 2026 are also closed for this, and if you were eligible, you would have been notified by now. If eligible, you will receive 5 adjustment points in your UAC application. And if you have any questions about your application, please reach out to the uts.eap at uts.edu.au email, which is listed here in the presentation. And once you're at UTS, there's also extra support that can be provided through our Elite Athletes Program and the new Elite Performers Program. And this information is on our website. If you've got any work experience related to the course you're applying for at UTS, you could also be eligible for up to five adjustment points. So this work experience will need to be 1 consecutive year full-time and to be considered, you'll need to complete the employment question in your UAC application and also submit a statement of service from your employer. So this scheme only applies for select business, criminology, engineering, IT and science courses. So now we'll get on to our faculty-based schemes. So we have the engineering and IT questionnaire, and this is for current year 12 students who's interested in studying an engineering or IT course at UTS. So for this one, you can submit a questionnaire to support your UAC application, just in case you think you might fall short by one to three points in your application. So to be considered for this, you need to have your preferred UTS engineering and IT course as your first preference and have a minimum selection rank of 75. The questionnaire template can be downloaded from the website, our UTS website, and you need to fill this out and then upload that back into your UAC application. So for this scheme, you need to submit your questionnaire by the 9th of January 2026 And if you're eligible, you will then be considered for an offer for your engineering and IT preference. So we also have the Women in Engineering and IT and Construction Project Management Scheme, as UTS is committed to supporting women in STEM. So if you identify as female in your UAC application and you're applying to an eligible course in either engineering, IT or construction project management, you'll be eligible to receive 10 adjustment points towards your selection rank. So this one is open to all our applicants and the points are automatically added to your application. So you won't need to submit a separate application. On our website, you can see the full list of the eligible courses. So next we have the design portfolio scheme, which is intended to support your application just if you're worried that your selection rank may not be enough to get you an offer. So this scheme is only available to our non-current school leavers. So this means if you're not completing year 12 this year, you'll need to list a UTS design course as your UAC preference and then also submit a portfolio through our website. You can check out our website for more detailed information about what you'll need to submit. And then if you're eligible, then you'll be made an offer to your highest course preference. For 2026, this scheme is now closed, but if you've missed out, you can still apply to your preferred UTS design course and your application will be considered on your academic qualification. This year, we also launched our new architecture portfolio scheme, and this one's open to all our applicants. This scheme is for anyone that's interested in studying an architecture course, but you're worried you might fall short around 5 selection rank points. So with this one, you need to list a UTS architecture course and have it as your first preference, and then also submit a portfolio through our website. If you're eligible for this scheme, you'll receive an offer to your preferred UTS Architecture course. Similarly to our design scheme, this one's closed for 2026, but if you missed out, you can still apply for your preferred UTS Architecture course through UAC, and you'll be considered based on your academic qualification. So, next we have the Music and Sound Design Scheme, which is designed to support your application, just if you're worried that your selection rank alone may not be enough to secure you an offer. This one's open to all... applicants who are applying for our music and sound design course. You'll submit a portfolio and then based on this, you can receive up to five adjustment points to support your UAC application. For 2026, this scheme is now closed, but again, if you've missed out, you can still apply through UAC and you'll be considered on your academic qualification. We also have a scheme called the Science Aptitude Test. So this is if you're interested in studying a science course at UTS, but you're worried that your results from either Year 12 or any other tertiary studies that you may have done may not be enough to get you an offer. So you can sit for the Science Aptitude Test, which is like a general knowledge test designed to assess your analytical and critical thinking skills. So there's no preparation that you can do for this test. and this one's open for all our applicants. The next available date that you can do this test is the 12th of January 2026 and you will need to register before this through our UTS website. The only thing to note with this test though is that you can only take it once per calendar year and it doesn't apply to our advanced science, honours or combined courses. And lastly, we have our business cadetship scheme, which is open to all our applicants. This is for, this is if you're interested in applying for the Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Economics or Bachelor of Management and you've received a cadetship. So you can apply for this scheme and you can receive an offer to one of these courses. For this one, you need to apply directly to UTS and also provide a copy of your cadetship letter. Okay, so now we've gone through all our schemes. We'll move on to how to understand how your application is assessed and how you can manage your offers. Okay, so how is your qualification assessed? So all applications are assessed based on your best selection rank. So if you're completing year 12 this year or you've completed year 12 last year but took a gap year, you'll be considered a recent school leaver. If you're in this group, your selection rank is your ATAR or your IB score or any other equivalent studies, plus any adjustment points you would have received from our entry schemes that we covered. If you completed Year 12 in 2023 or earlier, or you've started some kind of tertiary studies, so this could be starting studies at another university, you would be considered a non-recent school leaver. Your selection rank is your highest eligible qualification, plus any adjustment points you would be eligible for through our schemes. So how do you know if you're likely to receive an offer? If you're a recent school leaver, you can search for the course you'd like to study on our website. And on the website, you can check out what the lowest selection rank was from based off last year's autumn intake. Just note though that the selection rank will vary from year to year as this is based on the demand of the course. So we recommend that you use this as a guide only. You can find them by searching up a course on the find a course page. So when will you receive an offer? UTS has two main intakes. So our autumn intake, which is coming up, and this normally starts in February or March, and spring intake, which starts around July and August. So at UTS, we began making offers for our non-current year 12 students in October round two, as you would have likely already had a qualification that we would have been able to assess your application on. For our year 12 students, early offers for autumn 2026 were made in November for eligible school recommendation scheme applicants. After this, the first offer round will be December round two, which is the first offer round after ATARs are released. If you received a conditional school recommendation scheme offer, you'll also receive your unconditional offer in December round two if you've met the conditions outlined in your offer letter. After this, UTS will participate in all offer rounds up until February round two for autumn offers. However, some popular courses will likely close earlier if they get full. So again, we recommend that you put your most preferred course as your highest preference for the best chance of getting the offer that you want. So how can you manage your offers? If you've been made an offer, you'll receive an email from UAC and you can check the offer by going into your UAC application and checking the correspondence tab. If you're not made an offer, you'll be considered for all future offer rounds provided you're eligible and there are still vacancies in the course. Just pay attention though to the offer lapse day as this is the last day that you can accept your offer. If you change your mind and you don't want to study it right now, you can defer your offer for one year for eligible courses. There are some courses that aren't eligible for deferrals and this can be found on our website. Our website will also have the last day you can defer your offer, and this is usually towards the end of February. So now you've got your offer. What can you do if you want more offers? So once you've received your offer from UTS, you can then remove that preference from your UAC application. Don't worry, you won't lose your offer if you remove the preference. However, just know that this may be different for other universities. Also just want to point out that if you have a conditional SRS offer, don't remove this preference until you've received that unconditional offer. UAC will always consider your highest eligible preference. So just make sure you reorder your preferences so you can be considered for other offers in the future rounds. You can change your preferences after each offer round so you can get as many offers as possible. Just noting today is the last day to change your preferences for December round two, our main round. So now we'll look at our main admissions pathways that you can consider if you don't receive an offer to your desired course at UTS. So admissions pathways are alternative ways you can get an offer using criteria other than an ATAR. So if you don't receive an offer to your preferred course at UTS, you may want to consider a different course at UTS or another university with a lower entry requirement and then reapply to your desired course using the qualification that you've just completed or started. Depending on the course requirements, you may need to complete one year, but some of our faculties, you won't need to do the whole year before you reapply. We generally advise that a credit average is considered competitive. So we always say do your best to increase your chances in getting the course that you want. Also, you may also get recognition of prior learning for some of the subjects that you completed if you're transferring from a similar courses, if there's shared subjects or similar overlap between the courses. You can also consider studying a diploma through UTS College. So these diplomas are one year and you can articulate into a specific course. So this means that you can receive guaranteed recognition of prior learning. And for most courses, you enter into the second year of your bachelor preferred course. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, we have some dedicated pathways. So one of them is our Jambana pathway. pathway is to show your readiness for university through testing, assessment and interviews. And they will also consider your life, education and work experience that you may have. New this year, we have our UTS UniReady program. This is a new pathway for students if you've experienced any financial disadvantage. For this program, you'll need to complete the program in order to receive an offer for your eligible undergraduate course. There are also some external pathways that you could do. So this could be completing A TAFE or VET diploma. For this one, we recommend that you choose a graded diploma. So this means not pass or fail grades in order to receive a more competitive selection rank. You can also complete a STAT test as an alternative pathway to a number of UTS courses. And for all undergraduate courses, except for scholarship and accelerated courses, you could apply for a limited ATAR. With this one though, you will need to be at least 20 years old in the year that you completed your HSC to be eligible. Okay, so we'll now go through some frequently asked questions. So my ATAR is lower than expected, but it's above 69. What can I do? If your ATAR is lower than expected, just remember that you're being considered on your selection rank, not just your ATAR. So this means any eligible adjustment points will be considered in your application to help boost it. If you haven't already, you may want to consider other admission schemes and applying for them if you haven't. So this could be our inputs, engineering and IT questionnaire and the science aptitude test. You never know, you may be eligible. We still recommend that you keep your dream course as your top preference, but also including other courses in your lower preferences just as a backup. So what do you do if you receive an ATAR below 69? At UTS, we have matriculation requirements, which is the minimum requirements that you must meet before you're even considered. So if you receive an ATAR below 69, there's still pathways available for you. Some of these could be studying one year at another university, Aim for a credit average and then reapply to UTS once you've completed that one year and you can do this through UAC once you're ready to apply. You can also consider studying a diploma. This can either be through our UTS college or through TAFE. Another commonly asked question is how do I transfer from another university to UTS? So this can be done through UAC and in your application you'll need to include all studies you've attempted. UAC will assess all your studies and your application will be considered on your best studies. Whichever is the highest will be used in your application. If you're still waiting for your semester 2 results, your university studies may not be considered until your university has updated this and provided it to UAC. Just also note, if you've been excluded and you've served your exclusion, you'll also need to submit a statement of exclusion direct to UTS and information about this is on our website. So check that out. So that takes us to the end of the presentation. If you have any more questions, please stay back for our live Q&A session and we'll chat soon. Thank you. 

