Discover sessions

Jacqui: So first, I'd like to introduce some people here with me today. So firstly, my name is Jacqui. I'm the director of studies for the Bachelor of Nursing so Curriculum and Student Matters. So that means that I look after all, undergraduate nursing students in the program. I'm also in nursing research my area of research is around violence against nurses and more broadly, health care workers. Amanda can't be with us today. Unfortunately, she's unwell, but she's our Deputy Head of School (teaching and learning). Judy, did you want to just introduce yourself?

Judy: Hi, my name is Judy Smith. I'm the first and further year student experience coordinator, a big mouthful. But that basically means that I'm here to help transition students into the university life and also working with academics to help facilitate that smooth transition so that you can get the most out of university. I'm a lecturer in nursing and my research interests are simulation and also looking at how technology impacts the way that we work as nurses and the implications to Nursing responsibilities and also to patient care. So a very interesting topic.

Jacqui: Thanks, Judy. Mark.

Mark: Hi, everyone. My name is Mark Goodhew, I'm the academic liaison officer in the faculty of Health. So basically I support students who may have a mental health condition, a disability or a physical health problem. And also, I support people who are carers or who may be pregnant as well to support them with their studies as well. I'm also a lecturer. My mainly teach in mental health and drug and alcohol nursing. And my research involves working with marginalized populations and doing co-production research as well.

Jacqui: Thanks, Mark. And we also have Rose with us this morning

Rose: Good morning, everyone. I'm Rose Calero. I'm the manager of the clinical administration unit. And I will be your, my unit will be looking after you, all your clinical placements, all your administration, all your compliance that you'll need to to do so. You will have a lot of involvement with our unit and the team. So welcome.

Jacqui: Right. Thanks, everybody. OK, so first a little bit about us. The School of Nursing and Midwifery, it eats with some established formally back in 2020. So pretty new. Prior to that, we were part of the faculty of health, and we've been part of that in a permanent part of the faculty for decades before that. As a school School of nursing and midwifery were committed to improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities through our world class research, global connections and inspirational evidence based teaching. At the moment, we're actually ranked number one in Australia, for nursing and number 11 in the world, which is something that we're all very, very proud about. We're privileged and lucky to have staff that include a lot of high-profile, award-winning educators and researchers. We also have experienced clinicians who are still practicing clinically. We collaborated with industry partners and we worked hard as an interdisciplinary team to help develop world class approaches to health care, education and research. And as a result, our graduates are actually very highly regarded and have a well-earned reputation as outstanding clinicians, leaders change agents and innovative researchers. At the moment, we have more than 3000 students enrolled in our undergraduate and graduate nursing and midwifery courses across the university.

Jacqui: So today's session is also going to be your opportunity to ask us questions or if you have any questions. We can talk that into the chat, into the Q&A, and we will at the end have that opportunity to answer those. If you have, if we have a lot of questions, you might receive your answer in a text reply from one of the panellists or from the Faculty of Health marketing team who are there to help us moderate the questions. So being an online event, you know what can happen. So please bear with us if we have any technical issues, will work quietly or quickly behind the scenes to try to resolve those. If you find that at any point, you can't access the webinar. The advice is just to log out and to log back in again. And usually that resolves any issues. But a reminder, we are recording this. So worst case scenario, you could come back and access that recording.

Jacqui: So students who complete the Bachelor of Nursing degree at UTS. Once you have completed the degree, you will become a registered nurse. And so a registered nurse is registered through AHPRA. And once you join us at UTS, you will be registered as student nurses. You can see that there are nearly 300000 registered nurses in Australia at the moment, and we are very much in demand. I would add in there as well in vaccination centres at the moment as well.

Jacqui: So, as I said, we ranked number one in Australia, something we're really proud of, and this is. I think it's the second they're actually I think maybe the third or fourth year that we've been ranked number one. So something we've been able to consistently hold on to. And what do we do next is to a lot of things that really what is at the core of our business is she would commit is that we provide person centred care that is evidence based. We work in a variety of health care settings, and we can become experts in a range of specialties as well.

Jacqui: So we would really like you to come and study nursing at UTS we think we've got a lot to offer. If you were able to be on campus today, you would say that we have amazing sort of state of the art, nursing clinical facilities and simulation labs, and you'll be engaging in those from your very first session of study. And it really gets, you'll have the uniform on. And the aim is to get you to feel like a nurse from day one of these studies with this. Most of our academics are still working. Also working industry conducting research as well. And we fit that into the curriculum. We did start a new curriculum this year, and the feedback we had from our accrediting body was that it was actually a world class quality. So it was very, very I think that we received.

Jacqui: So here's some, I guess, some logistics about The Bachelor of Nursing, including the previous ATAR ranks. It will take you three years if you complete full time. And if you were an EN and you make the criteria so that you can qualified in the last five years and we've registered, you would get through that one two years. And you can see that there are a couple of dual degrees as well. And that would take you a little bit longer.

Jacqui: So what's involved lots of different ways that we engage with you and I guess the traditional ones or we have labs and tutorials and so tutorials in the theory subjects, clinical labs in our clinical subjects, and you would be doing a mix of those each session. We also have simulation labs that would be engaged in. Lectures a lot of that is in the online space, but we also have face to face. And then when you're in your tutorials and in your labs, you'll be working collaboratively as nurses we work as part of groups all the time, so as part of multidisciplinary teams. So you'll be interacting and collaborating with your classmates. But as well as academic work. So there's a lot of independent time, the independent study as well, and academic reading.

Jacqui: So your clinical placement start early in the degree will look a bit more about what that looks like from your first year. You'll be going out on a clinical placement. And our first year students that are currently enrolled are getting ready for their first placement in October.

Jacqui: Lots of global opportunities as well that you can become involved in. And when campus, so 2022, let's be positive and you'll be that everyone will be back from campus. We've got lots of different clubs, including nursing specific ones that you're welcome to engage in. And also the more traditional university clubs, I guess, around sport and extracurricular stuff. Got a range of assessments, so we've got a real variety that is spread across the program so that you're not doing the same things all the time. So while they might be essays and case studies, they're just one of the things that we do. So we aim to have a lot of practical assessments because the degree is very obviously going to become a registered nurse, that ssomething that's practical? So we aim to integrate that in. And we also take advantage of clinical placements to assist you there as well.

Jacqui: So what does the program look like? So you can see here and we've kind of got this spaced out in terms of the clinical placements that you'll be doing. So each session would be doing four subjects. Typically a clinical placement or more each session in the first year. That starts in spring session. So each year we have autumn and we have spring session rather than first and second semester. So your first clinical placement is three weeks. In second year, you have a mix of placements. So you will do, we have clinical practice subjects each session. We do a placement in those of two weeks and also specialized placements. So you do one in aged care and one in mental health as well. And the aim is to increase the number of hours as you go through the program, because you will you increase your ability to be able to provide nursing care. By the end of the degree our aim is to have you managing a patient load, obviously under the direction of a registered nurse so that you're really ready to in as a new graduate nurse. And you can see that your final placement in spring session will be a six week placement, so the bulk of the hours is sitting there in third year.

Jacqui: UTS is pretty unique because we have special subjects that you can enrol in in your final year, and this gives you a taste of what specialty you might like to move into, and there's a list there that you can see. So Judy would tell you, oh, you should do perioperative nursing because that's her specialty. Where is Mark would tell you? Probably to do drug and alcohol nursing, that's his specialty. But he's also a mental health clinician. I would say critical care, because I've worked in Eds but lots of different opportunities there for you to enrol in in your final year.

Jacqui: We have a range of clinical placements, so you go to a lot of different areas. And Rose is the expert on this and can answer questions around this. But we're affiliated with over 100 hundred clinical settings with an agreement with every local health district in Sydney, which is great. It means we can place our students widely across the Sydney area. Rose's clinical practice unit allocates nursing placements for students. The aim is to have that within an hour's commute from your home. Placements occur in two-to-six-week blocks, as we saw there. You're only going to go during the week and you will either do an AM or a PM shift. So we don't do overnight shifts. You might be pleased about that. You also do have the option to go on rural and remote placements. And you can see there some of the examples, including the air ambulance, which is a pretty cool place, but to be able to do.

Jacqui: So we've mentioned before the facilities that we get to use, and you can see just a little snapshot of them there, but we have high fidelity clinical simulation suites that we use. We have 16 clinical practice labs. And the aim there is to mimic real hospital settings. And you've got a little snapshot there, but they really are quite amazing. And they're located in level six of our building. We also provide patient care and empathy scenarios with what we would call simulated patients or actors, just so that you have that practice speaking to a real live person.

Jacqui: And so, again, you can see all of the settings that we use here. We need to do this because not all learning is going to happen in labs which are. We do need you to develop non-technical skills, so something like communication, you do a whole subject on it because it's really critical and at the core of what we do as nurses. And it remains one of the areas that we're that we strive for improvement because it is linked to errors in health care and to poor patient experience, as well as a communication, teamwork all really vital. And so we get you to engage in different settings and to hone those skills.

Jacqui: So where are we? You probably have seen our building if you've been in the city would have seen it. We've got a massive campus that's quite unique because it's across Sydney. You can see the tower building. That is our original building. That's the one with its logo, the full one there. So we really are in the heart of the city. We really near close to public transport and a quick walk from central station. And we're all in building 10. And our labs are building six, sorry we located on level six. We're on level seven. And that amazing picture that you can see there with all the glass is at the UTS Central Building, which is pretty new to us. And that's where our library is. And it's just quite an amazing building. Lots of amazing resources for you to access there.

Jacqui: So at the end of the degree, what what should you look like, what are we aiming for in our registered nurses? So we want you to be able to have knowledge and skills around, and these are kind of the cornerstones, I guess. So person centred care, so that what that means is you're looking after the person, not so much the patients with, for example, a patient in bed six with the appendectomy. You're looking after Mr. Smith. And it's a more holistic way of looking at patient care. You're entering a profession that really, really values the professionalism of nursing, we think it's the most amazing profession that there is. And so it's important to have a professional disposition. Mentioned before, already communication and collaboration, they’re key to successful patient care. Everything that we do must be based on evidence-based practice. And we go to the evidence. And that is what guides our care, and that's what ensures that we provide safe care to our patients.

Jacqui: Indigenous cultural respect is central to what we do, and it's woven through our studies, as well as having a stand-alone elective study. We want you to be critical thinkers, so we want you to be able to care for your patients, to think about what's happening to them, and to be able to direct the care, to be able to raise questions. With other clinicians with doctors to provide the best care to be able to advocate for your patients. And so, above all, we need you to be professionally competent so that you're going to be an effective part of the health care team. And I think you've seen at the moment in the current situation how vital nurses are in the health care system. So there is the opportunity so you can go so many, in so many directions with nursing and everyone on the panel here, it's taken us in lots of different ways. And you might start off in acute care, and end up in education, you might move into management. And what we've got on here is really just a smattering of the areas that you can end up in. Where some of these things you might want to do, further study. And certainly, in nursing, what we would say is that we have a commitment to lifelong learning, and that's part of being a registered nurse. We have to provide evidence of that professional development each year and some of these special things you might want to go on and do postgrad studies with this as well.

Jacqui: So these kind of feed into the different trees, so you will start off as a registered nurse when you complete with us and you become a new graduate nurse that's typically a nurse in their first year. And these are all of the different things that you can become specialists, you might decide to become an educator on the ward or working in education more broadly, you know that the person in charge of each ward in a hospital or each nursing home is actually a nurse in a lot of nurses, working management and nurse practitioners are, you know, super specialized nurses who have prescribing rights in Australia. So they're real specialists. They work in areas, for example, like wound care. We have them in emergency departments as well, other areas.

Jacqui: So UTS has lots of different resources that can help you to succeed. And it's really important to take advantage of all of these. For example, we have the student centre. So this is where you can drop in and submit any requests online for classroom and student matters, maybe arrange a time table and things. We also have HELPS, which is great acronyms, these are the people who are sitting there waiting to help you and you writing in your academic, assignments skills that academic staff part of your studies. Timetable planner, and one of the things that we know that students struggle with and also when you graduate nurses is planning their activities. So we have a timetable planner. UTS Online is just the at the moment we removed everything is on canvas. So some of you may already be familiar with that. And it's just that's the repository. That's where you interact with your subjects and all the resources there. As I said, we have an amazing library. Even though our students can't visit it at the moment, its online presence is massive. Lots of support available for students and lots of resources there. We have an amazing careers service who work closely with nursing specialist students in their final year to help us with the events around careers, to help you practice interview skills for those new grads, jobs that you'll be going for in that final year. So they're a really great resource to students. And we also have something unique. We have what we call practice lab and said this is a lab that's dedicated for our students, would share that with, midwifery as well. And students can book into that and go practice and skills. So, for example, if they had a placement coming up and they wanted to practice skills around subcut Injection's, for example, they could book some time. The resources are there. And we also have a dedicated staff member in there to assist with that. So we think that's really quite a great facility to have to be able to offer.

Jacqui: So how do you apply? So you're applying through UAC, the dates on here. None-recent school leavers, there's competitive entry, so it's all around going to through the UX system to do this. So applicants over 20 years of age at the time of applying can also opt to sit a special tertiary admissions test. But obviously, lots of detailed information about the admission criteria can be found on our website and you can see the link to it there.

Jacqui: So now what we'd like to do is throw to you so that you can ask us any questions. Like I said before, you might just receive an answer in a text reply from one of the panellists or from the Faculty of Health marketing team who are here. They have done all the hard work behind the scenes to help us come to you today. So let's have a look at, I might just start reading questions.

Jacqui: OK, so I'm just going to start reading out questions here and asking the audience so high, Hailey. Hailey has just asked, do you have any accelerated programs for people who hold non missing bachelor's degrees already? We have discontinued that. Hailey so, no, we don't. So you would come into our standard program, a simple program.

Jacqui: So someone has asked, do you recommend that of nursing, that true creative intelligence and innovation to someone who wants to work in paediatric nursing? I think so I would just answer. You know, it's a great add on to have that have a dual degree in terms of working in paediatrics. It's not something that would make you more specialized in it, but it may be something that, you know, adds to adds to your skills. Certainly, I would say that if that's something that you're interested in, that definitely you can do that.

Jacqui: So got a question about vaccinations. So do we need vaccination proof, if needed, Rose I might get you to answer that question?

Rose: Yeah. So as soon as you accept your offer for The Bachelor of Nursing, you'll receive emails from the clinical practice unit and that will advise you of what you need to do. And we need evidence of your vaccinations. And most of you, if your school leavers, you'll be able to get your immunization record of your MyGov. You will need to get a health card from the clinical practice unit, which is on level six. And you'll need to get your doctor to fill that out. But yes, your vaccinations, your and COVID-19 is very much present now. And as you would have seen in the news, that it's a mandatory requirement for health care workers. So I'd advise you to get to make sure you have that vaccine and you have that evidence. So you'll upload that into our system and you have all those logins as soon as you accept your offer.

Jacqui: Thank you, Rose. If I'm currently studying in nursing courses, a year 12 student at school, can I use that qualification somewhere as an advantage when applying for this course? So it's great that you're doing that. I'm assuming that surround an assistant in nursing program through probably through one of the hospitals or through Tafe. It doesn't add to qualifications coming into to the Bachelor of Nursing degree in terms of being able to, it's around the UAC process.

Jacqui: Are there any international opportunities, Natasha? Yes, there are. They have been somewhat stymied because of Covid at the moment. But we do have in our third year and especially course, global health, and that has the opportunity for global placements that didn't run this year for that for those reasons. But those opportunities do come up, we have had students previously travel to overseas as well as part of exchanges. So, yes, there are some.

Jacqui: I want to be a midwife and have been advised to look into studying the nursing first year, then applying the midwifery course. Is that a common scenario? Look, I'm just going to be biased and say you should become a nurse first, but you certainly if you're at and perhaps that's around the more limited numbers that midwifery take, certainly coming into nursing and having a nursing degree will give you set you up with a lot of skills and then you can apply to do midwifery. So I know that other students do do it. I have had students previously who have to have done it. Yes.

Jacqui: Can students enrol in this course if they are currently studying Diploma in Nursing at TAFE, can we get credit for the units? So you can't get any credit because you're coming from, I guess the basic answer is the degree is higher than Tafe. So that means that a Tafe subject, you're not going to get recognition primarily for because it's not completed at the same level. So if you're currently studying it, you can still enrol in our course. But it would be the standard course. If you completed that diploma, then you would be able to come into our accelerated program, and that would bring the number of years of study down two.

