Careers Advisers Hub

Speaker 1

Hello and welcome to the UTS Careers Advisors drop-in session for today. 

We are so excited to step you through the UTS admissions schemes and pathways and we’ll
also have time for a nice Q&A at the end so anytime you have a burning question throughout this session, please feel free to use the Q&A chat function and we will answer it when we get to the Q&A segment. And note as well that we will be recording this, and it will be available as on demand content on our careers advisors hub. 

Oh, let's get started. Before I start and go into anything for today, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation upon whose ancestral lands are city campus now stands. 

I'd also like to pay respects to the elders, both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians and knowledge of this land. I would further like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various ancestral lands from which our other attendees join us today, and to pay respects to those elders both past and present. 

Today’s speakers consist of the following; myself, Yahya, who is the school partnerships officer, Andrew Minutillo, Tofa Amanda Moors-Mailei who is the Manager of Policy and Advocacy of the Student Equity unit for the Centre of Social Justice and Inclusion, and Neil Randall, who is the outreach officer for Jumbunna. 

In terms of today's agenda, it will cover the following, so we will go into admission schemes and pathways, the elite athlete and performers scheme, as well as the equity access schemes we have, Jumbunna and the Q&A at the end. 

In terms of admission schemes and pathways, here are the following. We have a nice little table that will be hopefully useful for you guys when you are answering questions for students. It will show the relevant scheme, who it is suitable for, the amount of adjustment factors that are available, as well as the combinable adjustable factors if it can be combined with a different adjustment scheme. 

So, we will go into a few of these more deeply throughout this presentation, but, when this is uploaded, you'll be able to have a more deeper look into it, but we have the inputs UTS access scheme which is the EAS, the schools recommendation scheme and many many more. Do note the faculty caps, for Business having a 10 point cap, Design, Architecture and Building as well as Engineering and IT having a 13 point cap.  

In terms of admissions pathways, there's more than one way to get into UTS. If a student didn't get the selection rank that they were hoping for, our admission pathways offer a second chance to gain entry into their chosen degree. These include changing from 1 undergraduate course to another, a UTS College diploma course, coming from TAFE or another VET provider, or a special tertiary admissions test known as STATS, a limited ATAR or the Jumbunna pathways program. 

Now the best part, the UTS early entry program. You're probably wondering who is eligible so to be eligible to apply, you must be a current domestic or international onshore year 12 student and you have to complete the year 12 NSW HSC or equivalent exams such as the IB. Now when it comes to applying, you apply through the UTS online application portal. This is different to the UAC application and is completely free. And the best part, which is the offers will be made in September and they are provisional. And you'll be able to preference three UTS courses right until they close in the 9th of September, and there's only one offer round. So do tell your students to put their most desirable course first. Provisional offers will be made based on their year 11 results and there will be a requirement to achieve matriculation standards and a minimum ATAR.

Speaker 1

But the key dates for the early entry program when applications open is now, they're open right now. They can apply anytime they're ready. Applications close and the document uploads also close on Monday the 9th of September, and provisional offers are released Thursday the 26th of September. Now here are some quick facts. Students can have different preferences in their UAC and EEP applications, they do not have to match. IB students should upload all their reports semester 1, 2 and final reports to the portal. NSW slash ACT students studying the HSC won't need to upload any documents by providing the NESA number in the application. It will allow all their documents to automatically be linked and uploaded so they have it the easiest this time round. UTS will be looking at a student’s performance overall in year eleven, no subjects will be weighted higher. Students will be considered on 10 units, with the only mandatory subject involved being English. And when it comes to onshore international applicants studying an Australian year 12 qualification or International Baccalaureate and are taking the November IB exams, they can also apply. And to simplify the early entry application process and to eradicate any confusion, we have fully integrated Edge into the UTS early entry program, so those bonus points will be awarded automatically, and they won't need to complete a questionnaire for early entry. 