Welcome to our session, UTS College, Your Way to UTS.

Appreciate today’s ATAR release day. It’s a big day for many of you. And this time next year, that will be me and my son. So appreciate that it can be a hectic day for many of you. So we’re hoping that through our session, we can alleviate some of your concerns and keep you on track for UTS.

Today we’ll go through pathways explained, so that can be confusing for many of you. We have a great discussion panel with some of our students, teacher and our learning designer. We’ll also go through the programs that we offer at UTS College, entry requirements, and then we’ll also have a live Q&A. So please put your questions in the Q&A, and we’ve got a great team behind the scenes that can answer those for you.

Okay, so who are we? Who is UTS College? So we’re referred as a pathway college. We’re owned by UTS, but we operate as a separate business entity. We’re essentially here for Australian and international students that for whatever reason couldn’t directly get into UTS and they do their first year with us and then go with most programs onto second or third year, depending on what program they choose. So what we’ll do is we go by your HSC results rather than ATAR, and we’ll go through all of that in more detail shortly for you. But I guess really, don’t worry. We are another way to UTS, and we’ve been doing this as transitional education experts for more than 30 years. And also, at the end of this, you will have two qualifications. At the end of the year, you’ll have a diploma. And then at the end, then you go into year, ideally year two, year three at UTS, and come out with a bachelor.