Jacqui: So which majors required postgrad degree? I'm not exactly sure I'm wondering, you're talking about the specialties that you are moving into and you can move into those specialties without those great degrees, but you will often start to study postgrad, the one that was sitting there Nurse practitioner is definitely a post graduate program that you would be doing. So if I haven't answered that quickly, quickly, Melissa, please type another question for me. So Mark's going to answer this one, what classes and labs are based at Moore Park? So, Mark, did you want to answer that question?

Mark: OK, so basically there's no nursing at Moore park. It's all at the Ultimo campus. So all of your labs, sort of the Ultimo campus.

Jacqui: It is quite an amazing facility out at Moorpark that that's for our sports science colleagues.

Jacqui: My daughter is currently studying nursing overseas and would like to continue to study in use for any of her subjects be credited. So again, it's on an individual basis. I would need to have a look at the transcript. I would need to have a look at, there's a formal application process and we can provide you with those details and school recognition of prime learning. Basically what we're looking for is that the course subject was completed within the last five years and that there is an 80 percent match to the content and the assessments of the UTS program. Also anything that was done in the clinical space, if it's overseas, wouldn't those wouldn't be credited here because those hours do need to be completed here.

 Jacqui: How many recent school leavers get accepted into the nursing course each year? So the estimates, I think that we have for next year are around. Six hundred, six hundred and fifty and around 200 in the EN space. Previously, we've taken we're not up at a 1000, but we have taken around 800. I think they are our high numbers.

Jacqui: Is midwifery also February admission date for EN Tafe for April finisher, or is there a mid-year intake? We don't have midyear intakes unfortunately.

Jacqui: Will this degree be valid in developing world countries? So the process for finding that out is actually to, it depends on the country. So, yes, our degrees, I recognize it's a formalized degree, but because you're a registered nurse, what you need to do is apply through the nursing boards in each country and to provide evidence, and then you become registered in those countries. In the end, it's unique. Each country will have its own requirements. For example, if you were going to Canada, you'd be required to to sit in an entrance exam as well. So I think that's answering the question there. An Australian registered nurses work in practice overseas. If you want to go to the UK and US, sp certainly can. You just have to go through the registration process in those countries.

Jacqui: If I wanted to do rural placements, will accommodation and transport be provided by UTS. We do provide some scholarships around that, but we don't and please feel free to jump in Rose if you have anything to add. But we don't provide accommodation and transport, is my understanding.

Rose: Yeah. You can also apply to New South Wales government to get a financial support package when you're doing, you know, rural and remote placement. So that's an opportunity for you as well.

Jacqui: Rose, I might get you to react to this one because it's from a Rosie. I was wondering what the different options were replacement, for example, what hospitals were available for replacement?

Rose: Yeah, we have agreements with all our local health hospitals throughout New South Wales. So we any public hospital, we have placements in. Also, we have placements with our private hospitals in Sydney and New South Wales. So we've got an array of opportunities and different facilities that you will be able to access in your degree.

Jacqui: Great, thank you. How many placement hours does the UTS RN course provides? We have eight hundred and forty hours. There are minimum requirement with our per hour registering body is that you have eight hundred hours. So we now, our program, we have eight hundred forty.

Jacqui: You're a student doing a foundation's thiomersal in health science course with another university. Can I use this course to apply for UTS? Yes, certainly through the UAC, you would include that information and you may be able to get recognition of prior learning as well for doing those subjects at another university so make sure that your possibilities.

Jacqui: Do you have mature age students in a full time course? Any indication of the number of mature age students accepted every year? Look, we certainly have a range of students and we do have a number of mature age students. I wouldn't be able to give you a breakdown of those though, but we do have plenty in each class that to it. We have a mix.

Jacqui: During a typical week semester, how many days would you would students spend on campus, in-person in non COVID times? So that's a good question. So the way that we have scheduled our time table is that you will come in. It's in an intensive format. You do choose subjects intensively for five weeks, and you people didn't do the next two. So, for example, in the foundations of nursing subjects, you would do a four hour tutorial each week and you would also then do something for science each week. So you might find that you can do that in one or two days and then with the labs, you're doing typically either at a five or a seven hour a day in those clinical subjects. And you're also doing another theory subject. So depending what your timetable looks like, you can again, it would probably be one or two days as well.

Jacqui: Once I’m an RN, can I work in a private hospital straight away? So private hospitals also have new graduate programs that they will that they recruit students to apply for. Typically, that's the route that you would go through.

Jacqui: Do students choose. I'll get you to answer this one Rose. Do students choose which wards they go on during placement.

Rose: They don't. The wards are a primary against all your subject ordering, and they're allocated accordingly to the subject that you're in, and has different areas that they'll go into so you'll be allocated to that depending on the subject criteria.

Jacqui: Right. Thank you. And Judy, I might get you to answer this one. Judy's one of our clinical subject coordinators, and you will meet her in first year. So the question, Judy, is if I do part time study with the clinical hours be halved.

Judy: Clinical hours, as in, placement hours.

Jacqui: Yes.

Judy: No. Is that right, Rose, you still be required to do your job?

Rose: Yes, absolutely. Yes. If you're doing it, if you're doing a clinical subject and you're doing that in that that session, you will have the clinical hours attached to that session. So you might take five years to do your degree. But when you do a clinical subject, you need to do those clinical hours with that subject in that session.

Jacqui: Great. So how many days so I think I've answered the question, how many days per week, how is it spread out? Ideally, in non-COVID times, what would be online? A lot of our lectures are online. We have drop-in sessions online. And then typically our tutorials and our labs and our simulations workshops are Face-To-Face. So that's how typically the subjects will run.

Jacqui: So what is recommended for a mature age student to do so? I'm not sure exactly, Lauren, what your meaning there, whether you're meaning part time or full time study. I guess it just depends on having a, you know, enrolling, having a look at the timetable, seeing how you cope coming back to study and then making that decision and again, factoring in the amount of time that you need to do in clinical placements.

Jacqui: Do students get an opportunity to study all nursing specialty areas before they choose an elective. So the answer to that would be no, because we're providing a generalized degree really in terms of our content, so that it means that you can become a new graduate work. The aim would be that you have the skills and you could work anywhere with that set of skills, and then you kind of develop the skills. So some of you may have had a placement in a more specialized area before those third year placements. But that's where you get a kind of homely skills. So Judy’s going to answer this question because she is our perioperative specialist. So, Judy, did you want to answer the question? I just lost. It was around becoming a surgeon.

Judy: Oh, OK, yeah, that was for the down there is one up the top.

Jacqui: To become a surgeon or something in that area would this course, be a good way to get there.

Judy: No, they're very different degrees. However, if you are interested in the perioperative environment and you can become a perioperative nurse, which is my specialty, where you can be an aesthetic nurse, you can do instruments circulating. So you actually working with the surgeon, you're actually part of the perioperative team, so you're working right alongside the surgeon. There's also some advanced nursing roles in the perioperative environment. So there is a nurse, nurse, surgeon's assistant, which is actually a nurse practitioner level role. And you are independent, you have your own ABN number. And so you kind of like a consultant that works with the surgeons. And there's also opportunities for other advanced perioperative nursing roles. So endoscopes, where you actually do procedures, nurse seditionists so giving some sedation defections as well. So there's lots of evolving and developing advanced nursing roles in the perioperative environment. So, no, you're not a surgeon because that’s a medical degree, and that's six years of study and then another 10 years of, you know, work after that. But there's certainly lots of advanced nursing roles within the perioperative space as well, and that it's offered in third year as a specialty subject.

Jacqui: Thanks, Judy, so might get you to answer this one as well. Are there physicians’ assistants in Australia, is it a career that's possible for nurses here?

Judy: So physician assistants, no, so that's, I guess, the equivalent of what we would call a resident or a registrar, but as I said, I know within the perioperative space there are what we call productiveness surgeons assistants. So they might stop the operation. So they’ll, they’ll, you know, do the incision and help suture. They'll put in drains and things like that. But a physician's assistant know that that's a medical role. That's not a nursing role.

Jacqui: I think they're in the US. I think physicians assistants. But we don't have that.

Jacqui: If you can't get into a graduate program job after graduating, what options are there for employment? So certainly there are there are different avenues to find employment. So, there are lots of different graduate programs, and not just through, for example, New South Wales Health, which is our biggest employer. All of the private hospitals do that. Also, general practice facilities, the GPs will take on students who, you know, nursing students who just graduated in the aged care sector. That is happening as well. You can also apply directly to RN one roles, which the one just means it's your first year out. You may get agent work and you may become a vaccinator. And lots of there are different opportunities. And you know, that six-week placement at the end of your degree is a real great opportunity to be able to network and just to build up contacts you may be able to get to be able to make contacts that way, for example, my daughter is an emergency department nurse, she didn't get a new grad position. However, she was interviewed separately outside that program a bit later and did manage to get a position that way.

Jacqui: Do nursing students generally learn in the same class groups. So do you have a regular group of people you work with or who do classes with? So, yeah, that's what we're aiming to do. So we call that streams. So, for example, when you're doing your clinical subject and the theory subject in that second part of each session, you're in the same stream because we want you to be in the same classes together and cohorts for those two and you go to a placement at the same time as well. And also by having longer tutorials. So the four hours, kind of gives you the opportunity to better develop those relationships as well and be with the same people.

Jacqui: If you're a part time RN student, would your first placement be, when is your first placement? Are they the same length? So if you're part time and you're doing two subjects position, then your first placement, would be at the end of your first year of study and your placements are the same length. So that would be a three-week placement. That's because you're doing the same subject at the time. And so all the requirements are the same there.

Jacqui: Someone had asked a question about picking your major so you don't actually have a major in our program. It's the same accredited program for every everyone. So in terms of those third use specialist subjects, you just pick them at the time so you don't have to come in with a preconceived idea of what you want to do. And often people come in and think, oh, I really want to be a paediatric nurse. And then they decide midway through, actually I think mental health is amazing, I'm going to I'm going to do that instead.

Judy: Yes. I'd like to know more about the pathway to become a cosmetic nurse. Finished a Diploma of Beauty Therapy. Would that help me on my application? Would a Bachelor of Nursing be available? Yes, you can do you better nursing Part-Time in terms of cosmetic nursing cosmetic or what they said was as aesthetic nursing is actually an unregulated area at the moment, but it is one that the Australian Nursing Midwifery Board and ANMAC are actually looking at to become regulated. So there's no specific nursing course, for aesthetical cosmetic nursing. However, they are looking at where it will sit in terms of the specialty area and at the moment, they're looking that it will come under the umbrella of perioperative nursing. So I guess if you are looking at to have something, some sort of qualification to complement your Diploma of Beauty Therapy, perioperative will probably be the closest to that, because you are learning about all those specific roles around anaesthetics, also about, you know, aseptic technique and, you know, you know, handling instruments and all that kind of stuff. So so short answer is no. There is no actual qualification for cosmetic nursing. But certainly perioperative qualifications will be what will get you leading towards that. There will be eventually. But as I said, ANMAC are looking at that now in terms of regulation, I hope that's it.

Jacqui: Thanks Judy. Thank you. What are the latest time slots you offer practical labs in a day? Judy, do you want to answer that one? Because you work in the lab space.

Judy: So we have labs running all day, every day so Monday to Friday and we have let's starting at well these are first year labs, eight thirty they’re five or six hour will a half hour break. So the morning session start at eight thirty and the afternoon sessions start at two thirty. So be finishing up around eight thirty.

Jacqui: So I think our labs are open from eight eight a.m. to nine pm. You know, typically we're not running until 9:00 p.m. because we don't really want to be there at 9:00 p.m. But we do offer them across the time.

Jacqui: Any specific subjects that we would need to be done in high school prior to applying for an orange? So I might leave marketing to answer around the specific subjects?

Jacqui: What I might mention is that the things that you can do now to kind of get yourself prepared are to look at your vaccinations, what you need to have done, because that's something you can get started now, because vaccination is one of the key things that you need to have done to be able to attend placement. So I'm not just talking that about that Covid, the Covid vaccination, which is something that we're recommending or we're moving likely moving towards making that mandatory. But all the other things like whooping cough, sorry, pertussis and the different ones, also doing a senior first aid certificate, because that is something that we're going to that we ask you to have done in your first session of the study. So, you know, once you're able to if you can get those kind of things done, the things you can take off the list as well.

Jacqui: So to students who completed the Diploma of Nursing go with students a first year, so no, if you're entering our accelerated EN program, you'll entering the second year of the program. And you'll be with us, so when you're in classes, you'll be with other ENs in those classes, so we try to keep that cohort together. And that's something that Judy, who is our official video, made a kind of, you know, liaises with the different cohorts to make sure that they're settling in effectively.

Jacqui: All right. So I think that we've answered all the questions and you've heard me talk for long enough. As we said, we will be making a copy of this available. If there are any questions that we haven't that you think you can get in touch with us. We can answer those. Best of luck for those of you doing the HSC. We just really all want to wish you the best of luck in these difficult circumstances. Can't imagine how difficult that must be for you all. And we really look forward to having you join us next year. We think nursing is an amazing profession. We think UTS is an amazing university to be able for you to come to be able to come to. So thank you so much. I'd like to thank the panel as well for giving us their time up on a on a Saturday. So thanks to everybody for coming along today.

Finbar: [00:00:03] Hi, welcome to the UTS Faculty of Health. Thank you so much for joining our nursing lab tour. On this level there are 16 clinical labs and eight simulation bays for our nursing and midwifery students.

Jenivy: [00:00:14] And here we're standing outside our clinical administration unit, who organise students' clinical placements in health care settings, like hospitals, aged care and community settings.

Finbar: [00:00:25] Let's head over the bridge to have a look at our facilities used for our nursing students.

Finbar: [00:00:29] Here is our first stop, a medical surgical nursing lab.

Jenivy: [00:00:40] Our labs are set up to look and feel exactly like hospitals, aged care facilities and primary health care services. The setup is flexible and there are generally two areas: the classroom area and the simulation area. In the simulation area of five to six bed spaces.

Finbar: [00:00:58] Between the labs is a preparation and equipment room. During class we access equipment we need for different nursing procedures.

Jenivy: [00:01:05] Back in the lab we have manikins to simulate patients.

Finbar: [00:01:09] Many of them are robotic and they have different levels of authenticity, or ability to mimic real-life patients. Some can simulate coughing, vomiting, perspiring, fitting and shivering. They can bleed or simulate a cardiac or respiratory arrest. They can speak, cry and groan so we can tell how they are feeling, just like a real-life patient.

Jenivy: [00:01:32] Simulated-based learning also involves role playing, where actors, people with lived experience, students and teachers all engage in clinical scenarios. These experiences help us to develop communication, empathy and teamwork skills, which are critical to good nursing.

Finbar: [00:01:50] Let's go meet one of our patients, SimMan.

Lily: [00:01:52] When you look around our patient's bed, you'll notice a lot of high-tech equipment. The large LCD screen can show data and scans such as blood results and X-rays. The monitor shows the patient's heart rate, oxygen saturations, temperature and blood pressure. Anything a student does to treat the manikin will be mirrored in their observations. So if they give blood pressure medicine, the manikin's blood pressure will change in response.

Lily: [00:02:16] On the ceiling are two microphones to capture what people are saying when they're working in this bed space. Three cameras reflect what's happening and can be viewed or saved in the control room for students to reflect on and learn from after the simulation.

Jenivy: [00:02:27] We've now entered the control room behind the one way mirror. It's the working hub for many simulated experiences.

Finbar: [00:02:36] The instructor PC shows the patient monitor screen. It controls the manikin and the responses triggered by students when they provide patient care. An instructor can direct the simulation from here as speaking as a patient through the manikin, or they can talk to the students via the speaker above the bed space.

Jenivy: [00:02:54] What happens in the control room is designed to ensure that simulations are realistic clinical scenarios so that students can learn in a really immersive way.

Finbar: [00:03:04] Now let's go have a look at one of our paediatric wards.

Michelle: [00:03:08] This space mimics a children's hospital setting. Nursing students learn about paediatrics throughout their degree, and they can also pick a paediatric elective in their third year. The manikins in here range from newborn to 12 years, but they have the same range of features as adult manikins. Paediatric processes can be complex, and one of the most important nursing skills is to administer medication correctly, because children's body weight is variable and much lower than adults', medication calculation is essential.

Lily: [00:03:41] Hi again. This is the perioperative nursing lab. You'll see that we have an operating theatre set up in here. In third year, nursing students can select perioperative nursing as an elective.