Now before we go any further, let's go through some frequently asked questions that you might have so we will have the answers for them. Students still need to accept and enrol in their course offered as in previous years. Now, when it comes to enrolment for the early entry program. It will open post HSC on the 11th of November. They do not need to accept and enrol into their course until the last day to enrol, which is week two of the session in March and we would recommend them to enrol and accept, however, so they can get the best timetable they can, but they can withdraw by census date if they do not wish to continue studying. Do all courses and faculties have the same number of early entry program offers available relative to their UAC offers. The answer to that question is no. Every year, each faculty has a difficult time trying to determine how many offers to make through early entry and how many to make through UAC. Ultimately, it comes down to supply and demand. We need to ensure the entire allocation of offers don't just go to early entry, as this would make it more difficult for applicants to receive an offer through UAC. So if a course has limited availability through the early entry program, does that mean that there's more offers available through UAC? Absolutely correct. In this instance, the faculty is expecting a lot of demand for this specific course for that intake, so it might be prudent for them to shut off early entry for certain amounts of offers and then release more offers through UAC that way. Now I will pass over to our lovely Andrew to cover the UTS Elite Athlete and Performers Scheme.

Speaker 2

Hi there. My name is Andrew. I work at activate as the social program’s coordinator. In particular, I look after the Elite Performers Program so hopefully some performance questions rather than athlete questions, but I can answer athlete questions as well. The Elite Athlete and Performers Scheme is an entry scheme that targets high performing athletes as well as creative and performing artists that represent their school or state at a national or international level. Essentially, how we define elite as an elite athlete or performer is dependent on your particular discipline or your particular sport, but relatively speaking, we're looking for national or international level representing your school or otherwise in performance sense, representing yourself at these levels. The second thing we're looking for is that they have their studies impacted by their sport or their creative or performing arts discipline, which means throughout year 11 and year 12, they have seen a dramatic impact on their ability to complete the HSC or their subjects depending on like, you know through high level performance and athletics. If eligible students apply through the entry scheme, they can receive 5 adjustment points to their selection rank, which means that assisting them reaching the minimum entry score for their desired degree and can kind of get them over the level, you know, if they didn't necessarily receive the item that they wanted to, it really can get them through the door. 

The good news is with the UTS that it applies to all degrees, and it is in addition to year 12 adjustment factors. So, some other institutions have it on a sliding scale. That's not the case for us. It is five adjustment points to your selection rank across the board. Students must receive a minimum ATAR of 69.00 that is our minimum ATAR entry. And there are a couple of things they need to build to, you know, submit this application, including a CAPA or otherwise sport discipline statement of evidence. You also want to have a statement of evidence from the supporting team, such as your management team, your coach, usually scheduling activities and also just kind of some supporting statements from your educational staff. Uh, that is all outlined on the website for this particular entry scheme, so don't worry if you didn't get that, but it's all online for you as well. It is important to note that this entry scheme is separate from something called the Elite Athlete Program, as well as the Elite Performance Program, which is the one that I run. These are programs that are available for current UTS students, so this entry scheme helps them get into the university and get them studying. Both programs are then kicked into gear once they've accepted their offer. These support programs that help them out on their elite or otherwise emerging elite pathways, balancing both, you know UTS life as well as life as an elite athlete or an elite performer. But yes, this program only kicks into gear once it accepted their offer. If you have any questions, I’ll obviously be here at the end. But you can always contact UTS EAP or UTS EPP for any questions, and there's the scheme application dates down at the bottom, that's all from me.

Speaker 1

Thank you so much, Andrew. I will now pass it on to Amanda and we'll be talking about equity access schemes at UTS.

Speaker 3

Good morning everyone. I'm Amanda Moors-Milei, manager of policy and advocacy in the student equity space at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion. I will be, as Yahya has said, talking about equity access schemes available at UTS, which are designed to support students from diverse backgrounds and ensure that students who face financial and socioeconomic disadvantages have the opportunity to access and succeed at UTS. These schemes include inputs program and schools recommendation scheme, which I'll go into in a bit more detail. 