We have some of our ambassadors who are using that diploma, who are already working in their industry, as well as then they go on to study in year two and year three at UTS. I’m pleased to introduce our wonderful panelists for our discussion panel. We’ve got two of our student ambassadors. We’ve got a learning designer as well as one of our academic staff. So I will get them to introduce themselves. 

Yep, so my name is Therese and I just completed my Diploma in Architecture and Design. 

Hey everyone, my name is Michael. I’m in the Diploma of, well, I actually just finished Diploma of Animation Production going into second year of Bachelor of Animation Production. 

Hi, my name’s Will Lamb. I’m one of the learning design team at the college. Essentially what we do is support the academics developing the learning materials for students. 

Hey there, I’m Laura. I teach accounting in the Bachelor of Business and I teach first semester students. 

Fantastic. Michael, I’m going to start with you. Can you share with us your ATAR experience? 

My ATAR experience was pretty rough. I had a really rough experience with health issues that really affected my mental health and my ability to study and to keep up with all the assessments and all the exams. I was really lucky that I had a lot of volunteering opportunities, which helped me get through that process and to really survive the year, I guess. Yeah, and the knowing that I actually went to UTS Info Day during Year 11 and found UTS College as an opportunity without needing to use my ATAR was a really good relief and weight off my shoulders. I didn’t have to have that pressure on getting that required ATAR that I wanted. 

Fantastic. Well, I’m sorry to hear that you had such a... 

It’s OK. 

Troubling. Life happens. Yeah, it does. Well done, you. Therese. So take us back to this time last year. 9 o’clock this morning, you got your ATAR results. Yes. What happened? How are you feeling? 

Oh, I was so nervous and I was so stressed. Like I knew that I wasn’t going to get the ATAR or like a high ATAR because like everything happened in 12. But yeah, I don’t know, I opened my laptop, logged in to Nessa. And then I view my ATAR and it’s 57.25. And I was just like, oh. But the first thing I did was like log into UAC. I’m like refreshing the page, trying to see like if I got any offers. And then like a few minutes later I got, no, a few minutes later I emailed UTS College because I had already applied to it before ATAR just because UTS is like is a university I’ve always wanted to go to. And so it was the 1st place I reached out to. And then a few minutes later, I got an email, like office from other educational institutions. But my main goal was UTS College, just because I just wanted an easier transition from high school. And with UTS College offering smaller classes and more support, I just thought it would be better for me to go through the diploma instead of going straight into university because that would have been just more overwhelming. 

Right, after, I guess, a pretty hectic year 12. 

Yeah, year 12 was hectic. With major works and everything. 

Yeah, absolutely. Laura, look, I think as Therese mentioned, She was nervous about that first year going straight into uni. Why is that first year so important, especially straight after school? 

Yes, it’s a really common experience that I see lots of students go through, because I teach first semester I see a lot of brand new students. And lots of them talk to me about feeling really uncertain. They’re not sure if they can do it. They’re worried that they might not be smart enough. Any transition that you go through with your education is challenging, right? Because you’re taking that step up to the next level. Transitioning out of high school into university is hard, but it is achievable with the right level of support. 

Laura, so that first year is so important. What does UTS College do to assist students through that transition? How does that look? 

We provide so much support for our students. A few of the ways I’ll talk about in what happens in the classroom, because I’m a classroom teacher, is first of all, we provide a lot of support around assessments. And sometimes at uni you might think, oh, I’m just expected to get the assessments done. No one’s going to help me or remind me. But at UTS College, we provide a lot of support, scaffolding the assessments so that you can be successful in getting them done. We also provide a lot of support in class. We want to help students to make friends. because when you make friends it helps you feel relaxed and comfortable in class. You’ve got someone you can talk to, yep, someone you can lean on. I’m sure you guys do that all the time. Often the first person you’ll talk to is another student, right? Like, when’s this due? Something like that. And because our class sizes are small, we have around 20 students in the class. Us teachers really get to know the students We know your name, we get to know a bit about you, and that’s how we can provide that individual support on the spot in the classroom where you need it. 

Yeah, definitely. That’s what helped me most, especially with my last semester doing the diploma, just because we have like the big assessment task, which is worth 50%, and I just wasn’t sure if I could do it. Like I was really scared and nervous. And I spoke to my classroom teacher, and he helped me create like a learning plan, and he would send me like email reminders, come up and check up on me in class multiple times, which is... Not even in high school would my teachers do that much. He went above and beyond just to make sure that I got this assessment task completed on time and that I actually put my best effort into it. So that’s what I really, really love about it. 

Yeah, and us teachers, we’re on your side, right? All we want to do is see you thrive and be successful. So we’ll be there for you to help you. And everyone’s different, everyone needs different support, and that’s what we’re there for. And that’s what I love about the college, with the small classes, we can really give that personal attention to students. 

Great. Thanks. Will, I think your role is very exciting. You’re a learning designer. Can you share with us what you do as part of your role, how you impact curriculum? And as we know, our students, they come from all different walks of life. So we get some students that come in a year, they’ve taken a year or two off. Some have had health problems. We’ve got quite a few that come through that way, or they didn’t get their ATAR. How does your role as a learning designer and the work that your team do help provide that support? 

