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Thanks for joining us on Tuesday 18 May for the Non-school Leaver Info Session.
Webinar Transcription:
Kenny: Alright hello everyone, can everyone hear me?
Just a little thumbs up will be great if you can hear me.
Brilliant. Thank you all so much for coming to today's Non-School Leaver webinar.
It's great to have you all here.
Firstly to begin, welcome my name is Kenny and I am a second year medical science student at UTS and today we will be talking about admissions schemes and generally just what UTS is like overall. But first I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on which our campus stands today and I would like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present and emerging and acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of the land.
Now just as a disclaimer today's session will be recorded and so we will ask that you keep your cameras off and stay muted. Please keep all questions to the end after the panel session but as of now coming to the recording, coming to the session you have consented that the recording will be posted for public uses as well.
So for today’s agenda we are starting at 5pm and we will be ending at 7.30pm. We will have Alison one of our panellists talking about admissions and then after that we will have a one on one chat session with our panellists and then at 7.30pm we will be concluding the event.
So, to introduce our panellists today as I said my name is Kenny and I am studying a Bachelor of Medical Science and next up we have Hannah, say hi please.
Alison: Hi everyone
Kenny: She is studying a Bachelor of Midwifery. And then we have Georgie, say hi Georgie
Georgie: Hi
Kenny: Yep and she is studying a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Law and finally we have Alison, Alison say hi
Alison: Hi
Kenny: Brilliant and so she will be running through with us about admissions schemes later on.
So why UTS? Well UTS is very future focused and we really show that through our courses. Our courses are both practical and innovative and innovation is at the heart of UTS. Our courses are constantly re-designed and re-evaluated to meet with our industry demands and to really reflect the changing work environment as well – and practicality as well, we really pride ourselves on practical education with 85% of our students actually undertaking some form of internship or working on a capstone project at some point during their degree. This means you have an opportunity to put what you have learnt in our classes with our real world industry partners.
So as you can see here we are the number one young university in Australia and that just means that we are the number one university that is under 50 years old. We have than 160 clubs and societies here and yes, we do have 5 star rankings in several categories, employability and innovation just being two of them. We are also fifth in Australia for graduate outcomes with 92.5% of our students employed full time within three years of graduation. And as I said 85% of our students will undertake internship or similar experiences as a part of their degree.
And we understand that academics isn’t everything with you, so we really want to encourage you guys to harness your passions and see what you guys really like to do. You can join a club or society, we have over 160 clubs that range from academic, personal development and sporting and honestly it is great fun you should definitely join them. If you want to learn a language go for it, we have plenty of exchange programs as well whether you study a Bachelor of International Studies or you can even travel overseas with our global short and global BUILD programs. You can overseas for as little as two weeks up to a whole year.
And for you entrepreneurs and champions of industry out there, we do have the UTS Startup program and in this we encourage you guys to enhance your entrepreneurial skills and we mentor you. We give you partnerships with our industry partners and really try to enhance your business skills.
And again you can also apply your leadership in any one of these different aspects as well.
And for those of you guys who are living quite far away from us, we do have on campus accommodation so you can really enjoy university life.
Yes we are in the heart of the city and a great thing about us is that we are known to be in not only the heart of the city but in the heart of the creative industry of Sydney with 70% of Sydney’s creative industry in and around our campuses. Great thing as well, we are only 10 minutes away from Central Station, we are only 10 minutes away from Darling Harbour and 10 minutes away from Broadway so there’s no shortage of entertainment around here.
And we do have academic support as well, if you do find it challenging getting back into studying there are plenty of academic supports available at UTS like UTS HELPS, U:PASS, Maths and Science Study Centres. These will help you with essay writing, resume writing, getting use to the different courses. We do have personal tutors as well available. You wont feel like you would be at any disadvantages.
We have a range of courses here at UTS ranging from Business, Communication all the way down to Transdisciplinary Innovation which is one of our newer schools here. We can talk more about that later if you’re interested.