Jessica: [00:03:51] And this particular space is called the community room. It's flexible and can be used to simulate primary health care consultations, mental health nursing visits, care of an elderly person in their home and more.

Jenivy: [00:04:03] The last lab we'll visit today is this one, the practice lab.

Finbar: [00:04:08] This is where we can book in additional practice of our clinical skills.

Jenivy: [00:04:11] And build our confidence before clinical placements and assessments.

Finbar: [00:04:15] On our way out we'll take you past the student kitchenette.

Finbar: [00:04:18] In the kitchen, we have a fridge, freezer and microwave to be used by students at any time.

Jenivy: [00:04:25] And now we'll see our Health student computer and printing area. There's plenty of desks and bookable meeting rooms on this level, which makes it a popular place for group work and independent study.

Finbar: [00:04:40] Thanks so much for joining our tour. We hope you enjoyed gaining insight into being a nursing student at UTS.

Jenivy: [00:04:46] See you at UTS soon.

 

Welcome to UTS's state of the art clinical laboratories. Class begins with our nursing students being invited into the lab by a member of the clinical teaching staff. Let's follow along.

Our laboratories are designed to mimic real world clinical practise so students can build the confidence necessary to treat future patients expertly. Students practise their skills on a selection of mannequins, part task trainers and at time they even get involved in role play scenarios, sometimes playing the patient themselves.

Most clinical laboratory spaces at UTS have a control room attached where academic and technical staff control, monitor and assess a student's engagement with our high fidelity mannequins. Students are examined on their skills in reaction to a number of scenario based assessments.

Our students have access to the supportive practise laboratory, a learning environment exclusive to UTS. Within this space, students practise any clinical skill of their choosing with a clinical facilitator under a guided practise approach.

UTS is Australia’s top ranked young university and ranked 1st in Australia for Nursing and Midwifery. We’re looking forward to welcoming you at our Health faculty!

Deborah: Good morning, my name is Deborah Fox, thank you for joining us for today's online info session about The Bachelor of Midwifery at UTS. To start this session, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation upon whose ancestral lands our city campus now stands and I'd like to pay respect to their elders past, present and emerging, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land.

Deborah: So as I said, my name is Deborah Fox, and I'm the course coordinator of the Bachelor of Midwifery at UTS and I also conduct research into optimizing physiological processes for women with complexities and risk factors in pregnancy. I'd like to also introduce my colleagues and our wonderful students who've joined us today. And first of all, I'll start with Professor Kathleen Baird.

Kathleen: Thank you. Thank you, Deb. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our virtual open day session. It's lovely to have you along with us this morning. So I have been I've had the privilege of being a midwife for over 25 years. I did my midwifery training the three year program in Scotland, in the U.K. and I've worked in all different models of midwifery care. And I arrived as an academic, midwifery, academic in Australia 10 years ago. And I have the great privilege of being the midwifery discipline lead for our program. I, like Deborah, I also do research so my research is in all different models of midwifery care, but a particular focus on vulnerable groups of populations with a focus on family violence during pregnancy. So it's lovely to have this chance to virtually talk to you all this morning.

Deborah: Thank you, Kathleen. And and next, I'd like to introduce Loretta Musgrave.

Loretta: Good morning and welcome to the UTS Open Day. My name's Loretta and I'm a midwifery lecturer here at UTS, and I specialize in complexity in pregnancy. And I also am conducting research, looking at smartphone applications as a behaviour change, intervention in pregnancy and generally for women of reproductive age. And I've got experience in working in birth centres. And I have worked for 21 years in the public health service prior to coming to UTS. I'm also a registered nurse and I've been a registered nurse for 25 years. So I have dual registration and I bring all my experience to UTS and to The Bachelor of Midwifery, particularly the second year looking after the clinical subjects. Nice to meet you all.

Deborah: Thank you, Loretta. And moving on to Dr Annabel Sheehy.

Annabel: Hello, everyone. I'm so excited to be connecting with you all albeit through a computer screen. I am a midwife and I have been educated via UTS. I was in the first intake of The Bachelor of Midwifery, so I can attest how wonderful this university is. I love UTS. So I've been a midwife clinically since I started the course in 2005. And I teach mainly the first year. And I teach anatomy physiology. I teach the clinical subjects in those clinical subjects. You will get to learn they're called midwifery practice subject. And I also do research. And my research focuses on the early career period of new midwives. And so I'm glad you could all join us. So welcome.

Deborah: Thank you, Annabel. And moving on now to Heike Roth.

Heike: Good morning, everyone, and welcome. My name is Heike and I'm also a bachelor midwifery graduate from here, UTS. I was in the cohort that graduated in 2008, which was just after Annabel's. And I've since then also continued on further study through UTS, which was Honours and some postgraduate training in adult education and I've recently also submitted my Ph.D. So it's very exciting. And I'm also very, very proud to be UTS I guess, graduate alumni and now teaching also within the team here in midwifery. So I've got 13 years of experience as a midwife and work in all areas of midwifery. I really look forward to meeting you all and look forward to your questions. Thank you.

Deborah: Thank you Heike. And we do have some other wonderful midwifery team members who are not with us today. We didn't want to make the panel too big because we'd have to spend the whole webinar introducing ourselves. But next, I would like to introduce a very special person, Katie Burnett, who is our senior clinical administration officer. Katie looks after all the placement arrangements, hospital placement and clinical placement arrangements for our students. So good morning, Katie.

Katie: Morning. Morning. Yes. Yeah. Good morning and welcome. I can't see you all, but it's normally lovely to know that you're there. And I as Deb said, I organized all the administration sort of clinical placements for the Bachelor of Midwifery and also ensuring that the correct documentation has been submitted. That's police checks, vaccinations to New South Wales Health. So it's very nice to be a part of this panel today and look forward to meeting you at some point.

Deborah: Thank you so much, Katie. And another very special person is Jacqueline, one of our wonderful third-year students in the bachelor of midwifery, and I'm sure that you'll be keen to pick her brains later. Jacqueline, would you like to introduce yourself?

Jacqueline: Yes. Welcome, everybody. It's lovely to be here for the second year in a row doing this virtually. As Deb said, I'm a third-year student finishing up hopefully at the end of this year. I came into the degree as a mature age student. I have two boys. I'm a former accountant turned midwife and haven't looked back. I absolutely love it. I can attest to all the statements that the academics have said. Yeah, I look forward to, you know, hopefully getting to give you some more information today.

Deborah: Thank you so much, Jacqueline. And we have lots of diversity in our student cohort. We have a wonderful mixture of students who've recently left school and also more mature students. And I was one of those. I started my B.Mid in my 40s and was a musician prior to that. And we have lots and lots of students who've had other careers prior, as you heard from Jacqueline. We also have psychologists, physiotherapists and musicians. We've had a TV producer. We've had a wonderful range of very interesting people, which makes our course very rich environment.

Deborah: So today's session, we're going to present some information and then there's an opportunity for you to ask us your questions, so please do. We're going to invite you to type your questions into the Q&A box in your Zoom control panel. And we will respond after the course presentation. You may receive your answer and text reply from one of the panellists or from a member of our Faculty of Health marketing team who are here to help us moderate the Q&A. Then being an online event. Please bear with us. If there are any technical issues, we hope they won't. That will work to resolve them quickly. If there are if you find you're not able to access the webinar at any point, we suggest you log out and log back in again, because that often resolves the issues.

Deborah: All right, so onto our course information. So just to define what is a midwife? Midwives provide support for women and their families throughout pregnancy, labour and birth. And then for up to six weeks after the birth. And we're very proud to be consistently ranked first in Australia for nursing and midwifery education and currently ranked 11th in the world for nursing and midwifery. So we're very proud of that.

Deborah: So students who successfully complete our B.Mid program are eligible to register with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency known as AHPRA, which is the regulation agency that all health professionals in Australia must be registered with in order to practice. So our graduates can then practice as a midwife. And the definition of a midwife is a health professional who, in partnership with a woman, provides individualized specialist care, evidence-based information, support, pregnancy, childbirth, post-natal and the early parenting period. And increasingly also providing preconception care. Midwives can work in the community in birth centres, hospitals and in women's homes. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Deborah: The philosophy of woman centred care underpins our course and the profession of midwifery and woman centred care is care that addresses the social, emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual and cultural needs of each and every individual woman we care for. So that philosophy of woman centred care is something you will hear about nearly every day of the course. It's a very, very important. So we put the woman at the centre of our priorities at all times. And it's important for you to know, as you are interested in perhaps studying midwifery, that midwifery is very much about working with women to grow and give birth to and nurture their babies and to become parents. It's not about working with babies. So if you are particularly keen to work with babies, we recommend you. You explore nursing. You may be interested in getting into paediatric nursing or neonatal intensive care or perhaps early childhood education. But midwifery is very much about working alongside women.

Deborah: So why do students choose to study at our Bachelor of Midwifery at UTS? Well, it's a well-established and highly sought after course and was the first Bachelor of Midwifery offered in New South Wales. The very first Bachelor of Midwifery in Australia started just a few years before in Victoria. So the Bachelor of Midwifery courses have been alive and well across Australia now for 20 years. UTS is a top rated as well, above world standard in Australia for nursing and midwifery research. So not only are we first in the country for teaching and learning, but we also well above world standard for our research. And all your lecturers are also actively involved in in research.

Deborah: You'll study in the state of the art, educational, midwifery, clinical facilities, we have a purpose built and specifically designed floor full of simulation laboratories, full of wonderful equipment that you can use to learn all your skills before you go out into the hospital environment. And you will learn from expert, passionate staff who remain engaged in industry and conduct research that is continually fed back into the curriculum. So our research informs the renewal of the curriculum as we go past. And excitingly, we're starting a new curriculum next year. So those of you interested in starting next year will have the freshest curriculum there is.

Deborah: So just a few details about the Bachelor of Midwifery. Our selection rank for 2021 for this year was ninety-nine point nine five. So it is very competitive. We usually accept about 15 percent, one five, 15 per cent of the applicants. We wish we could open up a lot more places, but we are limited by the number of educational places we can access in the clinical environment. So it's a very important part of your course that you have access to full learning experience in clinical settings. So we must make sure that everyone is able to access that.

Deborah: It's a three-year full-time degree. We do not offer a part time and we only offer an autumn intake. So you can't defer your offer and you're unable to start in spring. So I know that as a result of the recent announcements about HSC changes, UTS has advertised that there are a lot of courses available to start in spring, but our Bachelor Midwifery will start in autumn. But rest assured that UTS is going to make sure that we cater for those of you finishing your HSC. So don't worry about that. More information is coming out as we speak.

Deborah: We have a very high graduate employment rate, which is usually 100 per cent, and graduates work in New South Wales in public and private facilities, in privately practicing midwifery practices and also interstate and overseas. Many of our graduates go on to do an honours degree and get into research as well.

Deborah: We also offer a double degree, the Bachelor of Midwifery and Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation. And if you're interested in thinking outside the box and thinking in a transdisciplinary way, this may interest you. And I would invite you to have a look on the website at more about this course. And the selection rank this year for that was also ninety nine point nine five. And it's a four-year full-time course. So in addition to the exact same Bachelor midwifery subjects that the standalone course offers, you also some study, some subjects with students from all different faculties, which is very much around transverse transdisciplinary thinking, dealing with wicked problems and thinking outside the box. So it's also autumn intake and offers cannot be deferred. So a very interesting option for those of you with an interest in innovation.

Deborah: The structure of the course is similar to other health professional course structures, but there are some key differences. So explain that now, every session, autumn and spring sessions in some universities, these are called semesters, we call them sessions because we also have summer and winter sessions. But for the Bachelor of Midwifery, it's autumn and spring. And you have four subjects per session. And during each session and between each session, you will also have clinical placements. So you may go to a hospital for clinical placement. You may go to a privately practicing midwife for a clinical placement. Or you may go to a special community facility for your clinical placement. And that can happen at any time during the year. Not just in in session time, you will also be recruiting and caring for 20 women who are pregnant and you will follow them through their pregnancy, their labour, their birth and through to six weeks after birth, walking alongside them, developing a relationship with them and learning about the childbearing journey from the woman's perspective. So this is a very important part of our course and is what makes it unique and different from many other disciplines in health. And all Bachelor of Midwifery courses across the country incorporate these continuity of care experiences. It's a requirement for you to graduate. It does mean that you will be on call. You may get a call at three AM to come and support the woman you've developed a relationship with during her labour. So this is an important thing to consider when you're deciding whether or not to apply for the course.

Deborah: So subjects focus on all kinds of different aspects of care. For example, we have our core clinical subjects every semester, but we also have subjects about women's trans, Women's and families transition to parenthood. We we teach you about translating research and best evidence into practice. You will learn about perinatal mental health. You will learn about caring for vulnerable populations and diverse populations and many other very interesting topics. So it's it's a rich and diverse curriculum.

Deborah: In first and second year. You'll typically spend three or four days per week on campus or on a virtual timetabled classes. So you will from the middle of first year, also perhaps have one day of clinical practice a week where you go into a clinic and recruit some of your content continuity of care experiences. Moving into third year, it changes quite a bit in practice and you come into university for about a week every month and have intensive classes. And after that week, you then go back out into the clinical environment again.

Deborah: So these are some of the things that are involved in studying midwifery, as I mentioned, we have wonderful clinical practice laboratories where there's hands-on learning in a simulated setting. We have a classroom and a small group and large group learning, which is designed to be interactive and collaborative. We tend not to give long lectures. We tend to give you reading and recorded lectures, which then in class, we we do a lot of interactive work around. So preparation is important. So that independent study is often set before the class. It's what we call flipped learning. So you do your preparation and then in class, you're expected to contribute to discussions and activities around that.

Deborah: You will develop a professional portfolio throughout the course, which will be a record of your skills and artifacts you collect along the way and reflections on your experiences.

Deborah: So the hospital and clinical placements, they're not all in hospitals. Both block placements and also the continuity of care experiences, as I mentioned before, where you meet with the woman, attend her appointments during pregnancy, you're on call for her labour and birth and you attend to support her for that and you visit her and attend her appointments after the birth. And you will recruit a minimum of 20 women over the three-year course. We have lots of different forms of test of assessment that integrates theory and practice, including essays and case studies, reflections, group presentations, exams. We have simulated practice assessments as well. They're called Oskies. And you are also assessed on placement using a national framework called the AMSAT.

Deborah: So UTS is a wonderful campus. It's right in the city and full of wonderful resources. So you will have state of the art clinical facilities, as you can see in this slide. There are the typical hospital nursing style facilities for examination of patients who have medical concerns. We also have all these specific midwifery equipment for simulation and especially a birthing simulation suite that includes all the important active birth and natural birth equipment that we need to learn how to use, including water immersion and upright positioning. So you get to learn and practice your skills in a very safe environment, experimental environment before you go out into the clinical environment working with women. And when you are in the clinical environment working with women, you are always under supervision of a registered midwife.

Deborah: We have lots of wonderful mannequins that do all kinds of wonderful things, we had mannequins that have have a pulse. They have a baby in their belly and you can give them injections, you can give them an I.V. drip. We have all sorts of wonderful equipment for you to play with, as well as for the babies. So there is a subject called Care of the Newborn, where you will learn all the essential skills of emergency care and other care that you need to learn about and to support women to care for their babies. So not all the learning is in labs. We also have tutorials in classrooms and workshop rooms as well, of course.

Deborah: We're right in the heart of Sydney. It's less than 10-minute walk from Central Station, so it's very easy for everybody to get to. We have lots of busses that arrive there, too. And our lab classes are in Building 10, which is in Jones Street, right near the library. The new building, UTS Central and opposite alumni green. So it's a lovely, lovely spot.

Deborah: Typical placements in hospitals. Morning shifts start at 7:00 a.m. and evening shifts start in the afternoon after lunch and end at 10:00 p.m. typically, and shift links can vary. We have many students doing 12 hour shifts, but many of them are eight hour shifts. And in addition, you're on call for births during the day, during the night and on weekends. So you need to be prepared to be available for that. And for the continuity of care appointments with women, which can happen at any time.

Deborah: So you be placed in all areas of midwifery practice so that you learn to obtain the full scope of practice if the midwife. And that includes antenatal, which is pregnancy care, post-natal which is care after the birth, birthing suite where women labour and give birth or birthing centre, special care nursery, where premature and unwell babies are looked after. Operating theatres where women may have a caesarean section or a post birth procedure in the community, in women's homes and community health centres, in Aboriginal health centres, midwifery group practice, either within or outside a hospital setting where you will work alongside midwives who work in a totally continuity of care model, where they follow women through and work with women alongside women throughout their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period and birth centres, which are midwifery led and focused on a normal physiological processes.