Yeah, so as I said earlier, we support the academics in designing the content, but we also have developed a learning model at the college. which focuses on 2 phases, essentially. So students do some independent study and being able to study independently is a very important skill that students need to develop when they go to UTS. So they do some independent study, but this is also guided in a way and supported. But the focus there is really on active learning as well. So student-centred active learning, where students are watching videos, doing case studies, doing short readings. then checking their understanding as they go, so they’re almost getting a little bit of feedback while they’re studying independently. But then the crucial point here is phase two, where they actually go into tutorials. So the tutorials are designed for them to then apply the knowledge and skills that they picked up during independent study. And this is a really important part, because in the tutorials they’re also getting that support from the teachers, as was mentioned, but they’re also then combining with students working collaboratively. building friendships and building those kind of support networks in the tutorials as well. 

Imagine that independent learning piece is so important as they go into university and go to second and third year. 

Yeah, it’s really, really important. And what differentiates us is that we don’t just use a lecture model. As I was saying, students are using different multimodal... avenues to learn, so they’re not just receiving knowledge passively, they’re actually interacting as they go. 

And even in our tutorials, like animation, it’s so group and teamwork based. So we’re always working together, giving each other feedback on our individual work as well as our group work together. 

So, and the same thing in business as well. Students are working in teams. solving business problems. And the feedback I get from students is they love working in groups. Rather than just sitting by themselves working, they just love collaborating with each other. It creates. 

A better classroom community because even just part of some of my assessment tasks, like we have to give feedback to students on their work. And that’s just like, it creates a conversation. with another classmate that you would never approach them, but you guys, we spoke because of the assessment task, and just creates a new friendship, new connection. 

Those activities, I guess, from a design perspective, are designed to help you build those connections. 

Well, that’s what I was going to say. This is by design. 

It’s strategic. 

This is what we’re doing, trying to build in these activities and these tasks that have exactly this result. 

But that makes learning more fun as well, right? For you guys, because you get to do it with other people. And I think learning with people and having conversations is what learning is about. 

Yeah. And it’s based on learning theory because one important learning theory is constructivism, so students build knowledge together. We don’t just independently develop knowledge, we can actually build that together. So as I said, that’s by design, that’s the way it should be. 

It’s on purpose. 

You’re devilishly cunning design. And also I imagine they’re great soft skills for their employability skills. 

Absolutely. Yes. So not just getting new knowledge, but alongside that, building the skills that you can use in the workforce. It’s so critical. 

100%. 

Yeah, absolutely. Another question for you, Will. So we know UTS is renowned for its future learning, its innovative model of learning, its use of technology. How is UTS College preparing students for UTS, especially around... technology. 

Yeah, so we’re preparing it for UTS, but also in a way for the workplace because everybody’s heard of generative AI. It’s one of the most hot topics that’s being discussed currently. So we actually have a really significant approach and slightly unique approach, we could say, at the college where we really focus on guidance. So we’re guiding students to to use generative AI in a way that benefits them. So we’re essentially focusing on two things. We’re saying why students shouldn’t use GenAI and how they should use it. So we’re not banning it. We’re not saying don’t use it, but we are saying don’t use it to produce work for you. Because if you do that, you’re not actually going to develop the skills that you’re here to develop. But yes, you can use it to help you build knowledge because Essentially, that’s not gonna impact your learning, so that’s yeah. 

It’s like another student in your class that can help you give you those, yeah, exactly, and the knowledge. 

And so what we’re doing, an important project we have going on at the moment, is that we’re building AI agents. And we’re trialing one of those this semester. You’ve been involved in that to help students, so instead of going to Google and going to various different sources, they can actually use the agent as a focused, centralized tool, which is actually configured pedagogically. So, essentially, it’s configured to support the learning, so it’s not the same as if you go to ChatGPT. ChatGPT will just do the answers for you, produce the work for you, but the agents we’re building will actually just support you as you go, and if you ask it to do something for you, it will push back and say, No, that’s not my main aim here I’m just here to support you. So that’s another way that we’re pushing technology at UTS College. 

So how many applications you enjoyed using that? 

It was really, really helpful. Like all the soft and technical skills that I would use for animation software, it would take me hours to find it. And so having that agent, or having agents that will be developed. is just really helpful because it’s just so much easier to recall or get that information and to not just spend time, hours researching and have things that might not be useful. 

Yeah, super fascinating. We’ve been talking a lot about those careers, the soft skills. Laura, can you help us with some of the services that the college offers around being career ready? 

Yeah, we have a great new program called Career Smart. that provides group and one-on-one support to help students explore their careers. What I notice is lots of students don’t really know what they want to do when they finish university or even what they want to major in. So that’s really going to help support them in that way. 

Last one is for you, Therese. If you could give your HSC self a piece of advice, so this time a year ago, you go back, what would you say? 

This time a year ago I was so unsure of what to do, what I wanted to major in if I went straight to university. That’s also was like one of my main reasons why I came through the diploma because it branches out to different bachelors. So I think an advice I would give myself will probably just be it’ll all work out. Like just go with the flow, it’ll all work out and it’s It all has worked out. It’s been the best. Oh, good. Yeah. Figured out what I want to do, what I want to major in. Bachelor of probably Interior Architecture. 

Okay. 

So, yeah. 

Michael, so you’ve shared with me at an earlier stage that you have accessed student support. Can you share with us some of how they’ve helped you through your time at the college? 

Well, I had work on the side as well as at doing the diploma, which was really nice because the diploma was only a few classes a week, which was giving me the opportunity to do more things with my time. But I had a lot of issues with work and it’s caused me a lot of distress or stress as well. And so I reached out to my student success advisor and she was very, very supportive and helped me contact my academic coordinator and my tutors and stuff like that to really help me support in class and outside of class. and to allow me to not have to worry about it too much and not worry about my assessments and due dates and just focus on myself mentally and to get past all of those and overcome them and then to be able to go back and finish my assessments up. So it was really helpful to have them by my side and have them quite easily to be reached out to. And even, which I kind of found interesting as well, like as a student, kind of thought that we’d be restricted to UTS College, but my a student success advisor directed me to UTS counselling, which really helped me, again, overcome those challenges and stuff like that. 