Now, for those of you guys coming in – so what is a non-recent school leaver? So a non-recent school leaver is anyone who has not completed Year 12 in 2021. So, if you have completed your schooling back in 2019 or earlier then you would be considered a non-recent school leaver and if you have done further study as well you will be considered a non-recent school leaver.
So, I think I will hand it over to Alison right now to talk about Admissions. Alison would you like to take over?
Alison: Great, thank you so much! Okay - so good evening everyone, thank for attending our session. So I will start talking a bit about the admissions process when you apply to any of the undergraduate courses at UTS. So first things first, Kenny’s already mentioned that you would all need to be non-recent school leavers for this to be applicable or these to be more suited for you.
So at UTS we consider the following studies for entry into all of our undergraduate courses, so as you can see here that would be a completed Australian year 12 or equivalent, studies from other Australian institutions whether incomplete or complete but I will talk more about that later, all tertiary preparation certificates and foundation studies courses, any TAFE and private provider studies, the STAT which is the special tertiary admissions test - just a note that we do only consider the multiple choice version.
So typically all UTS courses will consider eligibility is you have completed a full year of full time studies at an institution. Just a note that this does need to be in the same course and in the same institution. There are a number or courses that will consider less than one year of studies so you can find out more information via the link uts.edu.au/admissions so there will be a lot more information on all the schemes and pathways available so you can have a look at that later.
So, how to apply. So you may be aware that in order to apply to any of the UTS undergraduate courses you would need to lodge your application through UAC, which is the universities admissions centre. So you will be considered based on any assessable qualifications that you’ve done so remember to submit all qualifications wherever you have commenced any kind of studies. So please also note that some courses also have special entry requirements such as teacher education. Applications actually are currently open for Spring 2021 and Summer 2021, so that’s this year’s intake and we also already have courses open for Autumn 2022 next year, so you can check out our courses - there should be 156 of our courses available online already.
Step two, you would manage your preferences through UAC as well. So in your UAC application you can list up to five course preferences, you can change your preferences at any time up until a few days before each offer round. You can also view the offer round dates on the UAC website. But I will go through the upcoming important ones in a later slide.
So I’ve also got some quick advice for ordering your preferences. Pretty much you should always place the course you want to study the most as your first preference, then work your way down until you’ve filled all your maximum number of preferences or you have preferenced all the courses that you are interested in. You do need a minimum of one course to put in an application. We don’t recommend ordering your preferences based on how competitive you think you’ll be so you should always really consider what you actually want to do. During the selection process you will be considered for each course starting from your first preference and then working down to your last preference and then you will be made an offer to the first course on your list which you meet the entry requirements.
So step three, you can boost your application through our admission schemes, at UTS we do have a variety of admission schemes on offer. So there is schemes which will take into account whether you have experienced long term disadvantage, whether this has impacted your studies which is called inpUTS. We also have our aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students which can consider the Jumbunna pathways program.
Step four, offers release. So offers are released progressively throughout the year. We’re currently making offers for courses for the spring intake. Early offers for Autumn 2022 will likely be made in late October.
So, step five, accept your offer. If you’re eligible for an offer to UTS you will be contacted by email with information to help walk you through the steps to accept your offer and start enrolling.
Great. So I will give you a little bit of a summary of the admission schemes that we have on offer. So we have a variety of merit based schemes on offer, so just going through the slides there’s the design and architecture portfolio scheme – so this is where you can submit an optional portfolio through the UTS website, if you’re selected then you will be asked to attend an interview and if you’re successful in the interview then you will be made a non-competitive offer. We also have the business cadetship scheme where you are awarded for attending a cadetship prior to commencement to your UTS business degree – for this scheme you also apply directly to UTS business school through the website. If you have any work experience at all you may be eligible for up to five adjustment points if your work experience relates to the course, all you need to do is complete the employment question in UAC. If you are interested and referencing courses in business, engineering, IT and science please remember to complete this if you have work experience.