So the inputs program awards 10 adjustment points to eligible students who have experienced long-term educational disadvantage during years 11 and 12. To be eligible for inputs at UTS, students must apply and meet UAC’s Educational Access Scheme eligibility criteria and achieve an ATAR of 69 or 80 for law. They must also meet citizenship status or either be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident of Australia and permanent humanitarian visa holders are also eligible. I want to briefly go into some of the categories of long-term disadvantage and what they include so EAS and this is all on the UAC website as well as on the UTS website as well. So it's things like disrupted schooling if a students attended 3 or more different secondary schools during years 10,11 or 12, moved to Australia after the beginning of year 11 with English as the first language, had moved interstate. So there's a raft of different experiences for disrupted schooling. 

Socioeconomic disadvantage is automatically eligible if a student is living in areas identified by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being in the lowest 25% of socioeconomic disadvantage. Financial challenges, whether a student or their family are in receipt of youth allowance, AB study, Aus study or other Centrelink benefits, severe family disruption, death of an immediate family member or close friend, severe illness of a family member or parental separation, excessive family responsibilities, things like career responsibilities for children or other family members, or excessive work requirements. So all of these if a student has experienced some of these things and it has impacted their ability to achieve the required ATAR to access a UTS course, they are acknowledged. 

Additionally, things like English language difficulty, personal illnesses and refugee or humanitarian status, school environment is also considered so if a student is attending a rural, regional or remote school, that's also automatically assessed and meet eligible through EAS. Now all of these types of disadvantages require certain evidence and documentation, and this is all it's quite detailed, so it's so I recommend that you visit the UAC website to find out what that type of evidence is required. 

OK, so to apply for inputs at UTS all you're doing is submitting an application for undergraduate study. That's really important, that's your first step through UAC. Then you are applying for EAS at the bottom of the undergraduate application confirmation page. You're selecting the disadvantages that apply to the circumstances that the student has experienced, answering the follow up question. You then download the confirmation of application and the cover sheet of those disadvantages that the student has claimed, and then of course, you need to re upload the cover the sheet and as well as any supporting documentation to evidence the claim that the student is making. You want to also ensure that you know you get all of that information in at least two weeks before the undergraduate offer round which the student is wanting to be considered in. So two weeks before main round. But you know best practise, get it in ASAP. 

So school's recommendation scheme at UTS supports year 12 students to access university when the ATAR alone isn't sufficient. It's recognises students for skills and achievements outside of their performance in year 12, including their overall suitability for university study based on the recommendation from yourselves, the school principal and, in the case of our new access scheme, which I'll or our new access scheme for Indigenous students, which I'll talk to in a little bit, a recognised Community leader. So applicants must be eligible for the socioeconomic disadvantage, school environment or financial hardship categories through UAC’s EAS schemes or educational access scheme to be considered for SRS.

 So the traditional SRS again aims to support students who have that potential to succeed at university. To be eligible for consideration, you must meet the, you know, Australian citizen, permanent resident or New Zealand citizen, and students must receive a school recommendation. And they also need to meet the minimum ATAR of 69 or 80 for a law course. And obviously include UTS as a preference in their UAC application and have that in there by the 1st of November to be considered for a conditional or unconditional offer. Applying for SRS again, as I've kind of mentioned involves a a number of steps, so you do obviously have to have your UAC application in and then your EAS application. But you know, bearing in mind that socioeconomic disadvantage in school environment is automatically generated. However, if a student is claiming financial disadvantage that needs to go through EAS and then it's just submitting your SRS application through UAC and those applications close on the 16th of September, so really important to start thinking about that now. 