Yeah, and I think it’s a really good point because the college students have access to the UTS services, absolutely. 

And facilities. 

And facilities. And Laura, I had a question for you on that one. I think it’s really important, like it’s not just support, if there’s troubling times, it’s also just to set yourself up for success, wouldn’t it? 

Yeah, absolutely. And we have such a large array of support for students. We have the student success advisors, we have the helps team. They provide things like workshops, on the spot help with assessment tasks. And then we have support embedded within the classroom for students. As I’ve said before, the small classes means that we know you as a student and we can give you that support in class. So if you’re learning something and you think, oh, I don’t really understand this, instead of having to send an email and wait for a response or maybe book an appointment, you can talk to us in class. The support is provided for you right there where you are in the classroom. We also provide this supportive learning environment where you don’t have to know everything, you don’t have to get everything right, where mistakes are part of that learning process and we encourage you to make those mistakes and then learn from them and we believe that’s a really powerful way of learning. which I think means as a student, you can feel a bit more relaxed in class, that you don’t have to get everything perfect and it’s okay if you don’t know everything. 

I think feedback is important here as well, right? 

Yeah. 

I’ve, like we said, making mistakes, it’s... It’s like crucial for us to make iterations for our works. 

Yeah. 

And to get that feedback from the iterations, that’s really important. 

And not even just from our tutors, but from our classmates as well. And I’ve even had like sometimes too confrontational in class. So my tutors have actually seen me outside of class, after class or outside of hours, which is really, really nice. 

Yeah. And we are available outside class time as well. So at the moment I’m running some study groups at lunchtime with my accounting students that they can just drop into any time. And all the other support we give to students where we look at their data, we say how’s your progress going, we send messages and suggestions for support that can be accessed, things like that. 

Yeah, great. Michael, my question to you. What would you say to yourself a year ago? 

Very difficult question. Thank you for putting me on the spot. So I sort of, in all the chaos that happened in year 12 for me, I sort of knew I had that security on going to UTS at the college. But I feel like my main worry was like, what happens if this isn’t what I want to do, sort of a thing. And so I’ve met quite a few people who’ve done so many things. And also, like you was telling me, Terez, the diploma branches out into so many different avenues. Yeah. Yeah. And then it’s like, but not animation, though. Animation goes into animation. But yeah, it’s good to have that options and stuff. 

Yeah, great. Well, thank you, everybody. Thank you for your time. And I think it’s now we’ll go into the courses, so we’ll actually talk about the different programs that we offer. So I will hand over to you, Laura. 

On this screen you can see an example of the different diplomas that we offer at UTS College. You can see we have Business, Communications, Design and Architecture, a Diploma of Animation Production that Michael was talking about, Diploma of Engineering, Information Technology and Science. Now there’s two ways that you can do the diploma. We have Accelerated and we have Standard. Now both of these diplomas will have the same subjects. The difference between the two is the length of time that it takes you. So an accelerated diploma, you will do all your subjects in two semesters, which is around 8 months. This makes it go really fast. It’s very, very busy. The second is the standard, and this is the most popular one, and you do all your subjects in three semesters. And so if you started, say, in January, then you’d be finished by the end of the year. So it’s exactly the same subjects, but you have a little bit more time to focus on each subject. Now, if you want to work as well, part-time, I think the standard diploma is probably better, so you can have a better balance between your study and your work. On this slide, you can see on the left side, you can see the UTS College diplomas. So for example, I teach in the Diploma of Business, and then you can see which Bachelor degree that leads into. So for example, with the Bachelor of Business, if you do the diploma with us here at UTS College, then you’re going to get into the second year in the Bachelor of Business at UTS. 

Laura, I’ve just got a question. I think it would be great to extend what Therese and Michael both mentioned, that while they’re doing a diploma, like say, for example, business, it’s a great way to explore the majors before going to UTS. 

Yes, absolutely. So, for example, in the Bachelor or in the Diploma of Business, We have around 8 subjects that you’re going to do. That includes accounting, finance, statistics, marketing, management, social impacts. I probably forgot something. Anyway, economics. Okay, so you get to taste a little bit of every subject. And I was actually a UTS student and I did the Bachelor of Business and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I loved my first year because you get to try a little bit of everything. And some Some of my students, probably most of them, they don’t actually know what accounting is. They think accounting is tax and it’s maths. When they do the subject, they go, okay, this is really different to what I thought it was, and they start to think maybe this would be a good career fit for me. And so it really opens up those opportunities that maybe they might not have had if they jump straight into specialising. 

And Tourette’s, yeah. 

I was going to say, it’s the same thing from what I’ve noticed, like with me and my peers. Like from what I remember, like semester one, some of the people, they said they wanted to get into like Bachelor of Fashion or like wanted to do product design, but then throughout the diploma, we got like a little taste. of age and a lot of people actually did kind of switch their options because they actually they didn’t know what the bachelor’s actually was going to be about. But then throughout the semester I helped them make their decision. 

How do you know if you’ve never tried it right, or if your parents are not doing it? 

They didn’t, so it was just, they were like choosing it for the name, but once they actually got a taste of it, they’re like, yes, this is for me, or like, no, it’s not. 

Yeah, and I think you start to feel like, is this the kind of subject I’m good at? Does this suit me? Do I enjoy it? And that really helps you make that choice. 