We also have the elite athletes and performers scheme which awards you five adjustment points if you have competed or performed at a national level – so to apply for this you will need to apply to UTS via the website and you would also need to put in the UAC applications to be considered.
We also have as an alternate admission scheme the Science aptitude assessment, so this is if you missed a selection rank requirement for any of the science courses at UTS. It does assess analytical and critical thinking skills. There’s no need to study for it and its offered up to three times a year - one of the things is that you can only apply once per calendar year. So that’s the merit based schemes that we have available for non-recent school leavers.
In terms of equity based schemes we have the educational access scheme, which is at UTS is called InpUTS. So if you are eligible for InPUTS then you are awarded ten adjustment points and it is for students who have experienced a disadvantageous situation during year 11 or year 12 or through any of your studies which is then assessed by UAC. In order to be eligible for entry into UTS though you do need a minimum ATAR or qualification rec of 69 or a rank of 80 for Law. So similarly you also need to apply through UAC as UAC are the ones that do the assessment of the educational access scheme.
Last but not least we do have also the women in STEM, so that would be for female students applying for selected Engineering, IT or Construction project management courses – you will automatically receive ten adjustment points towards your selection rank.
Great. In terms of admission pathways, so this is if you are trying to get into a course and you may fall short of the selection rank requirement just by a little bit or by more than that. So these are some pathways that you can consider before applying again in a later session. So one of the ones would be enrolling in a similar course with a lower selection rank and then reapplying to UTS after a year – so what you would do is use subjects from a degree with a lower selection rank and then you would study and do your best in that area or in that course – so where you have competitive marks in a similar course you will be considered in your application in the following year.
You can also complete a UTS College Diploma where you can fast track yourself into the second years of studies into your chosen UTS degree by completing a diploma at UTS college.
Another thing that you can do is that you can apply after one year from Uni, TAFE, or a private college. So you would need to study a diploma or a different degree, then apply to transfer at UTS after one full-time year of study. A note that this also includes the Tertiary Preparation Certificate. You may also be eligible for recognition of prior learning.
Another pathway that we have, as I mentioned before the Jumbunna UNISTART program so this is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. You can complete faculty based electives subjects and foundation subjects which will form a part of your degree and your program of study.
So I will talk a bit about recognition of prior learning as I imagine that a number of you may have started or commenced studies in another institution. So, recognition of prior learning is when you would get RPL for subjects you may have completed – so the first thing you would need to do is research the subject content with the UTYS handbook, faculty website and the recognition of prior learning tool. Then you would compare UTS subjects and learning outcomes with the studies from your previous institution – so this is usually at the subject levels, so you would need to collate all of your subject outlines from those subjects you’ve completed. Then you would complete the recognition of prior learning application form, then attach all certified academic records which would be your transcripts and qualifications along with any other documents to support your application. So this would be then submitted through at the UTS student centre as soon as you accept your offer – this means that if you are eligible for any RPL then you wouldn’t need to complete those subjects again. Thank you
Kenny: Thank you so much Alison, now we will be moving on to the student experience and we will be having a chat with our panellists available. May I please ask everyone to leave your questions at the end don’t worry there will be plenty of opportunities at the very end to answer your questions, so hold off on questions for now.
Anyways, let’s get going. First question I’m sure everyone wants to know why we chose to study at UTS? So Hannah, could you start us off – why did you chose to study at UTS?
Hannah: Yeah so when I was considering what I want to study, where I want to study, obviously like most year 12 students I was actually going to a lot of open days. When I went to the UTS open day, it was really clear that UTS had a lot of practice support and student support, so they actually really wanted students there – and when I was trying to think of what I wanted to do, I was considering midwifery but I wasn’t too sure on it, but UTS was number 1 in NSW, not in NSW sorry in Australia for Nursing and Midwifery and number seven in the world – correct me if I’m wrong and that was obviously a really big selling point, it was also one of the only Unis in Australia that offered it so its nice and close to home, offered midwifery and number 1 in Australia and when I did the tours the labs were really great so that was a really big selling point for me so decided from then that I wanted to do midwifery at UTS.