Deborah: And we have we work closely with the midwifery educators and privately practicing midwives and community health practitioners who teach and assess you in the practice setting. So you will be assigned a home hospital for your three year degree, but you won't necessarily have every placement in that home hospital. And we have a we have agree agreements with a range of hospitals and placement partners, including those that you can see listed here. And in second and third, you have an additional rural and remote practice option, which you can take during the year in place of your home hospital hours.

Deborah: UTS has a lot of resources available to support you and the students from all the other disciplines. And we you would be, as a midwifery student, part of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which is housed in the Faculty of Health. And the UTS more broadly provides many supports for you. So there is a student centre which includes access to GPs and counsellors and other sorts of supports for you. We have a very important department called HELPS the higher education language and presentation support where you can go for a small group or one to one support sessions and to help you with your academic writing. And we have an online timetable planner to help you schedule your classes each session. UTS online is an important platform, which is part of your learning whether or not your subject is taught face to face or in a blended mode or completely online via virtual classes. We have, we use the platform canvas for the all the resources and assessment items that you need to do for each subject. So you have a canvas site for each of your subjects throughout the course. We have an absolutely wonderful library in the new building, UTS Central, which is a wonderful place to visit, but also the online library is rich and wonderful place to visit. Full of full of wonderful resources. And as a student, you will have full access to all the important peer reviewed journals to use for your study, as well as a lot of audio-visual resources which are only available to university students. And we have a careers department, and the careers department becomes very important to our third-year students. They become involved in helping prepare you for writing your résumé, writing your application for a graduate position and also your interviews. And in third year one of our assessments is actually a mock interview, which we set up exactly as you would experience in your job interview with a hospital for a graduate position. And we also provide practice labs for students who would like to do make up times and that can be organized with the subject coordinator.

Deborah: So what does a UTS midwifery graduate look like? These are what we call midwifery graduate attributes, and I'd like to just explain each one, as I said earlier. We practice woman centred care, and that is the basis of the philosophy of our course. We also create graduates who are professionally competent, midwives who provide safe and effective care using intelligent kindness. We also work collaboratively to provide excellence in care for all women. We are resilient and emotionally competent midwives who foster human flourishing and socially responsible citizens who value the diversity of people.

Deborah: Our graduates are professionally engaged, critical thinkers who take a lively and questioning approach and embrace lifelong learning. And our and all our health graduates demonstrate professional cultural competency, which contributes to the health and wellbeing of indigenous Australians. Inclusive of physical, social, emotional and spiritual awareness. So we're very proud of our graduates. We get goose bumps every year when we see our students who come in a very, very enthusiastic and keen, eager to learn and watch them grow and mature into wonderful women Midwives by the end of the course.

Deborah: Many, many careers involved in midwifery, it's not just going into a hospital to become a midwife, working shifts. As a registered midwife, you can work as a clinical midwife specialist, clinical midwife educator, midwife educator, unit manager, clinical midwifery consultant, practitioner, midwifery manager. You can work in rural and remote settings in Australia and also internationally. You can work as a privately practicing midwife, as an academic researcher, consultant, policy maker. Some of our students go to work in low-income settings, either during their study or later after graduating. Some of our graduates work in the World Health Organization and in Federal and State Health Department, such as the AIHW, and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and New South Wales Health the Ministry of Health. We also have graduates working in the Australian College of Midwives and the International Confederation of Midwives. And many of our students and most of our staff are actively involved in the Australian College of Midwives, which is our peak professional body for midwifery.

Deborah: So how do I reply? Well, you 12 school leavers and those who've had a gap year, so school leavers from last year are assessed solely on your selection rank and the selection rank is your ATAR plus any points you qualify for through a UTS Admissions scheme or bonus points based on your performance in particular subjects? None recent school leavers or mature age students compete for a place based on academic merit from previous qualifications. So applicants 20 years of age or over at the time of applying can also opt to seek a special tertiary admissions test known as a STAT that's optional but it may strengthen your application. So you can find detailed information on admission criteria at the UTS website but all applications are processed through UAC. That is whether or not you've recently left school. All applications go through you UAC and a processed there.

Deborah: So we're now going to answer your questions one. One person has asked. I was wondering if there are any prerequisites for this course. Annabel, would you like to answer that, please?

Annabel: So I'm assuming you mean prerequisites in terms of its subjects at school, is that, I would imagine that would be the case. There is no set prerequisites. However, some subjects do help with the points getting through to you an application process, and they can be found on the UTS website. The thing if you're thinking about subjects that may in terms of getting through your educational studies at UTS. Some students have found that doing biology or doing something like in AIN Tafe kind of subjects in years 11 and 12 were helpful for those initial years as a student however you don't have to have a previous study in biology to be successful at this midwifery course. I hope I've answered or touched upon your question.

Deborah: Thank you, Bel. Annabel we affectionately call Bel. Bel, would you like to talk a little bit about what the students learn in their very first session in the new curriculum?

Annabel Oh, first year is so much fun. First year is really exciting because it's just you open your eyes and you see this whole new world in front of you that you may never have even known before, which is midwifery and helping women through pregnancy and birth. And so what these subjects in the first session we call semesters at UTS, we call them sessions. So they're divided for you guys into a couple of sessions. So autumn sessions the first session. And what we learned is anatomy and physiology, and that's anatomy and physiology about just the normal human body and how it is impacted by pregnancy, labour and birth. We also learn about the first clinical subjects, midwifery practice one and midwifery practice two, where we learn about the fundamental skills of being safe in clinical care, being safe in a hospital, and learning about how babies grow and how babies are born. And what we do is midwives to help facilitate a baby being born. We also learn about what it's like to be pregnant. What it's like to be a new parent there’s a wonderful subject called Transitions to Parenthood. And we learn about the enormity and the emotional concept of being a new parent. And we also learn a beautiful research subject, which helps us learn how to read research and to understand how research is utilized in clinical placement to better women's experiences and to improve outcomes. You can take me down to I love first year.

Deborah: Thank you, Bel. That was wonderful. And now I'm going to invite Katie to join me in this next question, which is when do placement start clinical placement start? Well, in our new curriculum, which starts next year, as I said, we're going to aim to get students out into clinical practice just for a bit of observation as early as possible. So as early as week three. But, Katie, I'm going to ask you to talk to the students about the processes of getting vaccinated and getting prepared for placement. It's extremely important that you all get on to this as early as possible. Katie, would you like to just summarize what the students need to do before they can attend hospital?

Katie: Yeah, no problem. First of all, I would just stress that once you've enrolled and had your offer, that you've accepted your offer into the course, you will start to get emails coming through asking you to provide us with compliance documentation. So this is documentation that New South Wales Health have to sign before you go on clinical. So you need to really keep an eye on those emails as they come in and action them with whatever is within the email. Now, the types of things that you will have to get are a police check. Now, these checks are valid for five years. So, yeah, so please check. You don't need a working with children check for this course. You will need, you will get, you will be provided with a vaccination record card, so things like a DTPA, which is the which is valid for 10 years. Sorry I won't go through all the details on this. But Hepatitis B, mumps, measles, rubella, varicella, that type of thing, that will all be documented either on a vaccination card or you can actually get that from the MyGov of your MyGov account Medicare immunization register. But we will obviously let you know all about that. This will also include the flu shot and it will include the Covid vaccine. And there are a few other documents that need to be submitted as well. And again, you'll get emails about all this and how you go about doing that. But then your package of documentation is sent through to New South Wales Health, who will verify you and check that everything is in order. And New South Wales health, as do the private hospitals, have a website that looks after student placements and student profiles. So obviously it’s all confidential. But they will then log off what you've what you've supplied and get you ready for becoming compliant in order to go on clinical. I have to stress, this part of the course is extremely important and it's very important to get that happening early, because once it's sorted, then you can enjoy the rest of the course, the theory, the clinical. And it's not a problem, but I'm obviously there to help you. I'm part of the clinical practice unit team based in Building 10 Faculty of Health normally or by phone or email. And we're obviously there to help you with all this this information as it gets rolled out.

Deborah: Thank you so much, Katie. Yes. And I think Katie's emphasized a very important point. When you enrol in the Bachelor of Midwifery, as in other health courses as well, you are enrolling in a professional degree. So there are professional requirements from day one. And if you don't adhere to those requirements, things like vaccinations and police checks and so forth, you actually can't start your clinical placement. So, for example, you may have read that all health professionals are required to have two doses of the Covid vaccine by the end of November, and that applies to students as well. So one thing you can do if you're keen to enrol in a health course is get yourself vaccinated as soon as possible. I'm going to turn to Jacqui now. Jacqueline, is there something you wish you knew before taking the course? If you've got some advice for people to a bit of a heads up?

Jacqueline: Yeah, so probably a few things. You need to be organized, like Katie said, one being organized with your vaccinations and that side of things. But I think the course is full time. It takes a lot of your time, but not always I'm not meaning that in a bad way. It just becomes consuming because you've become so passionate about everything, but I guess being organized in terms of knowing when your assignments are due. Knowing when you're on placement and being organized around that and coordinating whatever other aspects of your life may impact that and being organized with your continuity of care experiences. I think there's strategic ways in which well, there's ways in which you can be strategic about your continuity of care in terms of thinking about when they're due to having them do around a similar time. So that your on call, lets say maybe in September only, and you've got the rest of the year where you're not on call and all you've got is appointments and other placement. And I guess probably the other thing was I didn't realize how passionate I would become about women's health and providing women centered care. Yeah, like the continuity of care experience are just the best part of the degree. I think you get to form these relationships with women and support them throughout their pregnancy. You get to support them through their birth and then see them post-natally becoming parents and it's just amazing. I will say it can be hard being on call. I got a call at one 30 this morning and I helped a baby come into this world at four 01 this morning. So, yay, that's my second last one. So I'm excited about that. But yeah, it's I think the main thing is probably just to be organized, you know, having a really good support system around you, whether that be your family, some friends and you know, the peers that you will come into contact with, they are your support network and just knowing that they're there for you. So, yeah.

Deborah: Thank you very much, Jac, and how have you found doing the course with the young children?

Jacqueline: Look, I think if you'd asked me that in my first week of uni or even before I started, I would have been petrified and thought, oh, my gosh, how am I possibly going to manage this? But here I am now, I don't know, eight weeks out from finishing. And it's been like it's been completely manageable. It's, you know, yes, it's hard work, but I kind of liken it. I have young kids and that's my that's my situation, you know. The recent school leavers, they've probably got a part time job or, you know, everybody has their thing that keeps them busy. So I think if you just know your situation and know how you can manage it, that that's what got me through anyway. I don't know if that's very good advice, but, you know, the organization side of things for me was just. That had to be it.

Deborah: Thank you so much, Jac. We need to wrap up soon so we can take one more question or perhaps a comment from our professor, Kathleen Baird.

Kathleen: Thank you. Thank you, Deb. Look, I again, just want to thank everyone who's taking time out to join us on our virtual open day. Um a big thank you to the panellists who answered all of the questions superbly. I always say that midwifery is an absolute passion. I think it's really clear to see this morning how many passionate people are on this panel. We absolutely love what we do. And that's shines through. Midwifery is one just to me, the best profession ever. Like Deb, I came into midwifery late and like Jac I was an accountant before. So how funny is that? That maybe there's something in that? It was a best decision I ever made in my life. I was mid-thirties and yes, people wondered if I had I don't know how to was having an early midlife crisis to want to become a student from day one. I felt this was the right thing for me. So I just want to say don't be too scared. It's it can be daunting when you're thinking about starting a new career. But yes. Best thing. Best thing you can do.

Deborah: Thank you very much. Thank you, Kathleen. And I think there's one last question which Loretta is addressing via the text, so that's wonderful. Thank you all to our panellists. Thank you to marketing for your support today. And thank you, most importantly to those of you who attended.

Deborah: So there are other opportunities to talk to midwifery students and student admissions and lots more people until three o'clock today and also on Tuesday from four till seven. So please take advantage of that if you've got more questions. And you may also like to attend the information sessions for nursing, health, science and sport and exercise science and the creative, intelligent innovation courses later today. And we hope to see some of you next year. Thank you all. Bye bye.

Josey: [00:00:04] Hi, welcome to UTS Faculty of Health. Come join us for our midwifery lab tour.

Jacqueline: [00:00:07] Let's head in and have a look at the clinical facilities available for UTS midwifery students.

Josey: [00:00:19] This is a midwifery learning space where most of our practical classes are. We can simulate environments where midwives practice, such as the home, hospital and emergency care settings. We do specific midwifery clinical skills and simulate normal and complex births. The simulation resources let us reproduce a range of midwifery scenarios during the pregnancy, labour and birth and postnatal care period.

Jacqueline: [00:00:41] The lab is an ideal place to practice as it accurately represents hospital and community settings so you can safely make mistakes here and learn from them. We have a few different pieces of equipment here, such as the birth bath, the stool, the rope, the beanbag and also manikins.

Jacqueline: [00:00:58] And the Resuscitaire. An open warmer that can be used after birth to help the baby if they need help breathing or to be resuscitated. It is also used for sick premature and full term babies to keep them warm when they need to be nursed in the intensive care.

Josey: [00:01:14] We have birthing simulators and manikins which can actually birth a baby. SimNewB can display symptoms of respiratory distress and realistic breathing. As a midwife we'll look after the mother and baby up to six weeks post-natal.

Jacqueline: [00:01:27] Connected to this lab is a scrub room with wash bay, storage and prep area.

Josey: [00:01:39] Let's take you to our clinical teaching and examination room. This room can be used for activities such as simulated community antenatal visits. It can be used as a women's health or diabetes clinic or another health setting.

Jacqueline: [00:02:00] Now we're in a space called the community room. This concept lab is a flexible space. The space can be set up for a variety of different midwifery scenarios. It can be used for situations such as home visits, home births, alternative births or antenatal and postnatal appointments.

Josey: [00:02:19] It's important to mention that not all our learning happens in labs. There's a lot of theory, anatomy and physiology and critical thinking. We also have tutorials in classrooms to learn non-technical skills such as communication, collaboration and teamwork, which are essential to midwifery practice.

Jacqueline: [00:02:34] Just across the way is our student computer area.

Jacqueline: [00:02:40] This is the computer area. Health students can access the computers and printers every day from 8.00am until 10pm.

Jacqueline: [00:02:49] There's also plenty of desks and a number of bookable meeting rooms across this level, making it a popular space for group work and quiet independent study.

Josey: [00:03:01] On our way out, we'll take you past the student kitchenette where we've got a fridge, freezer and a microwave for students to use at any time.

Josey: [00:03:14] Well thank you so much for joining our tour. We hope you've enjoyed this insight into being a midwifery student at UTS.

Jacqueline: [00:03:19] See you at UTS soon.

 

Lee: First, I'd like to introduce the panel for today, I'm Lee Wallace, the course director of sport and exercise for the undergraduate program I've got with us here, you can see in the screen there we've got Rob Bower, the deputy head of school teaching and learning.

Rob: Hello all.

Lee: We've got Katie Slattery, a lecturer within our program, also comes to us with a wealth of industry experience. And we've got one of our best students, Tijana who's in our honours program now but did the undergrad sport and exercise science last year. She's going to give us some bit of her take on the student experience here as well.

Lee: So you can ask questions throughout, but I will be presenting the easiest time to answer those questions in the Q&A section at the end of the session so you can see on your screen there, you'll see that Q&A button, any questions that you might have just pop it into the chat and we'll answer them some questions. You might get a written response back and others we might group together if there's themes there. And between the panellists, the four of us will try and answer those questions as best that we can.

Lee: So why might you? You know what? That is what makes us so, so what is it? It's a professional field. Most teaching, training or business, anything. Relax those things with sport and exercise. So it's a quite a diverse field. There's a lot of variety of things that you can do in there. If we look at our rankings, just to give ourselves a plug, I guess, beginning of this session, why not? We're actually 29th in the world on the QS world rankings for subjects for twenty-twenty one. So it's considering how many universities that's quite high up. We're doing very well. And we've got a five and a five excellence in research there as well. So that's well above world standard there. So we've got both experience at a high level teaching and research.

Lee: Why study sport and exercise science? For a number of different reasons, and depending on which course you're interested in, it might have to do with the sport and exercise science for that people that like that, a scientific approach that applied focus, it might have to do with health rehabilitation, anything within that sport in this context. Describing delivering exercise in any way, testing, all that type of stuff, might be getting to that sport and exercise science that then you've also got the better sport and exercise management, which is all things blending sport and business. So there's a lot of diversity within that field there as well. People that interested in the business of sport and or even clients of the business, it's clients or managing athletes and things like that. So a real broad range of different things that we can do that.