The Jumbunna Leaders Access Program. We're really proud to introduce and pilot this program. It's specifically designed to address the historical and ongoing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by focusing on Indigenous students. The program really aims to support and elevate the unique cultural and social and leadership qualities within the community, and it really recognises the importance of culturally appropriate support and seeks to create equitable opportunities for Indigenous Australians to succeed in higher education, so the Leadership program honours the recommendation from the school or a community leader as valuable endorsements of a student's potential. And UTS seeks to provide, you know, early offers to Indigenous students who enable them to be able to plan their future at UTS with confidence and security. So to be eligible for the Jumbunna Leaders Access Program, a student needs to have confirmation of Aboriginality and community and/or school endorsement. So a student must receive a letter of recommendation or endorsement from endorsement of their leadership qualities and achievement from a community leader or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation. As well as an SRS recommendation and endorsement from their school, and also send us a personal statement highlighting their experiences, leadership qualities and aspirations. Um student also needs to complete the HSC so past the minimum standards exams so all their exams, including, you know, optional exams for VET and Category B subjects. And then in terms of applying, it's providing us that documentation by sending us an email. Sorry, submitting the UAC application to study submitting the SRS application and then sending us their documentation. So key so other kind of key information about inputs and SRS is that there are a number of courses that are excluded, but the key dates are also really, really important to know. So 16th of December, for SRS, it closes. There's nothing that we can do after that close date. So we're really kind of just encouraging students in schools to ensure that you get your applications in by the 16th of September. EAS early bird applications closed on the 30th of September, but those are our contact details, please, if you have any questions, take those down and we'll be happy to answer any questions also in this forum. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you so much, Amanda. Remember guys, if you have any questions at all, feel free to use the Q&A feature and pop your question through that way. I will now pass it over to the lovely Neil Randall to speak about the Jumbunna Pathways Program. Sorry, Neil, you're on mute.

Speaker 4

Thanks for that lovely intro Yahya. Hi everyone, my name is Neil Randall, and I'm an outreach officer with Jumbunna at UTS. Jumbunna is the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Student services part of the university, and pretty much all Australian unis have a Jumbunna, ok. Different name though. So we run an alternative entry program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants. Most of the applications are from recent school leavers, so year 12’s. But we do get roughly about 10% of those from mature age applicants. Our programs are quite unique in the sense that they're non ATAR based because we've based it on their years 9/10/11 and 12 high school reports and we've also taken UAC out of the equation, so it means that they apply directly through our pathway programs and you can see the website on that page. But I'll put up my email details for people who do have any further questions. Our applications for 2025 will open up around about the 22nd of July and we’ll heavily promote that through social media and also through our contacts here at UTS and my networks and so forth within the schools and community. We do a lot of work with a lot of the local schools around Sydney and there's also we've got some partnerships with some in the regions as well. So some in the rural and regional areas, the majority of the students are indigenous students at UTS come from all over the country. Ok, so we've got a large contingent from the NT, large contingent from NSW, particularly here in Sydney, but also Western NSW, Queensland and Victoria, and the Torres Strait Islanders. So they’re far and wide. We've got a, our cohort is so diverse. Age range from 18 up to late 70s. So it's a big mix of people that come in to UTS. Amanda alluded to confirmation of Aboriginality earlier, so that's one of the they need students need to provide evidence that they are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent, so that it's either a confirmation of Aboriginality from a recognised Aboriginal community organisation, or if they don't have that, the UTS statutory declaration, which is on our application, ok, and that stat dec needs to be witnessed by a justice of the peace and include two written references from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people within that community to confirm that that person is of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent, identifies as Aboriginal and is accepted as Aboriginal in that community ok. Jumbunna and the other Indigenous, the other Aboriginal units of the universe who have come under a lot of fire in recent years. Through what's known as, you know, Aboriginal fraud and it's for and we talk about it a lot, ok, so that's the reasoning behind those confirmations that we need to see written evidence that a person is of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. Jumbunna offers a range of services to all the students that come through our programs, such as tutoring. And we've got like what we call a mini student support centre. So we'll do everything such as referrals and advocacy and we're lucky because we're in a position where we've got some Indigenous liaison reps across each of the faculties across the uni. So for example, if there's a student who's struggling in in the business faculty, we’ll reach out to the student as well as the liaison person in that university in that faculty. Sorry, I'm just going through my notes here. So I'll put my details up in the chat. My contact details and if any of the careers advisors have any questions, please reach out to me. I'm always happy to assist. Ok, thank you, that's all I have for today.