Kenny: Wow, that’s amazing. How about you Georgie?
Georgie: Yeah, so quite interesting – so I completed year twelve in 2015 and I didn’t actually attend a UTS open day, because I kind of had a preconceived idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do and I actually spent my first year at a different university studying a Bachelor of Commerce and after a year I decided that it really wasn’t for me and then over the next few months I spent three months working with a team full of UTS students and essentially of that three month period they kind of wore me down and they spoke a lot about their experiences at UTS and how good the culture was and how inclusive and fun but also academically rigorous – which was really exciting for me and they also had a really big focus on entrepreneurship and innovation and someone who studies Business and Law that was really important to me and also just the opportunity to travel overseas through the course of my two degrees is super important also UTS had a lot of financial help available to do that which was very exciting so that’s why I chose UTS.
Kenny: Thank you buy yeah haha you cut out, you cut out at the very end but thank you so much. So much like you Georgie I actually didn’t come to any of the UTS open days, I too had a preconceived notion of which University I wanted to go to before that. So for myself I was actually studying a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and I spent two years there, nearly two and a half years at another institution before coming to UTS and I think some of the things that really drew me to UTS was their labs because I really wanted to look at their science courses and look at their facilities and I was just fascinated by the super labs at UTS and with our new Hive Super lab as well in building two its just amazing, you know we can have over 270 students in one go with seven classes running concurrently all doing different sort of sciences and it just builds up this atmosphere of you know wanting study more and learning more and just being passionate about science. Hannah could you talk more about that? What’s the environment like in the clinical stimulation labs?
Hannah: Yeah, well funnily enough I actually got to use the super lab last year in my pharmacology class and I can confirm it is really wonderful it’s just this humongous lab and you’ve got all these students from different classes, it can be a bit confusing when you’re like oh do you know where this class is? And someone is like no? haha but yeah it is a really great lab. We also have a lot of clinical sim labs in Building ten ETS and that’s where we do the majority of nursing and midwifery learning. Those labs are really good because you have people, like you have called SIDman and they’re essentially people that stimulate conditions that people can have so you know it can show someone having high blood pressure or going into cardiac arrest as such things. You also have babies sim people, so that’s a really great way to visualise the practical aspect of learning, especially with Nursing and Midwifery where it’s hard to know what to do, like you don’t want to practice on a person for the first time and so yeah having those stimulation labs are really helpful for that.
Kenny: and Georgie how did you find the experience with your cohort members is that something that drew you to coming to UTS?
Georgie: Yeah, absolutely I think for me like the number one reason to come to UTS is the culture without a doubt. I think the people here, and maybe I’m just bias because I have a really good cohort with my Business and Law double degree – is everyone’s just really lovely, really supportive, really encouraging, but also still quite academic and career focused, which is like a really good balance that is often difficult to strike I think, so yeah I’ve had such a good experience with my cohort.
Kenny: Continuing on Georgie, what sort of challenges did you face as a non-recent school leaver?
Gerogie: Yeah absolutely, so I came from another Australian university, so for me academics wasn’t like necessarily an issue because I know some people can struggle when you go from that year 12 into university environment, that can be a really big jump. But for me the biggest concern was essentially making friends because I went through that recognition of prior learning process which Alison spoke about before I was kind of in this weird in the second year but in the first year situation, so I really had to kind of find a way to meet people and the best way to do that I found at least for me was to join a bunch of different societies and clubs, they’re always running events – even through Covid when we were all quarantined there were events online, but now we’re kind of transitioning back on campus, which is really great. So I joined the UTS business society, I also joined the consulting club, women in business and the Law society as well, there’s just so many things going on and then I was also kind of a bit more talkative in class I think, I had a bit of a technique where I’d walk into a tutorial and I would just find someone sitting by themselves who looked nice and would just sit next to them and say hi, cause a lot of the time people want friends as well. But yeah, that was kind of the biggest challenge for me.