Okay, so now I’m going to talk about entry requirements and a bit about the fees and intake dates. So as I mentioned right at the beginning, we don’t take it on ATAR. So your admissions are based on your HSC results. So we take the four subjects, including your English mark, and then we average those out. Then depending on what the percentage is, you could go into that accelerated program that Laura mentioned, which is the two semesters, which is more intense, or the standard, if your percentages come down to 67%. So, I think, especially for art students, where you got sort of scaled down through through this, but what I mean, the art subjects are not, if you’re if you’re an art student and you’re getting scaled, it’s the same as like a physics student. The idea is, through the way we do our entry requirements, it’s a fairer marking on to show your true self. 

That’s true. 

So the entry requirements, so as I mentioned, it’s the HSC average requirement. So for the accelerated, it’s the 75% of your top four subjects, including English, or 67% for the standard diploma fees. So for the diplomas, for both our diplomas, whether it’s accelerated, the two semesters or the three semesters, it’s $38,000 for the year. I think that comes under for the standard just under $13,000 a semester and you can pay per semester. We appreciate that it is a significant investment. We are eligible for FEHELP, which is a government loan and you can find out more about that. It’s slightly different from HECSHELP for university because we’re a different provider level. I think it’s really important to appreciate we’re a not-for-profit, so any profit that is made at the college goes straight back into the college or onto the university. It’s those small classes, it’s all that heavy investment in those extra support services that is where the investment is. How to apply. Three really simple steps. So you can go to the website and we have an application form online. You fill that out. You’ll need to have some documents ready, including the fee help application if you’re going down that route. It’s a fairly fast turnaround. Usually around this time of year, it’ll be two to three days, also allowing for the Christmas break as well. And I think, Therese, you applied beforehand, didn’t you? 

Yeah. 

And you applied after very, very late. Very late, did you? 

Very late, which is really interesting, because I didn’t expect to hear something, like hear word really quickly. 

Yeah, great. And look, with us, if you’ve already applied, like Therese, we’ll have your marks in the system. So you would have already been sent a conditional offer, then we can send you a full offer that will come out to you. Yep. So if you’ve already applied, if you’re not, if you have, if you’re not a year 12 student and you’re looking at applying for next year, just to let you know that it doesn’t impact your UAC preferences. And for those, if you apply early for next year, you will receive a conditional offer, like I mentioned. Okay. So, important dates for your application. So, last day to submit your application is Sunday, the 15th of February, so don’t get in late like you did, Michael. 

Show him under the bus. 

And then the last day to accept is the 18th of February. So we do have some upcoming events. So this afternoon, if you want to come to the visit and you just want to see what’s going on, if you’re in the city, we will be having some campus tours between 3 and 5 P.m. this afternoon. Tonight we have a fantastic webinar. So it’ll be a podcast, I should say, and that’s 8 o’clock to 8.45. So we’ll have some of our student ambassadors and this is for the students where they can lament how they’re feeling and it’s a great panel. We are also doing an open evening next year, so that’s a great one for the families to come along. We’ll have one-to-one consultations. You’ll probably see Laura and Will presenting, and that’ll be from 5 till 7.30pm. So that’s next year, Thursday, 22nd of January. So that’s a great evening. You can come in and meet everybody. You 2 will be there, won’t you? Of course. Sure. Yep. Great. So look, if you have any questions, please put them into the Q&A function. As I mentioned, we do have a team there that can answer any of your, well, we hope, curly questions. So thank you for joining us. We wish you all the best of luck. We hope to see you either with us or at UTS. So thank you. 