Speaker 1

Thank you so much for your time and your presentation Neil. So I do understand that it is a cold morning and, you know, passing on so much information in such a huge presentation can be quite daunting. So we now come to the opportunity of the Q&A segment of today's presentation. So, if you have any questions whatsoever, please drop them into the Q&A chat box function and we will have them answered for you. If we don't get to answer them by today, we will create an entire document with answers to every question from today and we will be uploading everything to our careers advisors hub. 

So starting off with the first question, sorry, I joined a little bit late. Will we be able to get a copy of this session please? 

Absolutely. We'll be putting the recording up in our careers advisor’s hub alongside with the Q&A questions and answers from this segment as well. 

We also have another question that says Re. Jumbunna, does the school's recommendation have to be completed by the 1st of July or just the supporting documentation sent by this date? 

So Amanda has said that just the supporting documents by the 1st of July should be fine.

 I'll give you guys time to write your question and we'll get them answered for you. We have another question. If a student is from an environment disadvantaged school, should they apply through early entry or SRS? 

Hi Chris, I would recommend that you apply for both to increase the students chances of entry. The more the merrier. 

Re early entry, can a student go back in and change their order of preferences after they have submitted? 

Yes, preferences can be changed up until the application close date which is the 9th of September. 

So there are two options for Jumbunna through SRS and direct entry?

That is correct. We are looking to increase access and participation of students from Indigenous backgrounds into UTS so we've opened up more avenues for them. 

Thank you to all, much appreciated for your time and information.

Thank you for attending and thank you for being part of this presentation. 

The Elite Athlete and Performance Program, does the Department of Education State Dance Ensemble meet the criteria for EAP. Andrew has answered this and said

Hey Catherine, thanks for sending this through. Criterion for dance and other CAPA streams depend on the level of applications that are submitted through the scheme each year. As of this year, this would definitely constitute national recognition, but it's always dependent year to year, always better to submit rather than not. One key point is that both elite athletes and elite performers are admitted under the basis that they will continue their sport or CAPA discipline. So that's something to look out for as well. 

We have students who self identify as Indigenous but have no links to their mob. How can you advise on the procedures to help the student to get their written documents of proof?

Neil has responded wonderfully and said hi, hello. I am happy to assist him. Please email me at neil.randall@uts.edu.au

You have a question that says I missed the start, will you be requiring students to set up an account etc as part of the acceptance step as in past years as part of the offer acceptance process? 

UTS students are not UTS students. Students will be prompted to activate their UTS account information and then they will be given their offer through email. 

To add one of the questions that was already asked about students that self identify as Indigenous but have no links. Neil has also said that he has done this many times and has assisted many students over the years so as long as you contact him, I am sure, it should be worked out. 

We have a question asking a student with high need, a physical disability. How early should she contact the inclusion team? 

I would urge the students to get in touch with UTS accessibility as soon as possible. The earlier the better really but there's not a specific deadline that you would have to do it, the earlier the better. 

If you guys have anymore questions, feel free to pop them in and we will answer them on the document on our website in the big FAQ sheet. We will now wrap up the presentation with the final slides. So open day this year has been confirmed to be on Saturday the 31st of August, going from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. This will be an on campus event and students can register online as it has now opened. 

We also have the careers advisor’s interactive session coming up. This is a great opportunity for professional development for careers advisors. This will be on Thursday 5th of September and this will also be an online event so you don't have to make your way. 

Please do stay in touch with us, our email is up on the screen schools.outreach@uts.edu.au. Our phone number is on the screen as well and feel free to check out the Careers Advisors hub where this recording will be found as well as where you can submit any requests you have for our team to do outreach with. 

Thank you so much for attending today's presentation and thank you for your time.