The Australian | 9 October 2012
Flinders has become the latest university to guarantee entry to TAFE graduates, unveiling 41 dual offer programs available from next year. The programs range from accounting, public sector management and international business to digital media, environmental management and geoscience. Students can emerge with vocational qualifications from certificate IV to advanced diploma plus related bachelor degrees, after between three and five-and-a-half years of full-time equivalent study.
The university says the arrangement will particularly benefit regional people, with half of the 21 participating TAFE campuses located outside Adelaide. This meant students could complete part of their studies before incurring the expense of moving to the city.
Most programs also offer HECS-style loans covering all the tuition fees, because fee-free loans are now available to government-subsidised diploma students in SA.
The arrangement gives students with weak high school results a second chance at university entry, according to TAFE SA’s acting chief executive, Robin Murt:
Graduates who come through a TAFE SA pathway perform better in degree studies than many of those that come direct, because they are better prepared for their university studies.