Hi, welcome to the Admissions Pathways and Entry Schemes session, where you'll be hearing from the Centre of Social Justice and Inclusion, as well as the Jambana Institute for Education and Research. I'm Moana and I'll be sharing about the Educational Access Schemes. And so why does it matter? The Educational Access Schemes matter because you may have experienced some hardship during your studies in year 11 and 12, or equivalent, so if you're doing a diploma or anything like that, if you've experienced any kind of financial hardship, we acknowledge those challenges that may affect your ATAR, but also it just gives you the opportunity to access UTS with any disadvantages that you've experienced. So some of the access schemes that are available is the inputs scheme, as well as the school's recommendation scheme. The educational access scheme is called Imports at UTS. What is Imports? Imports acknowledges and considers educational disadvantage during your period of study. Some of the content that I will be sharing may be distressing, so this is just a warning as some of the circumstances can be sensitive. With disrupted schooling, if you've moved interstate or maybe entered Australia and started year 11 and 12, that may be relevant to you. might want to look at that circumstance. Financial challenges, if you're receiving some kind of help benefit from Centrelink, or maybe you've experienced extreme financial hardship, you may want to look at financial challenges. Severe family disruption, that includes experiences of death, in a family or maybe a very close friend. It may consider, it may, it includes circumstances where you may have experienced abuse and also maybe family separation or maybe if there's something that has impacted you, maybe like some kind of crime where you were not the person that committed the crime but something happened and it's impacted you and your household. you might want to look at the severe family disruption circumstance. There's also the refugee and humanitarian status, the school environment. What that includes is if you're in a remote or regional area, you will be considered for EAS. You're also looking at the social economic indexes for areas. excessive family responsibilities that might include you caring for a family member, or maybe even with your siblings as well. If you have those kind of responsibilities, that can be taken into consideration, as well as English language difficulty and personal illness and disability. So if you've experienced any medical condition, maybe you've experienced an injury and it's impacted your schooling, These are all things that you can actually apply for and get considered. Now, with these circumstances, you apply via UAC, and it may involve you providing details of your circumstance. It may involve you providing supporting documentation, whether that's from a professional, maybe it's from a doctor, even from your school as well. They will be able to support you in providing supporting documents. Sometimes you might need to provide an educational impact statement in terms of how did your circumstance impact your studies. Now, if you are approved for EAS, the best thing is that your selection rank is then increased by 10 points, which is amazing. And it might just get you across the line for the ATAR to be considered for the course that you're wanting to access. And so in terms of next applications, there's heaps of rounds. So the next one closes on Christmas Day, December 25th, for January round one offers. So if you don't make this one, there is one more round after that if you want to be considered for EAS. You can look at this information on the UAC website. Just know that at UTS, there is a minimum ATAR requirement. So to be eligible for EAS, the minimum is 69 for most of all of the courses. Whereas with law courses, if you're applying for law, the minimum is 80. And that's educational access games inputs. So I'm just going to briefly talk about the school's recommendation scheme. If you've already applied, that's awesome. Offers would have came out in November. If you don't know what SRS is, SRS provides early offers based off year 11 studies. And it recognises student potential. And what happens is that the school provides recommendations based on four categories. One of them is about capacity for abstract thought and analysis, the ability to organize ideas, the ability to work and learn independently, as well as motivation to achieve long-term goals. And so with SRS, offers would have came out in November, like I said before. You would have either got an unconditional offer or a conditional offer. So if you have an unconditional offer already in November, amazing, you don't have to worry about this. But for those that did get conditional offers, what you need to get is a minimum ATAR of 60 for general courses and 71 for law courses. So if you applied for any of those that are applicable to you, On December 25th of December, if you've got a conditional offer and you've met the ATAR requirement, those conditional offers will then change into unconditional offers. So if you have any questions about the educational access scheme or the schools recommendation scheme, feel free to contact us. There is the QR code. There's also our email address. And yeah, so what I'll do is I'll hand it over to Sarah, who'll be talking about our UniReady enabling program. 
Hi, everyone. My name is Sarah, and I work at the UTS Center for Social Justice and Inclusion. And I'm here to talk to you about a program called UniReady, which is run with the Center and Gembana. So UniReady is essentially what's called a fee-free university course. And it is a course that you undertake prior to starting undergraduate studies to build up your readiness to start in undergraduate studies here at UTS. So with UniReady, essentially what it's looking at doing is supporting you to build up your academic skills. So building on different skills that will support you for university readiness and also to help find your strengths and passions for university study. You'll be working in a supportive learning environment, so you'll have small classes with academic and cultural support built into those classes. And also when you start UniReady, essentially what will happen at the end if you successfully complete the program is you will get an offer to study an undergraduate degree here at UTS. So UTS Uni Ready Program does have some eligibility criteria that you need to meet in order to work and start in the program. So you must be an Australian or New Zealand citizen or a permanent resident of Australia. You also need to be turning 17 years of age or more in the year that you commence the program. And specifically for the program, you also need to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and or have experienced financial disadvantage. And that's evidenced through things like the area that you live, so the socioeconomic area, whether or not you've received Centrelink or income or asset tested entitlements, or if your parents or guardians have received family tax benefit A while you were in year 11 or 12. If you're unsure around any of that financial criteria or whether or not you meet that, easiest thing to do is just contact us and ask and we can help you figure that out. We also want to make sure that when you start the UniReady program, you are kind of ready to get into the academic work that's part of that program. So there's two different categories of academic eligibility criteria that we have for the program. The first is if you are a school leaver, so somebody who attained a year 12 HSC degree in the previous 18 months, We will look at either your ATAR, and we're looking at an ATAR range between 55 or 68.95, or you've completed your HSC and you've performed well in two or three of your subjects. So that's looking at a minimum of a band 4. And if we're looking at that HSC performance, you don't require an ATAR. If you're a non-school leaver, so somebody who does not fit that school leaver category. Essentially, we're looking at your application case by case, and we'll look at a range of different things for academic eligibility. So that can be things like your secondary school results. That can be year 11 or year 12, your ATAR, your UAI or equivalent, evidence of studies that you've undertaken since leaving school. So it could be TAFE qualification, a cert IV, private community college, or evidence of work experience. So, and we're looking at least a year full-time paid employment for that. And again, with any of that criteria, if you're unsure, just contact us and reach out and we're happy to help answer any questions. So what exactly is UniReady and what do you do? So UniReady is a preparatory course for undergraduate study. And you'll undertake 4 units of study in the UniReady program, Academic Foundations and University Skills, Data and Evidence, Writing for Academic Purposes and Introduction to Disciplines. Uni Ready program will go, will essentially run over 12 weeks and that includes 9 weeks of teaching. So up on the screen you have what our 2026 April delivery is going to look like. So you'll do 3 works of studying academic foundations and university skills. You'll get a break week, another three weeks in data and evidence, another break week and then three weeks in writing for academic purposes. And then introduction to disciplines is a fully online, self-paced subject, and you'll do that from weeks 4 to weeks 9. So what do you actually learn in those subjects? So in academic foundations and university