Kenny: I mean for myself I think coming into UTS one of the challenges that I thought I would be facing was sort of the age gap, I understand that in your first year you will be surrounded by mostly eighteen year olds who have just recently come out of high school and you know you didn’t want to seem a little bit weird. Did you face any sort of challenges like that?
Georgie: I mean not necessarily, I think last week I had an event with some consulting club friends and one of the girls I was sitting next to was 19 and I’m 23, so there is a bit of a difference but at the same time like age is kind of just a number, you’re studying the same thing so generally your interests are quite similar or if they’re not there’s still a discussion to be had there, so yeah it didn’t really phase me at all to be honest.
Kenny: Moving on, so Hannah this question is for you – How did your pathway better prepare you for UTS? So give us a little back story first.
Hannah: Yeah, absolutely. So before I studied at UTS, I did my HSC, I did Year 12 and then I did a certificate course called the Academic Studies and Theology Certificate – so it was a program called Year 13 which was essentially a gap year program but it had some tertiary study elements to it. That really helped me, I really enjoyed that because it really helped me prepare for UTS and I did that because it was an environment where I could study with people who weren’t teenagers – who weren’t high school students and they were people who wanted to be there. That’s generally what you find in uni, you don’t have high school students working with you and you also have chosen that course and that was really a great way to understand how to collaborate with adults in an academic way.
And the other great thing is that as it was a tertiary study program, it was self-directed so that learning is very similar to how I was learning at UTS. So I find that really helpful. Also, because I took a gap year it was a really great way to take a break from the intensity of the HSC and give myself time to think about what I wanted to do and to make sure I actually wanted to do that – I definitely wanted to study at UTS. As you can see I am here so!
Kenny: Brilliant! So for Georgie, back to you again. So I understand that you have done a lot at UTS. I have seen your resume, you’re very active around UTS, joined so many clubs and just wanted to ask how has your UTS studies, whether it be extracurricular or whether it be the degree itself – how has it enhanced your career?
Georgie: Yeah for sure, I feel like I could answer this question over 2 hours but I will try keep it super succinct. I think one of the first things that comes to my mind is the opportunity for international experiences – hopefully there is a lot of people on this webinar tonight that are interested in travelling overseas and hopefully COVID sorts itself out. So for me, I got the opportunity to go to over to New York for 2 months and intern full time there. I was interning on Wall Street and living in Brooklyn and it was just an unbelievable experience and ever since that opportunity kind of happened, every job interview I have been talking about it because it really just shows a lot of independence – which you don’t really get that kind of opportunity to show elsewhere. I am also about to start an internship with an intellectual property law firm which I am super excited about. In an ideal world I would be travelling over to Malaysia, but unfortunately that’s not happening so its all virtual. UTS has done a really great job of transitioning everything online so you still get those opportunities. Following on from that UTS Careers is a really awesome resource that we have at UTS. So they kind of have like drop in sessions where you can show them resumes, cover letters and they will essentially go through it with a pen and edit it so I have gone back to this poor lady 3 or 4 times when I was going through that penultimate year internship application process and she really helped me to nail that resume to really show myself off as best I can, which was really awesome. Then the final thing that I would say
Is that UTS has a really practice focus, which I really definitely noticed when I transferred from the other university that I was at – so a lot of your courses kind of revolve around developing technical skills, which is really important. So my majors marketing and working with Qualtrics and Excel, necessary evils I would say – but really important to develop those skills. Then also with my Law degree, a lot of my assignments really focussed on drafting work as if you’re delivering it to a client, which is a very difficult skill to hone in on, so they really kind of get you to do that throughout the course of your degree – which is extremely helpful, so yeah.
Kenny: Could you, do you mind if you could talk more about the international opportunities, how did you get into that?