Lee: So when I pass over to Rob for a little bit, who is our deputy head of school teaching and learning, as I said before, to give us a little bit of a run through of the structure of the course of. Thanks, Rob.

Rob: Yeah thanks, Lee. So Lee’s given the broad overview of the two degrees there, I'm going to break that down into three parts and give you a little bit more detail about where they can lead. And Katie will expand on that a little bit later on. So the Standard Sport and Exercise science degree has two options in terms of majors. There is an exercise science major and the no specific major option. The exercise science major is accredited with ESSA. So, ESSA stands for Exercise in Sports Science Australia. They're our governing body for sport and exercise courses. And that enables you to become an accredited exercise scientist, which simply means you can prescribe exercise to apparently healthy people in the community. Now, that degree also pathways into other options in the master's level, such as the high performance sport, the Master of physiotherapy, which we know is a very popular pathway, or you can become an accredited exercise physiologist or a sports scientist with further study, the no specific major option. There are pathways into the Master of high performance sport, but it was designed to give you the option to go on Global Exchange, which is a semester overseas of study in lieu of being at UTS for one one of these sessions.

Rob: The second option that's already come up now in red is the bachelor sport and exercise science with an exercise therapy major. Now, it's the same sort of degree, but it's actually a different UAC code. And you can see there that the ATAR for that degree is around ninety nine, whereas the item for the first one I spoke about was around 86. Now, this particular exercise therapy major, which stems from a different UAC code, is a guaranteed pathway into the Master of Physiotherapy. That's why it's very popular and that's why the ATAR market is so high. So students can go straight into the master physiotherapy provided they maintain a credit average and conduct a successful internal interview. But the other accreditations with ESSA and the other pathways are also available to that degree.

Rob: The third option is the Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Management. Slightly lower ATAR it's not accredited with ESSA, but it's for those people who want to learn more about the business and manage the experience of sport and exercise. It certainly has a global exchange of option, and it also pathways into the Master of Physiotherapy with the correct electives, as well as the Master of High Performance sport. So three separate options there.

Rob: Now, students often choose to combine their degrees with international studies. So whether you're doing the exercise science or exercise management degree, you can add two more years and include a Bachelor of International Studies. So will be five years full time and the fourth of those years would be overseas. So you get to learn another language, another culture, and you get to experience one full year in another country, which a lot of students really do enjoy. Or you could combine it with the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation, which adds one more year. So four years in total, which gives you access to more innovative, creative and entrepreneurial outcomes.

Rob: Some of our students like to do both degrees, and it is possible with the right electives in structuring your course accordingly to complete both the Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science and Sport and Exercise Management degrees in four years. Now, we can't guarantee that. But most students who are keen to do that have done so successfully.

Rob: So what's involved in our courses? Well, we take a blended learning approach, so it's a mixture of online modules and face to face learning. A lot of the exercise science is done in laboratories. But both the exercise science and exercise management type content includes laboratories and tutorial work. We also pride ourselves on the practical experience. So there is an extensive internship and practical program built into the third year that prepares you to work with real clients and real people and real organizations. We encourage group work. We encourage independent study as needed. And obviously, university is a great time of your life. The campus life and extracurricular activities, the clubs and societies, we really encourage you to get involved with. Schools tough, once you get to university. If you stay on top of your work, you can really enjoy that period of your life, as well as learn skills in at uni and in industry.

Rob: So what's the content in the degree? Well, the main content stems from structural anatomy and biomechanics, and these lead into physiology, strength and conditioning, learning how to prescribe exercise. Students enjoy the sports, psychology and nutrition components and the more advanced level exercise rehabilitation. We also have some sociology type subjects, assessment, prescription and delivery of exercise and for the management people, managing professional sport, sport marketing and sport media are major parts of the course.

Rob: Now we have a very new and sophisticated facility at Moore park. It's only three years old. It's an amazing 70 million dollar building that has been designed, purpose built for our course and we share that building with Rugby Australia as well. And we're surrounded by incredible industry such as the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Sydney Swans. Occasionally we have some of the T20 clubs coming to our building and share some of our facilities with us. But within that building, we have exercise physiology labs, motor learning labs, biomechanics labs. It is a phenomenal facility which will enable you to have an opportunity to learn all about your sport and exercise management and sport and exercise science. And certainly in most welcome to come and have a look at the facility when when allowed.

Rob: So there's a couple more images. The one on that left there, if you just go back, Lee, you can see that there is a rooftop running track. So part of our learning happens on the roof. City views in the background, but we've got a designated running track there that enables you to capture some of the data and learn in that beautiful environment on the roof.

Lee: I think that really some of these pictures don't do it. Don't do it justice. It really is a magnificent facility. You know, as you look through the indoor, you know, as an indoor basketball court, there is strength and conditioning gym, fantastic composition lab where you do Texas scans, really like one of the main strengths of this program really is the facilities and just perfect hub it is fantastic.

Rob: And we all love teaching their Lee. It's a thrill for us to to work and teach and research there. t's it's something that we feel very privileged about. And, you know, I look forward to our students coming to class and sharing that with them. So I'm going to pass on to Katie now.

Katie: OK, thank you, Rob. So what you can see here is just a few examples of the professional placements that you can do through UTS, as Rob mentioned, we're right in the hub of sport in Sydney. So you can see in the picture we've got students working with the rugby sevens team, with the Sydney Swans and also more recently, we've really invested, you know, work integrated learning team where they actually will coordinate placements for you. And these might be in professional sport. They may also be in a health setting. And as part of your third year where one of the keys of work integrated learning, is you going to bring together all the knowledge and the skills that you've learned in the first two years and practically apply them. And we have got a telehealth practice and also a project-based learning. So these are just more examples of some of our industry engagement. As you can see, a range of sports, not just in Australia internationally as well. And so plenty of opportunity for you to, I suppose, experience what working in sport is really like for people that that really do it.

Lee: Yeah, I think that Katie makes an excellent point there. You've got obviously the integration of all these fantastic collaborations that we work with, but we’ve also got that teaching staff intertwined through all their research into all these different areas, which is really strengthens both, you know, both your involvement in that sport and exercise to the area, but also the teaching coming down from you, from your lecturers as well, which, you know, in some ways have a lot to do with these clubs. So know, I think that's an excellent advantage.

Katie: Well, and I suppose to go one step further, like most of those clubs that you can see on the screen in the last lot, they've got UTS alumni working for them now, as well.

Lee: That’s right. So opportunities that they’ve done something during their undergrad that's gone on to, you know land them in some kind of job or something, down the line in a career that they really you know what, it was a dream job for them.

Katie: OK, so I suppose if you do decide to come to UTS we we pride ourselves on really supporting the students. So we've got a student centre which is there to help you with any questions that you got about your course. We also have higher education and language presentation support, which is called HELPS timetable planning, online learning, which is really opening doors and letting you do uni at your own pace. And we also have an excellent library with lots of, you know, databases, online resources and really helpful librarians.

Katie: And so what what do people, when they're finished a degree, look like they look like Tjiana should excite a little bit more. But I think what what all these attributes are really showing is just that you don't just have knowledge. You can apply your knowledge. You've got the skills to be adaptable. You understand the the basic mechanism so you can adapt to any situation, especially through our work integrated learning, your communication and your ability to just step straight into a straight into the real world would be there. You can critically think, your ethic, ethical and responsible, and I suppose always tie into having like strong leadership skills. Plus also like as UTS as a university, we we really do pride ourselves on indigenous cultural respect as well.

Katie: So what type of jobs can you get? I won't read them all out, but in the sport industry, sports scientist, conference manager, you can continue on and be sort of a tertiary lecturer, sports coaching and leadership athlete development. So in the sports industry, you can go from high performance to grassroots level. In the health and fitness industry that's where exercise, scientists, personal training, exercise, rehabilitation. There's really a range of jobs to do with exercise that you can progress to in the future.

Katie: And then if we've got sport and exercise management careers, so within the sport industry, you've got event management, sports marketing working for NSOs. When I was working at En Swisse, we had a large number of UTS graduates that were sports consultants and sort of program managers. You got to play welfare and sports media, sports analytics. Then if you look to the health and fitness industry, that's where you can be a fitness centre manager looking to occupational health and safety management, just to name a few things.

Lee: Wow. Thanks, Katie. I'll take it from here and talk about what this can also pay for as part of postgraduate programs and articulating degrees. So first one is people interested in Masters of High Performance Sport and applied Exercise Physiology. These degrees came prepare you for for those. So a sport and exercise management degree with it, depending on which degree you've done and the electives that you choose to open up, different often options for you. So if you went into the sport and exercise management degree and you picked specific electives in third year, can prepare you for Masters of our High Performance pathway, now important to note with these pathways, that competitive pathway. So looking at it, none of it's like guaranteed. But, you know, based on mock interviews, things like that experience, a lot of different factors come into play here, but it definitely to prepare you for those Postgraduate degrees.

Lee: Now another one here is that sport and exercise science to exercise therapy, major. Also preparing you for that high performance sport pathway and might also pay for a Masters of Applied Exercise Physiology. Now, we don't actually offer the applied exercise physiology at UTS, but it can open up those gateways for you at other universities as well.

Lee: Finally, for sport and exercise science with the exercise therapy major, again, can lead you on to that. Among the High-Performance Sport athletes or elsewhere, and can also leave the door open for access to Masters of Applied Exercise Physiology.

Lee: Elsewhere now, a big one that a lot of people are always interested in is in the physiotherapy articulation. Again, it depends on what degree you've done and the electives that you've done within it. So if you did a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Management with select electives, so giving those selected, that means that we've got a range of electives. You would have to pick specific electives, give you a competitive chance that this application process, again, during this pathway, the admission is not guaranteed, but based on, again, grade, experience, number of slots at that given time. A number of factors really come into play here, but yes, it is possible to prepare you for that pathway.

Lee: When you look at the Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science with the exercise science major, again, the pathway to the Master of Physiotherapy, that is, again, a competitive application admission not guaranteed, but do not your portfolio interviews, grades experience, it can leave you with a great chance of getting into that.

Lee: Now, a little bit different is our Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science with exercise therapy, major. So this is the UTS Master of Physiotherapy, guaranteed pathway subject to grades, credit average and successful interview, which happens in the second year. Now, this is the most competitive. So you'll notice from Robbs, break down the predecease ideas and stuff. This would have the highest within that program out there that you see on the screen. And this competitiveness in the amount of spots there are available. So there's less spots available in this particular degree. But if you do get into that degree, then you've got that guaranteed pathway subject to those credit average and successful interview in the second year. So if you're not sure, this is is a lot of different ways to get to different places. So I know that was just a whole lot. You thinking which one's me? So really, just depending on what you're interested in, look at the you know, read the different guides, say get real understanding of exactly what you need to do anything possible, but just go through what the actual rules are for each one, what you need to do, electives you need to pick to get to where you want to be.

Lee: Now, when we look at the alumni success, we always love telling our success stories. So we've had some really great alumni. These next couple of slides I’m going to show you is this. We've just picked a handful of our previous students. These are all people that came through our sport and exercise science or management program. You can see Katie there on the screen tracking endurance coach for psych program for New South Wales Institute of Sport. So she came to us, did her undergraduate and PhD at UTS. And went away for a while, got that industry experience. She’s nodding on the screen there. Then worked with interest in elite cycling teams and then came back. And now she's combining that industry experience with her job also as a lecturer. We've got Rob Spurrs up there, he is one of the great success stories. He was the physical performance management television coach, the Sydney Swans for almost 10 years. I think it's some like he's really been up there for a long time. You've got other things like operations managers that swans even have TV personalities you know Amy Wilkins come through the program. We've got. I'm not getting going to name more. It's actually it's exciting when I start reading. I get excited I’m think geez we’ve done all this. So if you actually go through and have a look at some of these jobs, you’re thinking man they really are top jobs in the sport and exercise field, high performance director for the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA, depending on what sport you're interested in, really just opens up all kinds of opportunities. I mean, look here at Johan Bilsborough, Boston Celtics director of sports science, at Boston Celtics and New England Patriots. That is one of the biggest success stories there. Those jobs are just fantastic. So, look, we just we've just I've just I guess I've just named a few there, but if you've got a chance to go through and read some of those success stories, that we're very proud of them. And and, you know, they regularly still work with us throughout the program. And and it's it's a great way of learning. You know, they're out there in the world down, bringing back what they've done often to us as well. So that's fantastic.

Lee: So how do I apply? Depending on where you're coming from, what you're doing, recent school leavers you apply through UAC with your Atar and also looking, you know, there's opportunities to qualify for additional UTS points schemes. So definitely look at those point schemes, get up to five points automatically apply based on your performance in select 12 subjects. So Atar plus potential for bonus points. The non-recent school leavers is the competitive entry where you're looking at previous academic experience, coupled with any tertiary education that you might have and or any other experience that you might have had in the industry. So it's a different form of entry, but getting all the same access, you were looking at all those different things in the entry.

Lee: So where do you apply it to apply through UAC? You can see it on on the on the screen, the UAC.edu.au and remember those applications close to the end of September. So just be sure you watch that deadline. You don't want to be late. Also, look up if there's an opportunity for early entry and things like that for all those real fine details really go into that. You can look at that early entry. See whether you are eligible for one of those subjects or early entry into into those courses as well.

Lee: That's the I mean, that's very fast run through, probably doesn't do it all justice. But rather than getting into the nitty gritty, we're going to open the floor to some questions. And so you've got an opportunity here to write any questions into that Q&A box. And we’ll be scrolling through, doing our best to answer them. Might just we haven't done one thing just while we're waiting on some of these questions to get through. I just ask Tjiana as our student representative, what did you like best about the subject, your time in your art degree?

Tjiana: Definitely the building. Being able to come to uni every day in that amazing building was a absolute bonus. And the fact that it was separate to the rest of the city campus, I found created a bit more of a homey experience. I think all the academics and staff were absolutely so welcoming. Right from the beginning. And I felt at home as soon as I walked in the doors. And another thing that was a huge positive was the hands on experience that the students were provided from day dot. I remember my first anatomy lesson ever. I was thrown right into a room with a whole bunch of different models. And, yeah, just really set the scene, I guess, for a very interactive and practical degree.

Lee: All right, that's. So I'm just going to have to take through some of these. You can see the questions starting to pile up here. So I'll just take a couple at random here. You mentioned international placements of a top to you mentioned international placements. Are there any overseas universities that you have a relationship with, someone who studies have you Rob?

Rob: Yes, there is a department at UTS that looks after all this. I do have some specific relationships with certain universities. I'm not going to list them on the top off the top of my head, but that is a good if that's relevant and significant to you. It's a good question to ask. The International Studies Group. But our students have been to parts of Europe, parts of USA, parts of Asia, that they are the main sorts of places. And someone's also asked along the same lines about the international studies, are there pathways if you aren't able to get the 96 Atar. With all these things, if you don't get the data, you want to get into some sort of university degree and do well. And if you have one year of successful study, you can often reapply through UAC and they'll rework your atar in accordance with your results and that may help you get into a course like this. So we would suggest you get into the three year degree to start with and try and get really good results in your first year and then reassess after that.

Lee: All right. Well, while I've got you there, Rob, this one here was mentioned before about studying both sport and exercise management, as well as sport and exercise science. How do students pursue this?

Rob: Yes. So essentially we have got information on our website to show students how to strategically work through their degree so that they can complete both those degrees in four years. But it does require you to reapply for the second degree through you UAC. Now, if you complete the first degree successfully, you will get into the second degree. If you complete the first degree with with several fails throughout the course will have very poor results then you may not get into the second degree. But essentially getting through the first degree and then applying through UAC, you're virtually certain of getting into the second degree and and then the remaining subjects, you have to do a minimum of eight subjects to complete that second degree. So if you Google and search our website, you'll see how much detail we've put into helping students do that.

Rob: I'll answer the one about professional placements to do with volleyball as well.

Lee: Rob’s volleyballer, the by the way, everyone.

Rob: I used to be.

Rob: Yeah. So sport and exercise management students will do the internship and you can choose whatever you want. You can use your own contacts or you can use our contacts to sport and exercise science. You have to meet the requirements of the ESSA guidelines. So if there are apparently healthy people involved in volleyball, which I'm sure there are, you could certainly work with volleyball athletes and then you could do the remainder of your placement with a volleyball association. That would be fine. I'm not sure if we have any in our list, but students can organize their own, so there's no problem there.