skills, essentially you're looking at things like academic integrity, ethical scholarship, what the foundational expectations of university study are, and the responsible use of AI tools, which is a big part of university learning. In data and evidence, you're working to build your capacity with digital tools in an academic setting. So looking at numeracy, data literacy and ethical reasoning tasks that will be beneficial across all different subject areas for university study. In writing for academic purposes, you're really looking at deepening your academic communication skills through a focus on reading, writing, referencing and revision. And then introduction to disciplines, you're exploring academic and professional pathways in a chosen field of study that you're interested in. And you'll get to look at discipline-specific text to make sure that that's before you go into undergraduate study, that that's something that you're interested in and aligns with your interests and passions. So all in all, UniReady Enabling Program, 12 weeks, of full-time study, but in that there's nine weeks of teaching. Our next intake will be in April, so from the 7th of April to the 26th of June, and we'll possibly be running a September intake, but that's still to be confirmed. In terms of what study looks like for the enabling program, so it is a full-time course, so it is expected that you're doing between 20 and 30 hours of study per week. We have both online and face-to-face learning options, so you can choose to do it distance or you can choose to do it on campus. But both of those require 3 hours of teaching per week. So that will either be face-to-face teaching or online with a combination of online self-directed learning. What's really important to note about UniReady is that it's completely free. So it's supported by the Australian government's fee-free university courses initiative, which means that you'll be enrolled in what's called a Commonwealth supported place and you don't need to make any payments towards your study. There will, however, be fees if you choose to go into undergraduate study and then we can chat about that if you have any questions around the cost of undergraduate study. So in terms of applying, applications have not yet opened, but we do have expressions of interest open. So you can just go into the UniReady website and you are able to submit an expression of interest and we'll keep you in the loop. What we recommend now is that you start gathering up your supporting documents that you'll need to lodge alongside your application. So that's things like evidence of your academic and eligibility. And then we are opening, if you are a school leaver, so somebody who's using their HSC from the last 18 months to apply, then you apply via UAC and that will be opening for February round one to March round one. If you are a non-school leaver, so somebody who's using that other criteria, you will apply directly through the UTS student portal and that's different to a UAC application and we can we'll pop on our website the link to that once that's open. And that will be open from the 5th of March. And just what's really important for this subject, you know, we want to make sure that you're feeling connected to the classes that you're in, that you're getting a really good experience as part of the program. So we have a lot of different support mechanisms built in. As I mentioned earlier, this program is run in conjunction with Djembana, and so students who are First Nations in the program will get access to Djembana services, and the content's been designed with that in mind. We have orientation workshops, different services that you can access, career advice, library, computer labs, all are ready for you for the Uni Ready program. You can also get one-on-one guidance from teachers and success advisors when you need it. So yeah, lots of support built into the program as well. Quickly, just a couple of Q&As. What courses will I actually get into if I choose to study at UTS? So everyone who successfully completes the enabling program will receive an offer to an undergraduate degree here at UTS. There are some courses that have their own special admission requirements that you'd need to meet. So if you are looking at nursing and midwifery degrees, they are contingent on you also meeting the English language proficiency requirements for those courses. If you're looking at studying in a UTS law degree, they are competitive offers and you would also need to undertake an interview with the faculties. Places are limited in those. There are some courses that are excluded. So there's Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Business Honours, Bachelor of Management Honours, Bachelor of Nursing for Enrolled Nurses, Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science, the Exercise Therapy major. You can choose to do the Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science, but just not the one with that major attached. the Bachelor of IT, Co-op, Bachelor of Computing Science, Idea, Bachelor of Computing Science, Honours, and the Bachelor of Engineering, Honours, and all of the engineering honours combined degree. If you would, however, like to go into engineering, there is an engineering pathway. So if that's the course that you are interested in, just reach out to us and we can let you know what pathway you can go through via this program. If you are interested in a Bachelor of Computing Science, you can't do the honors, but you can just do the standard degree for that one. As I mentioned before, totally free program covered by the government's fee-free UniReady program. You will need to complete a form just to get that subsidy, and we can go through that if you go through into the program. And then the other question we get is, do we have to go to UTS? So the Uni Ready program is only going to provide you an offer to a place at UTS. However, if at the end of the program you choose to apply for other universities or you decide that uni isn't for you, that's totally fine. That's part of the purpose of this program is figuring out what you'd like to do and whether or not uni is one of those goals. So that's it for me. If you have any questions after that you'd like to chat to us about, you can always email us at uniReady at uts.edu.au. Thank you very much for listening, and I'd now like to hand over to my colleague Kendall, who's going to chat about the Gembana access programs. Thank you. 
Hi, my name's Kendall. I'm one of the senior Indigenous outreach officers. at Stjumbarna. I'm a Gamilaroi and Wiradjuri woman, and I'm going to go through one of our entry schemes today. So before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the Boroburrungal people of the Darug nation, the Bidjigal people, and the Kamigal people upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. I'd also like to pay respect to elders both past and present, acknowledging them as a traditional custodians of these lands. So what is the Jabara Admission Program? It's A non-ATAR entry scheme into UTS, into an undergraduate course of your choice. So as it's non-ATAR, we assess your application on a broader range of criteria, such as your personal strengths, your leadership in the community, your work history, your school performance, and things like civic engagement. The scheme is open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are current school leavers, so finishing year 12 this year, and also non-current school leavers. So if you finished year 12 in 2024 or earlier. So why apply through the Jabana Admission Program? Like I said, it's a non-ATAR entry program. And in addition to this, you'll receive ongoing support from our student services team, which includes free tutoring and academic support, course guidance, social events, and 24 access to our Jumbarna student lounge. In addition to this, as new students, you'll receive a startup grant, which is $750. So that's provided before your classes start in the autumn semester. So this is for things like textbooks and course materials before you start. And then about four weeks in after census date, you'll receive the commencement scholarship, which is $1,500. So what do you need to provide to apply? If you're a current school leaver, you'll need to provide a personal statement, a letter of recommendation, both of which are found on our website, your year 10 and year 11 school reports, and confirmation of your Aboriginality or a UTS statutory declaration, which is signed by two Aboriginal community members not related to you. That template is also found on our website. For non-current school leavers, you'll also need to provide a personal statement However, you'll need your current resume or CV, again, a confirmation of Aboriginality or a statutory declaration, and if you have them, copies of any certificates or qualifications you have. So next steps, applications currently open for both current and non-current school leavers. The close date is Thursday, the 8th of January. And applications are currently being assessed on a rolling basis, which means that as soon as we receive all of your documents in your application, it'll get assessed and you'll receive an offer up until the 8th of January. You can apply direct via our student portal and the link is just there and you don't have to apply for UAC. Here's our contact information if you would like to reach out to us. Also, we're going to go into the Q&A session to answer any questions about any of the other topics we've covered earlier. Thank you.