Georgie: Yeah, for sure absolutely. So with the New York internship, that was organised through UTS Build, which I would really recommend to everyone who is starting at UTS to look into - it is a really awesome program that they run. Which is essentially all about developing your global mindset, about how to be a global citizen, things like cultural awareness, social justice and so as part of that program you do a series of workshops and then you also have the opportunity to build elective points and you can do that through international experiences or if you want to stay in Australia you can do more domestic experiences as well, which is really awesome and they have a huge data base of opportunities for all different degrees, which is really awesome, so yeah.
Kenny: haha it’s fairly impressive. So have you been able to keep in contact with the people from Brooklyn, have you been able to network with them, you know not from a career perspective, but more so the social perspective.
Georgie: Yeah, absolutely, one of the people I met at New York I actually saw last night which is pretty funny. But also career wise as well I think that’s another a really important note is developing like an international network especially if you’re someone who wants to work overseas at some point in your life. So my manager from when I was in New York, she was actually coming to Australia and I was able to kind of hook some things up for her, with UTS funny enough – yeah and it’s just really awesome seeing what’s happening overseas and keeping those connections alive and also just making those friends – yeah because you wouldn’t normally meet them in your usual day to day life I would say.
Kenny: definitely. That’s really impressive, I haven’t had a chance to go on international studies yet, because I’m participating in the build program as well , but you know with Covid it’s definitely slowed down. But, hey as you said UTS has done really really well in terms of the transition from virtual to, sorry, from in-person to virtual. So I’d like to just build up on this again so Georgie I’m gonna start with you and then afterwards I’m going to move onto perhaps I will talk a little bit about my experiences here. Tell us a little bit about the extracurricular activities that you have participated in.
Georgie: absolutely, so as I kind of mentioned before I got really involved in different societies as kind of a way to make friends and also to kind of figure out what I want to do with my life to be quite honest with you guys, so that was the Business Society, Women in Business, Law and the Consulting Club, which I really got heavily involved in and through that society I started competing in different case competitions which is essentially when you’re given a problem and you kind of have to solve it and then pitch it back to judges. So I entered the Microsoft protégé case competition last year with a few friends and we actually came second in Australia which was super exciting and so the laptop that I’m using right now is the one that Microsoft gave us as like a prize – so that might be a bit of incentive for anyone, so they’re a lot of fun. I also did some social sport at uni, so I started doing netball which was a lot of fun, a good way to meet different people – also learn a new skill if you haven’t played any of those sports before. I also tried to go on exchange, to the Neverland’s but that was last year so unfortunately that got cancelled, but if you guys are looking to join UTS that’s definitely something that is available to you hopefully in the future. And then the final thing is that I’ve done various internships through the course of my studies and I’ve done quite a few for academic credit – so I was like, get two birds with one stone kind of thing. So yeah that’s been kind of over the summer periods, during winter and over the actual session itself. Which has been super exciting, I got to intern with a legal tech start up, which was a lot of fun, an NGO which was very interesting and obviously about to start with this Malaysian firm – which I’m super excited about. So that’s me.
Kenny: so you met the Malaysian firm through the extracurricular activities that you were participating in?
Georgie: sorry can you just repeat that, my internet is going a little bit?
Kenny: sorry, so you actually met the Malaysian firm through which program did you go through to meet them?
Georgie: Yeah, Yeah absolutely – so within the law faculty they run international internships legal internships and they can help you kind of source different places to go through, so you can go through either the faculty or you can go through Build, so mine was again through Build, so I just had a really awesome experience with them the first time, so they kind of hooked me up with all these different opportunities and I decided that the Malaysian legal system was one that really interested me and particularly intellectual property so that’s why I went down that path.