Rob: I might answer while I see another one in my domain, can you switch from the exercise science major to the exercise therapy major, if you don't get the required data, that is actually quite difficult because the item for exercise therapy is very high. So you would need to be outstanding in the exercise science degree with the exercise science major to have a chance of achieving that. It's much harder to do it, to do it that way. But obviously getting an ATAR of 99 is also difficult, but it just reflects how competitive and how highly desired that particular pathway is.

Lee: Well, might get here’s one might get Katie, to answer as being one of the leading researchers? What is the honours program and what types of research can you do?

Katie: So, yeah, the honours program is an additional year after you finish your undergrad, and really the research you can do is anything to do with sport and exercise science. So, for example, one of my honours students, he is he's had an embedded role at En Swisse with the swimming program, and his research project is having a look at and really closely analysing what swimming training they do. t's sort of like using heart rate monitoring. Other subjects. Well, Tjiana herself, she's doing honours. Do you want to tell everyone what you're doing?

Tjiana: Sure. So my research is looking at high intensity multimodal training, which encompasses things like cross fit, functional training, HIIT, boot camp and group circuits. And I'm looking at the long-term effects of that on health and fitness outcomes, as well as how people are responding in terms of like their psychology and subjective response to exercise.

Lee: And doing a fantastic job as well, what have you got about four months left. The hardest four months.

Tjiana: 10 weeks.

Lee: Well, what's is it October…

Tjiana: 10 weeks,

Lee: 10 weeks, woah better get a move on.

Katie: But I suppose essentially with with the honours, it's all about linking up with a supervisor that's got expertise in the area and you can work with them towards the research that interests you the most.

Lee: Yeah, I think this first one, this question we had, what is this difference of sport exercise science and sport and exercise management versus the Bachelor of Sport and Exercise? Sorry. Let me start again. Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Management versus the Bachelor of Management in sports business. I might have a crack at answering that. It's really, I guess, the amount of business, if you did The Bachelor of Management, sports business, the amount of business is higher in that degree. What our Bachelor of Exercise Sports Management offers is more of a mix between the actual sport science and the management. So you're picking up a lot of those sports science subjects. So the knowledge that you have about actual sports science and then you're adding the management flavour to it. So the major difference would be I just want asset management, a mix of sort of the human body outworks a lot with the business and management side of things compared to the management sports business, which is a lot more of the management and not so much of the actual human body and the components of lifestyle in that. I think that would be the best way to describe it, Rob.

Rob: Yes, that's a good. That's correct. Yes. So we we want our sport and exercise management students to understand the human body in general terms so that if they're managing a facility or exercise, they have an understanding of both the business processes and what the client is experiencing and that's probably the main difference. The next question's probably good one for you to answer, Lee, and it's would this be the course to do if you had an interest in exercise physiology?

Lee: I mean, absolutely. If you had a really interesting exercise physiology, it'd be the you'd be looking at the sport and exercise science would be the better fit there. There's a lot of subjects within that degree that target specifically around excess physiology. We've got, you know, start off with the physiological basis of human movements of type subjects, looking at the cells and structures within the body. We've got some basic anatomy in there, maybe functional anatomy. Then you start actual exercise physiology as a subject, moving right up to applied exercise physiology. And in these types of subjects, you've got people running on treadmills, you're taking heart rate, you’re taking lactates, you're looking at the temperature, you know, and then you can also we also do experiments in labs where you're putting people on to different conditions. So you have labs or you might be wanting to heat suits. You know, we've got we've got one of the environments that we have as an environment room within the doing where we crank the heat up on people say you sweat dripping out of you and see what happens to you under different conditions. So really, if you're into exercise physiology. The there are so many questions within the in the within the degree that you would find quite exciting thinking all about the body in different toxic environments.

Rob: I might take the next couple of questions quickly lead because they are starting to fall out. So there is a question about employment after graduation and what percentage. So we like to see around 60 percent get employed. That varies from year to year. But some of our students also use the year after they finish just to explore the world and have some time to themselves, and then their employment opportunities will come later.

Rob: How many students are typically typically in these courses? So we would take approximately two hundred and fifty in sport and exercise science, let's say 100 in sport exercise management, and perhaps 40 odd in the exercise therapy major.

Rob: What how much control do students have over where their placement is? Quite a bit in in the internship. Almost 100 per cent for the exercise science in ESSA accredited pathways. You have to meet the requirements of ESSA. So you could still have that control yourself. We're happy for you to organize that where you can fit in with our programs. And in fact, we've been doing telehealth in recent times because of the Covid scenario and to maintain the accreditation.

Rob: And in terms of contact, hours for both degrees will be the same pretty much. There's typically four subjects a session. A session typically goes for 12 weeks plus exams. And you would typically do four subjects each session. And each subject of actual online and face to face content would be about three hours. So it's 12 to 13 hours of actual formal learning. But for every hour of formal learning, we recommend an additional two hours of your own learning and practice. So you can do the math on that.

Lee: So theres an interesting what it says has practical work, has been affected with Covid, oh man we've had a range of we've had to adjust in all kinds of different ways. And and depending on what stage of Covid are we talking about, everything we've done is, you know, with the health of everyone. So and following the health advice. So we've had situations where we've had to move some classes online, at different stages with being able to do practical based things, but with social distancing and and mask requirements  in place. So depending on everything we do is always under the health advice to make sure everyone's safe.

Rob: Katie, would you like to answer this question about what if I'm not entirely sure what I want to do in health and fitness? What advice would you give to figure this out?

Katie: I suppose if you if you like health and fitness, this is a course that would help you in a career that health and fitness. But understanding also that there's other pathways and courses that you could do. So I think it's really hard to to give you something specific other than to say that I mean, I started when I was an undergrad student, I actually did the sport and exercise management. And and I didn't know really what I wanted to do, but I knew that I really loved exercise and sport. And so I'm like, I'm pretty sure that doing this degree is going to give me a qualification. And it's an area that I that I really enjoy. So I can't go to wrong.

Rob: Thanks, Katie. There's a question about part time study. Yes, you can. You can get into your degree and you can spread it out over four, five or six years if you want. There is a limit of 10 years. Not that anyone goes that far.

Rob: And the next question for sport and exercise management, are you able to pursue careers where you are technical directors of clubs or manage the programs, the sporting organizations? Absolutely. A university degree is a higher form of education than what you could achieve through coaching type awards. However, we always encourage students to specialize as appropriate and in terms of what their interests are and to follow through the pathways that each particular club requires. If there are such things to to meet their requirements as well. But you would certainly be prepared for that.

Lee: I'll look at the course and pathways that some of the alumni I mentioned, I mean, really those alumni got into those places in all kinds of different way, in all kinds, different ways, in in the two specific cases we’ve got here? Johan came into our post graduate program, and Tom Kempton was a sport and exercise science that went through on his program, ended up doing an exercise physiology and now working with the eh

Katie: Carlton.

Lee: Carlton yeah. So, yeah, we're really diverse backgrounds, to be honest. Are all of those different pathways. They all came. Everyone had a different approach starting off in different places and ending up in different places. Get anywhere if you really want to. That's why we've answered the question about choosing your placement.

Rob: Some a few people have asked that. So what do the assessments look like in these degrease? Well, assessments vary from exams of which there are less and less to practical assessments. Katie, do you want to maybe describe a couple of the practical assessments in your area? Because they they're the interesting ones and practical showed.

Katie: Yeah for sure, so in exercise prescription two of the major assessment pieces, one is a practical skills test, where you, as the name suggests, we assess how you take skin folds, how you run testing, how you deliver strength and conditioning coaching. And then the other major assessment piece is the training project, where your partner into groups of two and you get to develop an evidence informed training program for for your client. So you get the experience of really understanding what the literature says and practically applying it, but in a really safe setting because it's just on one of your classmates. So there are two key things that we look for in exercise description, and I'm pretty sure many of you are. I think you'll have prac skill tests with most of your subjects from second year onwards.

Rob: A question, someone is asked about whether students can use the facilities for recreation? Yes, we have an indoor gym like a sports hall that can definitely be used for recreation when it comes to the strength and conditioning room, which is an amazing room, not for recreation, but you can for learning purposes. So essentially in a coaching sense, where you and your other students or peers goes in there or one one is exercising, the other one is observing or instructing or giving feedback. You can do that after you have completed or at some stage during your first year of study. We allow that.

Lee: And those facilities are used heavily in class to say, like, you know, one of the main advantages of this degree is the use of the facilities within all our classes. So we're regularly in the gym, the sports hall, using all the facilities to help with our learning.

Rob: There’s a question about exercise science, major, getting into physiotherapy, I'll answer this from the perspective of both exercise science major and people in the sports management degree, because they both pathway in a physio. It is competitive, our students, because they are familiar with UTS and they get a good training through our degree. They do have a reasonable chance, but there are a lot of applicants. So we might get 10 to 15 students through from those degrees into physiotherapy from each year. For the exercise therapy major, the first couple of times everyone got in, I think last year a couple missed out because of their interview. But otherwise, the odds are very, very strong once you got into that exercise therapy, major.

Rob: The AEP question Lee, would you like to answer that?

Lee: AEP with ah pursuing a career in AEP, you need to fill the requirements, so a lot of that is done through the course, but then in order to get your AEP, there's additional studies and things that you need to add on. So this is a great starting place they all require. This is a starting place. And then if education is an add on in that clip, the setting to be awarded with your AEP. So, yeah, great start. Get to three quarters of the way there and then tacking on a little bits afterwards to see the rest of the way.

Rob: You can't do a master's in AEP unless you've done an undergraduate and completed the AES. That's the pathway part, which we which we've set up.

Rob: Is that hard for mature age students to obtain a placement? No. Mature age students probably find it easier to obtain a placement because they've got more experience and industry experience. So we welcome them. We've had people in their sixties do our course and do it successfully, and people who are medical practitioners come and do our course as well, because they want to learn about exercise as health.

Lee: Some of the best students are often the mature age students. They've gone away, and this time they've really honed in on what they want to do and they come back in the hard to beat if they are in your in your in year?

Rob: Do you need to have a PhD to get better jobs working with professional athletes and clubs? Katie, what do you think?

Katie: Well, I just I saw that question and I had to look at our alumni, and most of them do have a PhD. And most of them started the day but haven't finished. That includes Rob Spurrs. So, look, it's not it's not a requirement, but it is a great foot in the door. And if you can do an industry embedded PhD, you get not only the benefit of understanding research and, I suppose, problem solve and understand data and whether or not the exercise or whatever intervention you're doing is having a real impact or not. But in saying that there are plenty of people working in sport without a PhD.

Lee: I think we we always have the we always have the the dilemma. We get students and they begin doing a PhD and then might be embedded in like a sporting environment or with the team and then the team thinks geez I want to employ this person they are so good. And then they're caught in the middle. Do I keep working, finish the PhD off and try and juggle them both. And usually they get it, just takes a little bit longer because they're working and studying at the same time. But in those instances, they end up with their dream job. So it's a couple of a lot of success stories come from that way.

Rob: There's a nice specific question here about whether you need to do the international studies degree to be able to get jobs in major sporting competitions such as the Olympics and the World Cup. You certainly don't have to, but it would that would be the sort of space where it would definitely help, particularly if you've picked up another language through that for the degree. But there would be it's not a compulsory thing. No, it just would be a helpful thing. And another person has asked about the ESSA qualification related to the sport and exercise science degree. It is the it's considered an AES is so accredited exercise scientist, you have to do additional work to get the sports scientist accreditation with ESSA beyond your Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science degree.

Lee: Well, I think we are done here today. We're going to have to conclude this session now. But I'd like to thank all the panellists, Rob Tjiana, Katie, for being with us today for your insights, I'm sure will help those prospective students out there to make a decision. Just on your screen you can see other sessions and open days available at UTS. There's one on one live of chats where you can talk to sport and access on students with time and dates there and the 2pm info session. For those interested in international studies and two o'clock for those interested in the Bachelor of Cretaive Intelligence and Innovation.

Lee: So that concludes this session, but thanks to everyone and we look forward to seeing you in the future, even though we can actually see you now, but we look forward to seeing you in the future if you choose your sport and exercise science as your preference. thanks, everyone, for coming today.

Rob: See you later. All. All the best with the rest of school. And we look forward to seeing you at UTS. Take care.

Tijana: [00:00:04] Hi, welcome to UTS Faculty of Health and welcome to our tour of the Moore Park precinct. This facility was built in partnership with Rugby Australia, Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust.

Jesse: [00:00:15] Here at Moore Park, UTS, we're extremely lucky to be surrounded by elite high performance sports, such as rugby league, rugby union, cricket and AFL. Let's come and look inside and see what's available here at UTS for Sport and Exercise students.

Tijana: [00:00:32] Our first stop is one of our two exercise physiology teaching labs.  Both of these labs have rowing ergometers, cycle ergometers and treadmills for practical learning. They also have technology for v02 max testing, lactate threshold and blood ph.

Jesse: [00:00:47] Now we have arrived in the biomechanics teaching lab. In our biomechanics classes, we use these computers here for interpretation of movement analysis data that has been collected in the biomechanics research lab upstairs. This room also allows for force plate demonstrations in class, and more.

Tijana: [00:01:01] We have a number of these general teaching spaces for tutorials. Most tutorials for Sport and Exercise students are held at Moore Park, while some are held at the city campus, and some online. As you can see, we have a number of flat screen TVs available for students to plug in laptops to work on group assignments during class.

Jesse: [00:01:21] The sports hall is also on this level.

Jesse: [00:01:29] This is a versatile space used for teaching, performances, events or indoor sports, such as basketball, netball and volleyball. The change rooms and showers are just outside. And as students, we can use this space when it's not being used for teaching.

Tijana: [00:01:45] Now we're in the resistance training room. This is where Sport and Exercise students get practical experience, supervising and prescribing exercise. We also learn the fundamentals of coaching and performing power and Olympic lifts.

Jesse: [00:01:57] Now let's go look at the research labs.

Alana: [00:02:04] Hi there. This is the first of the Sport and Exercise research labs. This is the exercise physiology and biochemistry research Lab. It's equipped with treadmills, a range of exercise bikes and devices that assess physiological responses to exercise.

Zoi: [00:02:21] Now let's come through to the environmental lab. So this is a special sealed room that controls temperature and humidity, and that way researchers can investigate the effects of the environmental conditions during athletic performance.

Zoi: [00:02:34] This is a biomechanics research lab.

Alana: [00:02:36] Using technology that digitises movement, researchers can measure the impact of speed and other forces placed on the body during exercise. There's a lot of high-tech equipment like the Biodex machine, which can be used to identify and document physical impairments that can be used for pre-season screening, injury prevention and performance enhancement.

Alana: [00:02:54] There are motion and force plates in the ground, which are used for gait and motion analysis, kinesiology, ergonomics, as well as sport and performance analysis. 2D and 3D motion analysis cameras digitise movement so that researchers can analyse gait, sport performance and skill performance.

Zoi: [00:03:12] So this is a skill acquisition and motor control research lab. So in here, this is a flexible space that can be used in a variety of ways in order to measure and develop perceptual-cognitive skills for high performance athletes and officials. Depending what you're using this room for, we have a running track, a vision projection wall and 3D motion analysis technology.

Zoi: [00:03:34] Head cameras and eye tracking glasses are used by researchers to understand how athletes move and interact.

Zoi: [00:03:41] This room is sometimes set up with drum kits, and that way we can test an athlete's coordination and decision making skills when on field. We in class, have in fact used these drum kits so that we can solve coordination problems.

Alana: [00:03:55] This special room is the body composition lab. In here is the dual energy X-ray or DEXA machine. It measures athletes' bone density, muscle and fat content, providing an assessment of body composition that feeds into both health and performance outcomes. Now let's head upstairs.

Tijana: [00:04:17] So we've reached the top floor. Up here and more classrooms, student meeting areas, a student lounge and kitchen.

Jesse: [00:04:25] And this is our final stop, the rooftop terrace.

Jesse: [00:04:30] Out here this open-air running track is used for practical assessment of speed and acceleration of athletes. Up here we also have expansive views of the Sydney skyline, including the UTS Tower building.

Tijana: [00:04:38] Well thanks so much for joining us on our tour. We hope you've enjoyed this insight into being a Sport and Exercise student at UTS.

Jesse: [00:04:44] We'll see you at UTS soon.

Daniel: All right, I think we are ready now. So good afternoon, everyone, and thank you very much for joining us today for our online info session for the Bachelor of Health Science here in the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Daniel: To start the session, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation upon whose ancestral lands our city campus now stands. I would also like to pay respect to the elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land.

Daniel: I'd like to bring to your attention that we'll be recording today's session and by taking part today that you give us consent to process any information that you may share during our information session.

Daniel: My name is Dr Daniel Demant, I am a Senior Lecturer in the school of public health, and I am also the course director of the Bachelor of Health Science. I am an epidemiologist by training, and I also teach subjects that are around public health, health promotion, as well as introduction to bio statistics and similar subjects.

Daniel: I also have a couple of colleagues here, as well as a student, and I would like them to introduce themselves. And we are starting with Klaus Gebel, who is also Senior Lecturer.

Klaus: Hi, everyone. I'm a Senior Lecturer and similar to Daniel, I'm mainly working in epidemiology, and my main area of interest is physical activity and public health, and I am the course director of the Master of Public Health.

Daniel: Then we have Bernard Saliba.

Bernard: Hi everyone, my name is Bernard. I am a lecturer and teaching fellow in the Bachelor of Health Science.

Daniel: And it does seem like we have the same problem a lot of people have experienced over the last one and a half months, probably seeing how important a good Internet connection is.

Daniel: And it does seem like Bernard's internet connection, is not one of those good internet connections today because it's stuck. But at least the picture we see of him being stuck is not too embarrassing. But then we also have Emma with us, Emma would you like to introduce yourself?

Emma: Yeah. Hi, I'm Emma. And I'm a second-year student of a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in pharmacology. And I've been lucky enough to have Daniel, Klaus and Bernard all as my tutors throughout my degree already and yeah here to answer your questions.

Daniel: Thank you so much Emma. Now, today's session is also your opportunity to ask us your questions about studying at UTS. If you do have any questions, please just type them into the Q&A box in your Zoom control panel at the very bottom. You can see a picture on the screen, and we will respond to them after the post presentation. If you have a lot of questions, you might receive your answer in text reply from one of the panellists or from the amazing Faculty of Health marketing team, who are also here to helps us moderate the Q&A. Being an online event please bear with us if there any technical issues such as Bernard being stuck and not being able to introduce himself. And we will work to resolve them as quickly as possible and if we actually can resolve them. If you find yourself not being able to access the webinar at any point, please just log out and log back in, that usually resolves such issues.

Bernard: Daniel, I'm able to introduce myself if you can hear me now.

Daniel: Oh, perfect. Now we can hear you then.

Bernard: Hi, so I'm a Lecturer in the School of Public Health and also a scholarly teaching fellow. I teach subjects in first, second and third year around diversity and culture, health promotion, advocacy, global human rights and health communication. I have logged in to zoom on my phone, so I'll be speaking here, listening to you here, and then using the camera on my computer.

Daniel: Awesome, thank you so much Bernard. Now, one of the few things people always ask us actually what is health science. So health science can be described as a non-clinical field, but aimed to improve the health of individuals and populations. In health sciences professionals work to improve human health across advocacy, education, planning and policy. So what that exactly means probably is going to be much clearer at the end of this presentation after we have shown you a couple of the subjects that are part of this course, as well as the majors we are offering as part of the Bachelor of Health Sciences.

Daniel: So why do people actually choose to study this course. Obviously, Emma is going to say a little bit more, but once I'm done with this presentation on why she chose to do the Bachelor of Health Sciences, but overall, there are a lot of students and we always get the feedback and we are taking that into account in the way we are teaching the course and the way we are designing this course. And one of the things always people say is that health sciences is something that is extraordinarily flexible and very innovative. It is always going with the time, there's always something really new. At the end of the course, people are really engaged into their particular field of health sciences and are very adaptive thinkers. We have a lot of subjects that are very tailored to suit your interests and what do you actually want to do as your career later on. You can also use our course as a preparation for entering postgraduate studies, such as UTS Master of Physiotherapy and a lot of other entry Masters in Health, both at UTS as well as other universities. It does give you a qualification where you can make a difference across a range of settings and in various different contexts, various different populations and health issues. Overall in our degree we have a very strong emphasis on the social model of health. So taking into account whole society works and what we have to make sure that people actually are getting control over their own health. And we are giving you the knowledge and stop to think naturally and globally and understand what the global aspects of health mean for the national and local ageing and local health care system works.

Daniel: So here just these statistics about the Bachelor of Health Sciences. And you can also see that we not only have the Bachelor of Health Sciences as the degree by itself, but we also offering double degrees, for example, the Bachelor of Health Sciences with the Bachelor of International Studies, which gives you a lot of good teachers and spend a whole year overseas. Pandemic restrictions depending here, obviously. And we also have the degree of sustainability and environment. So you have the chance to actually not only do the Bachelor of Health Sciences, but also to have a look at what other opportunities. As part of the Bachelor of Health Science we have a few options you can choose as a major, that is, global health, health promotion, indigenous health, public health, human structure and function or just do no major at all and didn't just pick and choose what subjects like. I'm going to introduce each of those majors later in a bit more detail. The way it works is that two thirds of the degree core subjects and then one third of your degree is the subjects in whatever major you choose.

Daniel: So this is what we have as the core subject, so the degree here, is all studies students a solid foundation of knowledge across the core health subjects and a couple of examples are epidemiology and health statistics, health promotion, psychosocial perspectives, more public health more generally. In the second and third year, you will then also get to choose your electives, as well as your major. The number of the electives you have and the subjects that are available to you also depend on the major you have chosen.

Daniel: Now, the first major I'm going to introduce you to is the major of health promotion. Health promotion is about understanding why people perform certain health behaviours and how we can help individuals and populations to gain control over and improve their own health. The five major subjects here include things such as ethics and theories of public health, health promotion and indigenous context, communication and technology, for example, how to use social media to improve health. It's really studying electives, like some first nations health and wellbeing, sustainability or economics and evaluation of health programs.

The second one is the major of public health. Public health major focuses on the art of public health as an organized approach to preventing disease and who have the means of research and policy. Here you have six major subjects, and they also include ethics, theories and health promotion, research and evaluation, Indigenous health, global population health, as well as health, economics and evaluation. You also have to make two doctors available, and you can choose things such as global sexual health.

Daniel: And we have as one of the very few universities in Australia we have a major indigenous health. Indigenous health is one of the areas that actually is growing rapidly, fast. And there are a lot of jobs in this area. And this major is open to everyone, whether you are indigenous or not. So the indigenous health major is about gaining an in-depth understanding of the physical, social and mental health and wellbeing of indigenous Australians. And how public health assists in closing the gap. There are five major subjects, and include again, health promotion, but also a subject that focuses on the culture and tradition of the Aboriginals within Sydney. We have research and evaluation on indigenous public health and public health practice for indigenous health. There are three electives you have available to you, and you can choose population health, for example, all communication and technology.

Daniel: We then have the major of global health, which is about the health of individuals and populations in a global context. So you heard about the health of different groups of these are interrelated and which factors we have to take a global stage to ensure a healthy future for everyone. You will begin to study subjects in a major from second year and these include diversity in culture, global population health, global sexual health, strengthening global health systems, and you have one elective as well, and you could choose from a whole array of electives, for example transnationals management or introduction to strategy.

Daniel: Finally, we have the major of human structure and function. This major, is about getting an in-depth understanding of the human body and the interaction between physiology, anatomy and neurosciences. As with the previous major are seven major subjects. These include structure and functional anatomy, introduction to digital health, exercise, physiology and neurosciences. And you have one of these electives and you also have a whole array of the factors that are relevant to this major. For example, sport, exercise, psychology, or managing people and organizations. As part of this major, you also have to do a professional placement of at least 140 hours usually in the final year of your degree. We have a dedicated UTS internship officer who will support your placement within an organization that matches the company interests. There are a couple of examples on the screen right now where people actually have done their placement in the past. And, for example, at the Heart Foundation, the medical director, which is an app that actually looks at how we can get the best health advice until we can connect individual health providers with people. And there are also a lot of international opportunities for you available. Health students have travelled for example, in the past tpo India, in the cultural and health emerging problem or to Indonesia on the public health study. You are usually free to choose the official placement in any area of health sciences or public health that interests you. However, there may be restrictions depending on the major issues. For example, if you do the major of health promotion, you have to do your professional placement within the area of health promotion. In the past, we had a few people who actually got paid as during as part of their professional placement. And we also have a few people who did the professional placements on it and then actually did find a job in that particular organization after they graduated.

Daniel: As a health science student, you'll learn in a number of different ways. We do have lectures as part of obviously studying, but there are very few lectures, and most of them are very short to actually help you with. You know, instead of sitting in front of the screen for two hours listening to and talking to you. It is only you listening, talking to me for 10 minutes. And in a much more engaging way, we focus a lot on tutorials which are designed to be as interactive and collaborative as possible and there are tutorials for every subject. What you do in exactly in these tutorials and organized, how long they are depends on the subject, because we are really making sure that we are focusing on what students need and what we need to offer them as part of that subject to ensure that people are learning in a sustainable and engaging way.

Daniel: We have the practical experience with the professional placement, as I've just told you. We are focusing on group work, but in a sustainable way, because we do know that public health and health sciences is an area that often focuses on multidisciplinary teams. So working with nurses, doctors and other clinicians, working with statisticians, working with a lot of different people. And we just want to prepare you for actually working with these teams, using group work. Obviously, there's also going to be some independent studies here often with flip learning, where you are learning a lot of concepts before we are entering a tutorial, and that includes podcasts and obviously also have readings, but also got a lot of other various different resources to ensure learning is as interactive is possible at every stage of your degree. And obviously, when you're studying not only to go to lectures and tutorials, but there's also the campus life, which is such an inherent part of your culture and of what it means to be a student. And I really assume that we're going to get back to that amazing campus life very soon. We have a lot of clubs, societies and parties on campus. I'm not sure if it still exists, but we did have a Taylor Swift Appreciation Society at some point. But if that is your thing the n go there. But otherwise, we have a lot of other things, whether that is a Arabic society, there is a food appreciation society as a society that focuses on comics or on K-pop or whatever floats your boat so there's a lot of information.

Daniel: We know that not everyone can come to university and meet some of all coming from different places. For example, when I went to school, I actually got kicked out of school because I failed in both English and mathematics and now I teach by statistics in English and I needed a little bit more support than other people and probably than a few others. And we do have the student centre that is there to help assist you with everything you need. We have higher education, language and presentation support to help me with assessment and language like the presentation styles. We have the timetable planner. Often you will know what you actually are doing and when you expect tutorials a year in advance that will help you with if you have a job and you have other things to organize and take care of in your life. We have UTS online which is our online learning management software, which allows you to engage in a whole array of services. And they also have available actually 24/7, even on a Saturday night. You will, rarely wait for more than a minute if you need something, anything that's related to that system.

Daniel: And obviously, we also have the library and we have some amazing librarians there that will help you to find everything you need, whether that is a book from the 16th century or to an article that has been published in a newspaper somewhere in regional when it's sort of 20 years ago. So they will actually be amazingly helpful and an enormous help.

Daniel: At the end of this there a couple of things this unit should be and we hope it should be after learning all those amazing subjects we have and we are told most of records and treatments. And these include that you have skills and advocacy and social justice, that you have adaptive thinking, as well as critical thinking and practice that can have an understanding of diversity and what that means for the of public health practice, but also, obviously indigenous cultural aspects, as well as communication, collaboration and leadership.

Daniel: Now to something that obviously is of interest to a lot of people. Once you're done with this, what is going to happen? So there actually is a whole range of careers you can choose. Health sciences and public health is an extraordinarily flexible field. You do not have like this thing where you do the same job over your lifetime. You can go into various different fields. And that was put in motion because the education plan and policy of project management or research consultancy, we have a lot of students who are working for pharmaceutical companies, for example, looking at consumer engagement in or working and to organize a clinical trials. We have people who are working for Apple or Google looking at health care apps and testing them, making sure they are reliable for people to use them. So there's so many different options and the majors and the professional help will help you gain an understanding of what you want to do. And we have very regular engagement with professional professionalism with employers as part of on subjects such as career days, for example, a lot of them art subject in the first year, but also throughout of law degree to really help them understand what career options there are and also to help you with gaining an understanding of what you want to do.

Daniel: If you don't want to immediately know where to go, you obviously can also use the honorary degree to prepare for a master's degree. We have a few students who have used this in the past to study medicine, but also there are a lot of other further degrees available for you, both at UTS and other universities. That includes health and management, further specializing in public health or epidemiology, orthoptics, physiotherapy and speech pathology. Now, while health sciences can prepare you for a master's degree in those areas, it is also important to note that the commission, to any master's degree or further studies, is often competitive and based on academic merit, meeting the subject prerequisites and completing an interview in some cases, that is, for example, the case for most UTS Master's degrees. If you're really interested in any of those pathways, we really recommend you to looking to your options and get admission criteria for your designed masters degree, which by the time we start the second degree of your lecture from the bachelor of health sciences, and to really just talk to us because we are available for it. Remember, we are professionals as well so we have an idea. Most of us actually work out there in the industry so we have an understanding of how those things work and what you need to do. And so you have all options available to you.

Daniel: So how do you apply if you are a year twelve school leaver and any students who have gone on a gap year, you are assessed solely on your selection rank and the selection rate is equal to your Atar and any points you qualify for through our UTS admissions schemes. For example, you get extra points for things such as mathematics or English as part of your subjects. If you're a none-recent school leaver or a mature age student, you compete for paid space based on academic merits from your previous qualifications. Applicants 20 years of age or over at the time of applying, can also opt to sit a certain special tertiary admission test, as such, you can find detailed information on submission criteria on the UTS website where you can also find much more detailed information about the subjects that I included in this degree, for example. You can apply online via the university admission centre at UAC.edu.au or if you are a year 12 applicant you also may be eligible for our early entry program and you can find out more about that at UTS.edu.au/early-entry.

Daniel: Now to something much more spectacular and exciting. It is time for the amazing Q&A session so we will now we answer all of the questions you have typed in and I can see there quite a few of them already, as I said in the beginning you might receive your answer in text reply for one of the panellists or from the Faculty of Health marketing team who are there to help you. So first up, we are going to have Emma, and we actually wanted to ask Emma. Why did you choose to study health sciences and why did you choose study health sciences here at UTS?

Emma: Well, I am a bit of a interesting one, because I actually started my university life at a different uni and went for two weeks doing a science maths double degree and was there five days a week for days and hated it and I was just not enjoying it. So I had a gap year accidentally. And then I wanted something that kept my options open because I finished, when I withdrew from that course, I was very confused. I didn't know if I wanted to do radiography or medicine or teaching or anything, anything under the sun I thought about doing. And so I wanted health science to be like my answer, because it just covered such a wide variety of career paths and opportunities. And if I wanted to do a master's after, I could. And I fell in love with every single subject I've had so far. And I'm looking at doing a Master's of Public Health because I just feel so where I'm supposed to be, which I never thought I would. I thought I'd end up transferring or doing a master's in something else. But I've just absolutely fallen in love. And it's just. I'm lucky, but I also feel like once you enter and you actually experience it and you know what it is and you learn that there's a whole field out there of jobs that a lot of people don't even know exist. Then you see your potential and you say, oh, I can actually pursue this as a career. I can do this, I can do that. And it's so flexible and it just suited me rather nicely. So, yeah.

Daniel: Thank you so much Emma. OK, now maybe we are going through some of the questions we were asked in the Q&A. One of the questions is, is it possible to do a double major? No, we actually only allow you to do one major. The purpose of that is because we really want you to have an in-depth understanding of that particular part. And for that, we just really need that time to actually do that. If you are interested in aspects of other things. We actually give you the option to do that via the electives. And that is really helpful to start.

Bernard: I might just add to that, Daniel, students who are thinking of two different majors, what you can choose is to do no major, which gives you flexibility to choose from a wider range of electives so that you can tailor your degree to your interests, but you can't choose two different majors at the same time.

Daniel: Klaus. What do you think are the career options that are following this?

Klaus: Oh, they are very, very wide ranging, as Daniel and Emma already alluded to. I always say that the problem is if you study something like occupational therapy or physical therapy, what are the career options you have if you study OT? You can become an OT and that's it. If you study physiotherapy, you become a physiotherapist and that's it. If you study health sciences, there are countless options that are available to you. And as Emma said, she she likes. Well, Emma actually says she likes all of the subjects, which is great to hear. But usually students will say, well, there are some subjects that are particularly liked and they develop an interest in a particular field, and then they really think, OK, this is the direction that I want to go in. But the beauty, as I see in this degree, is that it just opens up so many options. And I think from my own experience, if you've just finished high school, it's really hard, if not impossible, to know exactly what you would like to do later on in your life. But here it just offers you a lot of potential pathways to choose from. Once you finish your degree.