Kenny: wow, so I think we can all see that joining societies is a great way to enhance your career aspects as well. Myself, I am part of the UTS medical and health society, we do a lot of workshops for GAMSAT related events, so if you’re thinking about coming to UTS, studying medical science and possibly developing your medical science knowledge and going into medicine later on or doing research then definitely joining one of the clubs is really important, being part of the society – you actually get a lot of opportunities to network as well so with these workshop events as well, one of our more recent workshops, that’s actually happening tonight, unfortunately I couldn’t participate – but one of the recent workshops that we’re running today is actually a med career workshop, essentially where networking and engaging with doctors and students who are in medical school and you get to ask questions and see what kind of life-style they have, pretty much essentially like this but relating to med. Joining a society it is student run so you can expect that it’s very down to earth, you know everyone there has the same sort of passion as you, everyone there has the same sort of issues and all in a society I guess to enhance our own careers. Would you agree to that Georgie?
Georgie: I’m so sorry you completely cut out on me, sorry Kenny
Kenny: Sorry, you cut out jut then. But, yes definitely if. Coming to UTS academics isn’t really everything, myself personally I joined five societies in the first year, I really wanted to go out and get out there and make new friends, I joined Japanese, I joined Oz tag, I joined Med Soc, what else have I joined, I think I joined dance society and music society as well. It was a great experience meeting people from all diverse backgrounds and they all had different hobbies as well, so there is really no shortage of extracurricular and societies at UTS.
So moving on now, uh Hannah – can you just give us some tips about balancing student work like commitments?
Hannah: Yeah absolutely, I feel like I’m particularly qualified to talk about this just because Midwifery is a very intense course where you’re doing four days a week at uni and then on top of that you’re doing placements. I have two main bits of advice for balancing study, work and life commitments and I don’t think people are going to like my first one, but setting aside time, sorry not setting aside time. Starting your assignments early is one of my biggest ones. As soon as your lecturer or your tutor gives you that rundown of what that assignment actually is and how you’re going to do it. Start it then, because when that assignment creeps up on you and it’s the week that its due and your car breaks down and you know you’re suddenly sick and you need to go to hospital, things like that – you never know when those sorts of things are going to happen and so if you have that assignment done and ready earlier you cannot stress about it and you can use that week when its due to just relax and have fun and do the things you like. And the other tip I have is setting aside time to do the things that you enjoy, so if you devote time to doing the life commitments that you enjoy, say if you really like running, making sure you’re always going for a run 4pm each day, or if you, you know like sports or want to do an art class make sure that you do that every Friday evening. Things like that, if you devote time to that, then let uni work around that as opposed to working around doing your uni work.
Kenny: yeah, that’s a great way to put it, definitely I agree – I definitely agree to that. How about you Georgie? How do you manage your time? What sorts of tips can you offer?
Georgie: This has been a constant struggle for me over the past 5 years. I think for me the first thing I would say is make sure you kind of know yourself and what you can manage. Me personally I like to work a lot but as a result full time study can be a bit difficult so I think accumulatively I have spent about 3 years doing 3 subjects per semester and then doing study over the Summer period to try keep myself on track with my cohort which is a really good way to do it and its something that I have actually enjoyed. Summer school it sounds a bit boring but its actually a really good way to learn. I feel like it’s a lot more positive in the Summer time, everyone is just a bit happier. But then following on from that – and this is a bit nerdy, but I really love Google calendar to organise my life and keep myself structured and accountable putting in all of my assignment dates etc. and so forth, when I am working, when I am seeing friends – its like a very visual way to see what your week ahead looks like. That would be the other thing that I recommend.
Kenny: I cant agree more. I think time management is very very important and for myself, I don’t use Google calendar but I do have a physical calendar – the UTS diary – this is pretty much what I live by. I plan out my day, I plan out my week and at times I would even, you know, when the semester starts – I think the biggest help for me has been planning out my entire semester and seeing what my schedule is like. I really think to go back to the point of what Hannah said about that you shouldn’t let uni control your time – am I saying that right?
Hannah: Absolutely!
Kenny: You shouldn’t be you know switching up your time for university, you definitely want to be able to focus on yourself. University is just another aspect of your life and that is what you should really focus on – you have to think about the bigger picture.
Hannah: Yeah and you don’t want to like however long your course is to be just a step to where you want to be, you want to enjoy the time you’re at uni.