Daniel: Thank you Klaus. Bernard, what pathways can schools lead people to? And what can they become once they finish this course?

Bernard: So on top of what Klaus's already mentioned, if you choose to go into the workforce immediately after graduating, there's plenty of options with either government or non-government health organizations as policy officer and health promotion officer. But if you do decide to go into a Master’s afterwards and go down the path of pathway toward something else you could do, you could you what this degree opens up opportunities for you is to be able to study things like health service management and Master in Health Service Management to do health information management of health data. Of course, similar to Emma, you can go down the path of a Master's in Public Health so that you can get more senior roles, for example, after graduating from that master. You can go down the path of orthoptics. So if you wanted to look at slightly more allied health and on that allied health side, there's also physiotherapy, speech therapy, speech pathology. But I think the the best thing to do is also look at what your end goal is and see what the requirements are, and then, yeah, but there's plenty of options of pathways to go down after graduating from the Bachelor of Health Science.

Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. There is one question for Emma, which is very general about what subjects do you do and why did you choose those subjects?

Emma: Well, we my cohort at the moment are actually the last year of the old syllabus, so we had different majors. So I'm a little bit upset that I couldn't do the major public health, but it's fine. So I'm doing them majoring in pharmacology. So the first year was rather general for us. We did the introduction to health care systems and public health and interpersonal communication, which would be a big help for all those people want to do, like nursing and medicine and stuff. And we did a lot of there's a lot more sociology, I guess you'd say, in the course than you'd think. And when we did it at the time, I was very like, what? Where does this come from? What is this leading to? But it's literally been used in every most subjects I've had since, because it just is all about shifting your perspective of health and learning about all the different models and things. So it's very eye opening the first year, and then you don't actually start doing your major subjects into a second. So because I'm doing pharmacology, I did chemistry and cell biology. Last year, were my major subjects and then I did my cores and then this semester I've got three cores and then I'm doing another chemistry, and then next year there's more major focus on doing actual pharmacology subjects and then more specific cores as well. They're kind of scattered through. It's not like some of the degrees that different uni’s can do that, if especially if doing double degrees like a big chunk of law or something, and than a big chunk of business. But it's integrated throughout. So you use all your knowledge like cohesively at the same time sort of thing. It's like building that picture up from base all the way up to actually having a full understanding of health science, basically.

Daniel: Thank you very much Emma. Bernard, what type of practicals are involved within in this course?

Bernard: So it ranges as well. So on top of the placement that the students do towards the end of their degree, there's also plenty of opportunities to do what we call authentic assessment throughout your degree. So almost every subject that you do will have an assignment that is very much practical in the real world. So to give you an example of what the real world is like when it comes to working in the field of public health. So I'll give you some examples. In one of the subjects I teach interpersonal communication, there's a new assessment now where you get to record a podcast episode where you discuss a health topic on a popular podcast series, for example. Another one is where you write a letter to the minister about a particular health issue that you are, that you feel close to your heart and you'd like to change. Another one in health communication is looking at outbreak investigation and outbreak communication and what methods are the best ways to communicate an outbreak to the general public in a city like Sydney, for example. Another subject you get to design an app, you don't actually have to design an app, but you just have to propose a new design for an app that improves the quality of life of people suffering from a health condition of your choosing. So there's a lot of practical examples within the course where you get to kind of tap into the different real world experience when working in the field of public health.

Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. Klaus, do you need to study a postgraduate course to work in public health or can a bachelor's degree do the same thing.

Klaus: That's a very good question, Daniel. Now, I very frequently receive emails in my inbox from colleagues of mine who work in the fields with job descriptions that they then forward to their network and ask to further forward them. And yes, there are a lot of positions that more senior positions where they would rather want someone with a Master of Public Health. But there are a lot of positions where an undergraduate degree in the health sciences, such as the Bachelor of Health Sciences, that is, is sufficient to be eligible to apply for various positions, be it with the New South Wales Ministry of Health, be it with the Heart Foundation. As you said, it's a range of, as Bernard said, can be governmental organization, NGOs. So there are a lot of positions where a Bachelor of Health Sciences is sufficient.

Daniel: Thank you so much Klaus. OK. Now I'm going to have a look at the more practical questions for a minute. Let me just have a look. So there are a couple of questions related to employment. We it's kind of difficult to always measure that. We do a survey every year to have a look at what actually all students are, how much money they earn, how happy they were with the degree they did, and also for full time employment, as well as part time employment. And we do know that about a year after the degree that the vast majority of our students are employed full time or doing their postgraduate degree, that number is roughly comparable to other degrees, for example, in nursing and we reach about 75ish percent after a year of people being employed, which is actually quite good compared to degrees, for example, in business. And we also do know that we have enormously increasing number of people working in the health care sectors. So I think that actually the employment opportunities in the future will also improve by a lot. The average salary we also know it's about 65 to 70 thousand dollars for most people once they are employed, straight out of the degree. However, that range quite dramatically, depending on where people work, was public sector versus private sector working with big companies, small companies, or working also in for example NGOs.

Daniel: Then there are quite a few questions about options that are very specific after their degree. So I'm just going to do them now one after another. So there's one degree can you go from this into medicine? Yes, you can. So you can use that to get into postgraduate medicine. But everything that is related to postgraduate degrees that are not offered at UTS you need to make sure to look at the websites and actually have a look at what their entry requirements are because I cannot speak for other universities.

Daniel: There are also postgraduate dietetics and nutrition degrees you can get into after doing your postgraduate course and if you want to be a dietitian, that is a registered profession. So you need to make sure that you're meeting the requirements for that. We do have a elective that is looking at healthy nutrition and diets in public health, so from health promotion point of view, you can also go into that degree. Then there is a question, I hope that this course is extremely helpful to pursue a nursing degree later as a possibility which provides the basis knowledge. You can do your Bachelor of Nursing results straight out when you actually start doing it. And there are some postgraduate and speed entry options if you have already another postgraduate, another undergraduate degree, like the Bachelor of Health Sciences. So you can also use that, obviously, as a starting degree. However, if you are reading interested in nursing, you can also join one of the nursing sessions and get more information about what it is like to actually go straight into the Bachelor of Nursing.

Bernard: Daniel might answer a couple of questions as well if you'd like? And feel free to jump in at any point. There's a question that says, are there any options for psychology and philosophy at UTS? I can't answer for the rest of the university, but I can tell you that although this program in particular doesn't offer clinical psychology of counselling subjects, there are a number of subjects that incorporate theoretical frameworks around social, emotional, psychological well-being. These are centred on the social model and the social determinants of health. And of course, in terms of philosophy, not sure what you mean by that, but you can definitely consider doing an honours degree afterwards or getting to a Master of Philosophy like an NPHIL or a PhD at a later stage. I'd say that's the answer to that one.

Bernard: Another one says, would you consider this degree more theory based than practical? I may have answered partially answered that question earlier when talking about the practicality of the assessments. There's definitely, in my opinion, at least the subjects that I teach, probably a 50/50. So, there's 50 percent theoretical frameworks and a 50 percent sort of assessment. So, I can just give you an example. The lectures that I recorded and delivered for my subject are theory based, and then I get the students to watch those before coming to the tutorial where we implement our knowledge into a practice-based activity. The practice-based activity can be something like a debate where we have two different sides competing against each other and arguing for or against the statement. We have a variety of activities where we practically where we put the theory into practice theory of the lectures into a practice of the tutorials.

Emma: Can I just jump in there as well? It was like Bernard. I've had him a few times and a lot of the classes we do, you kind of don't realize that when you do the lectures and things, you get the understanding. But it's not until you get in those two of the workshops or whatever is going on, even the assignments, especially like epidemiology, where you just get, like content like you try to absorb through the lectures and things, and then you go and actually have that experience and we've got really small tutorials sizes compared to the last uni I was at, I can speak for that, but it's not like what you see in movies, how you’re in a big hall and everything, it's really intimate and you get to know your tutors and everyone and we get so hands on and then like I was the person that would ask all the questions all the time, like you can just be as annoying as you want and just talk everything at them and be like, no, no, explain. I don't know what's going on. So even if you're having trouble with the content, it's not until you get in those shoots or workshops or anything where you can apply to be more in like synthesize the actual knowledge and understanding of it. It's like it doesn't sound as like, chem lecture or chem prac sort of thing. But it's our tutes are a lot more hands on than what you might think they are basically.

Bernard: Thanks Emma.

Daniel: OK, so now we have a few technical questions. And what's the intake for the course, how many many positions and is there a high demand? We have about 150 Commonwealth supported places each year. We take on additional students with our own costs so you still don't have to pay more. And it is then based on how many people actually apply. So the Atar can slightly increase depending on how many people there are. Last year, we did see a rapid increase in demand for public health intake, which probably this relates to the current situation. And that might also be the case for next year. But generally, we are able to attend to many, most people who want to study this degree and actually give them a chance.

Daniel: Would you have to choose two majors, if you're doing a double degree? That actually depends on the government, each double degree is slightly different. In some double degrees, you actually do both degrees and there’s just like a way you actually then do a major in both of them, if they have some. And other double degrees is where one degree is preserved exactly how it is. For example you do the Bachelor of Health science, you would do the major in there but from the other degree, you would only do the core subjects. So it really depends on which degree you are choosing.

Daniel: Can this course lead into radiography and to be quite frank. I don't know, I don't really know much about what the um.

Bernard: I think with that, Daniel, this the person who asked the questions best course of action is to check the requirements for radiography. We have a lot of students who are thinking about doing a more allied health qualification after the degree, and that's very much possible. But it does also depend on like, for example, with physiotherapy, you have to have done the human structure and function major to get into physiotherapy. And we know this because that's what physiotherapy has told us they need. So my best answer for that would be to check what radio radiography requires before making any of these decisions. And I think that the same sort of applies for the question on medicine and feel free to interrupt anybody. I think my understanding and medicine of the medicine question is that if you wanted to do medicine after a degree, it doesn't really matter which degree you've done, as long as you achieve a certain credit point average. And as long as you pass their entry test, which I think is called again the GAMSAT. The Bachelor of Health Science, does give you maybe a little bit more of a background knowledge compared to, let's say, if you do an engineering degree beforehand or if you do an arts degree. But again, you would need to check what the requirements of medicine before making any of those decisions.

Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. Then we have a question related to assessments within the course. Klaus is this a test-based course, are there more tests or are there more assignments?

Klaus: Ah, that's a good question. I can only speak for those subjects in our Bachelor of Health Sciences in which I have taught myself, where we don't have exams, where the assessment is based on assignments. But I think you're in a better position to answer that question, Daniel.

Daniel: Emma what is your experience so far?

Emma: Well, I that was one of the reasons I picked the course, because in the open day, Bernard was standing on a stage and said the whole first year you don't have one exam. I don't know if it's still the case with the updated curriculum, but I'm assuming it would be. And it is I it's cements your knowledge a lot more than you think. When you have a test, you just fill your brain up and then chuck it on a page. But when you have the assignments you, that's kind of what I was talking about with the tutes and stuff. You apply all of your workshop knowledge and everything into the assignment. And that's what Bernard was saying when he was saying it's kind of theory and practical can get sort of blurry, because when you do your assignment, you are that is in a way like your practical like you're using all your theory to actually answer the questions and do like we had an assignment. We had to write a letter to a minister and try and rally for like a public health campaign we were proud of and everything like it's very hands on and then the only exams I've had personally from my major, so from chemistry and cell bio and stuff. So I think depending on your major as well, it would change assignments versus tests. But yeah, no, it's definitely more assignments than tests so far.

Bernard: And I'll just add to that. Some subjects do have small mini quizzes, and that's just as a way of checking in with your knowledge throughout the semester. These are usually not worth more than five percent per quiz. And overall, that they tend to not be worth more than 10 or 15 or 20 percent of the entire subject. But these are very small quizzes, and it's mostly just to ensure that you understand the content of the lectures.

Klaus: I would I would like to make one more comment. I haven't seen that question yet, but we usually get this kind of question, be it for the Bachelor of Health Sciences or for the Master of Public Health. A lot of people always ask us about a subject like epidemiology, whether you have to be very, very good at mathematics to do well, to pass an epidemiology. And my answer to that is, first, epidemiology, yes, is a quantitative science. So, yes, we have to deal with numbers, but actually not all of it around half of what you do in epidemiology is only about calculating things, the other half is about other aspects of epidemiology. And the part that is about calculating things and I hope Emma will agree when I say this, the mathematical skills required for epidemiology are about what you did in school in year seven or eight. It's really just multiplying, dividing numbers, adding subtract subtracting numbers and you don't even need to learn formulas by heart. You get a few formulas that you will need to apply, you get an overview of the sheet, you're not expected to know them by heart. So I would really say. In case you have math, anxiety or something like this, you really don't have to be worried about epidemiology, but maybe Emma can from her own experience add a couple of words about that.

Emma: Yeah, I was I'm a bit of a maths brain. I did four unit at high school. So I was really excited to get up to do some math. And then I got there and it was literally like fractions and multiplication and division and that was it. But it was like it's still good because when you're doing the analysis, then you use your skills from like, OK, this is the situation in this setting. But why sort of thing, it's melds into a lot of other subjects, even the analysis that isn't like scary data analysis it's just a lot of cementing, your other subjects together. It's not scary at all. It's really the. epidemiology was one of my favourite subjects. Sorry, Daniel and Bernard. But it like its really interesting. That's what I mean. You don't know what you're getting into unitl you’re there sort of thing. So don't try and make any assumptions about, oh, that's scary, this is going to be about that, because when you get in there, it's so different to what you think about anything. But that goes for uni in general as well, not just that degree. It's very like you've got to know once you're in the then you’ll know what you’re doing, basically.

Daniel: I think that actually is something a lot of people also find when they hear the word statistics and we do have an introduction subject to statistics, and what we actually have is we have computer programs that do a lot of the mathematical work for you. It is really about understanding what those numbers mean and how you actually then use them and apply them in public health practice and for policy and research.

Daniel: And then we have one final question. If I study a Bachelor of Health Science Bachelor of Sustainability, double degree, what are the possible job opportunities. On the website the careers listed seem predominantly environmentally focused. If I wanted to do this degree and work in the health sector, will I have to do further studies such as a Master in Public Health? No, you don't have to do further studies, you can actually go straight into appointment and basically when you do a double degree, you have all the job opportunities you have for the individual degrees, as well as then the degree and the job opportunities that actually have further specialization. And for example, if you work in environmental health. Obviously, you have a degree that includes both health science as well as sustainability and environment. You would actually have a much higher quantification and much more knowledge regarding that, particularly field. And often when you do apply for other jobs, you can actually then always give it like this painting when saying, OK, I want to work in health promotion, but I want to work in health promotion, looking at it from the environmental perspective or from a sustainability perspective. So, there are all of those options you can do. Obviously, when you have a look at the website, that's going to be the ones that are very specific and uniquely related to this stuff. But you still have all the job opportunities of the individual degree still for you.

Daniel: If there are still spots left in this course, can you offer it to students that do not meet the cut off mark. As I said the cut off mark we actually are having is related to how many people are also applying to that year. There's a hard one that is related to this is what we what people need to have to ensure that they can actually do or really succeed in the schools. Otherwise its just strongly related to how many people apply versus how many spots we have available. And there's also a lot of adjustments you can get depending on, for example, which school you went to, which subjects you did, where you can get an adjustment to your Atar as well.

Daniel: If you have any further very specific questions about how you make sure they can actually get into the program and how you can get a spot, really contact us via the email address that is on the website, and we can have a look at your individual situation in much more detail.

Daniel: Okay, so I think we know at the end of today's session, we have answered all of the questions we have. I would like to really thank you again for joining us today, and we'll try to get through some of the more specific questions once they actually send them to us. You can also now ask current students, as well as the UTS admissions your questions on live chat that is available until three p.m. and then again on Tuesday. So just go back to the open day website and you can actually add or join all of these chats.

Daniel: If you do have any further questions that are just popping into your head after you've heard our amazing presentation today and the wonderful, amazing comments from Emma, Klaus and Bernard. You can obviously also contact us again using the details on the screen. We are always happy to answer those questions. If you do decide to go into the Bachelor of Health Sciences, which will probably be one of the most amazing decisions you have done in your life. Then we are going to see you at UTS next year. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your Saturday and the weekend as far as we can during the lockdown. And we are going to switch gears. Thank you so much.