Kenny: Definitely yeah. You can lose sight of where you want to get to, but you have to enjoy the process. I think I have a question for both of you, do you think is it possible to work as well as studying?
Hannah: Yes!
Georgie: Absolutely!
Hannah: We are doing that at the moment, so I feel that yes it is.
Kenny: It is
Georgie: I feel like most people are in that situation where they are working and studying in whatever capacity it may be – without a doubt doable.
Hannah: Yeah I moved out of my parents house so I kind of have to work to pay rent and you know eat food but yeah its definitely possible even you know if your uni is at 9 – 12pm you can work casual from 1 – 3pm or just find time around to do that.
Kenny: I actually had a question Georgie, you said you were only doing 3 courses for a semester – are you still considered a full time student then?
Georgie: Yep you sure are. I think its 18 credit points and you are still full time. So I did look into that because I wanted to make sure that I still kept my concession opal card because I didn’t want to pay adult rates – but yeah you are still full time.
Kenny: Yep and that’s one of the ways you have been able to manage studying, doing extra-curricular activities and working all at the same time
Georgie: Yeah absolutely, if I was doing 4 subjects I don’t think I would have made it. I genuinely would have burnt out. You just wouldn’t be able to do your best in yours subjects, or intern or work or whatever it is you’re pursuing at that time
Kenny: Alison, this is actually a question for you – would a year of study at another institution be counted at UTS? Or would a student have to start from the beginning?
Alison: Most definitely. All the studies completed at another institution would account to assessing your actual eligibilities into any of the courses at UTS. So what happens is, you put in your application and you would also put in your transcripts or submit information on the courses you have commenced then UAC will assess your studies completed based on the results you achieved during your studies. UTS will then consider all studies completed and then you will be assessed for your eligibility based on your best rank. If you have been completing a similar course at another institution you can also apply for recognition of prior learning which I touched on earlier and that would be once you accept your offer into your course. If you are eligible for any subjects completed then the relevant subjects would be credited into your study plan so then you would have to re-do the same subjects. So most definitely you don’t have to start from scratch.
Kenny: And sorry, just to confirm the recognition of prior learning, is it done through UAC or directly to the university?
Alison: It is done directly with UTS
Kenny: Directly to UTS. Could you also explain what the STAT test is?
Alison: So the STAT test I touched on earlier as well. So it is one of the pathways into UTS. So many courses at UTS will consider the STAT test which is the multiple choice version which is administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research. One of the conditions is that you have to be 20 years of age by the 1st of March for the year of admission. So for this year you would have needed to be 20 by the 1st of March this year and your STAT results would have needed to be attained within the last 3 years prior to admission. Sorry that looks like a slightly different question to me, cons would be if you don’t meet those eligibility requirements but pros are if the results you have attained from your other qualifications don’t quite meet the requirements then it is an alternate pathway for you to consider.
Kenny: Excellent
Alison: Yep
Kenny; So how does a diploma, STAT test, year of uni compare to those students who are applying with ATARs?
Alison: Yep, so what generally happens when you submit your qualifications to UAC all of the qualifications you have studied or commenced are converted into a qualification rank by UAC for assessment so regardless of whether it is a diploma, STAT test or a year of uni or at another institution they will all be converted into different ranks. So lets say you have done your HSC, you have done a year of study – half a year of study at another institution and you have also done the STAT test – I don’t think anyone really does all of those. Any one that you have done and submitted and declared your studies, they would be converted into a rank. So at the end of the day once UAC has done all of the assessments, then you would be considered for entry into your UTS course based on your most competitive which is your best rank. So because of that reason you should always declare all of your studies in your UAC application even if you didn’t complete.
Kenny: Excellent! Well that actually concludes our panellist event for this webinar, but we are opening up 1-1 live chats right now . I believe one of our staff members will be submitting a link in the chat so please go onto to that and we will get typing. So that’s where we will be answering all of your questions!
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