Australian curriculum for Graduate and post graduate courses
As per Australian immigration records, 343,035 students migrated to Australia from Jul 16 to Jun 17 from over 16 countries*. Students come from various corners of the world and from different education backgrounds. I believe every country has its own curriculum for their education system. Some are similar to Australia and some might be totally different. The curriculum I have studied in India was totally different to Australian curriculum. I strongly feel it is good to understand how the curriculum is set in the country where you are going to study. This helps us to prioritize our tasks while attending the course in the university.
When I came as a student to Australia, it took two months to settle down with my accommodation, university enrollment, meeting new friends and understanding the environment around me. By the time I settled in, exams and assignments were around the corner. I was under stress, luckily, all the subjects were familiar to me and did not take much time to get back on track. So I believe prior planning helps to avoid this situation for those students who are new to the course.
Hence, I tried to bring the below for you:
Curriculum is a planned process of the course. It is designed in such a way that students can acquire a set of knowledge and skills attributed by the time they graduate. This enables the students to achieve skills and knowledge necessary to the practical world. I strongly believe Australian education system is practical and live. Forget those days where you had to sit one week before the exam and writing the subject. You are getting into the world of practice and more communication. Don’t be worried! It’s all hard work with funJ
The Graduate and post graduate courses mostly follow the below curriculum:
Australian education system allows you to get used to deadlines and working in the team. These are the two important things you need to adopt, if you want to work for an organisation. This education system provides you both qualities by the end of the course. Let’s get into the topic now, most of the subjects are set to score 100 marks.
Tests: After completing 2 to 3 chapters /units of your subject, you will be conducted a test which comprises of 5% or 10% of the total exam marks of 100. This means you have to prepare well for this exam as it adds value to your final exam. This exam varies from university to university and subject to subject. The university might have couple of small tests to add up to 40% of the exam or just only one with 20% of the total value of the final marks.
Assignments: These are major tasks for every student. Each subject has been allocated an assignment to complete. Assignment is nothing but a project given to complete with the topics covered in the subject. For example, if the subject is relating to business management, the assignment might comprise of a case study and what the organisation did to compete with its competitors. In this scenario, you need to write with examples as how company applied the concepts of business management to compete globally. The marking again depends on the subjects. The percentage can vary from 20% to 45% of total marking.This can be group based or individual assignment. All the assignments have very strict deadlines and can be submitted online or by paper.
Presentations/Project work: This step is not mandatory for all subjects. Only few subjects relating to business or marketing might have this additional task of presenting the data to your team, lecturer and remaining students of your class. Again this adds about 10% to 15% to your total marks.
Final Exam: The final exam covers all the chapters of the subject and you are tested on all of them. The final exam comprises of remaining percentage of the above tests. It can be 40% to 60% of the total marks. Usually, this exam comprises of multiple choice questions, case studies or question & answer type. It can be anything but usually the lecturer would inform the students about the exam pattern well before the exam date. This helps you to study accordingly.
I know what you are all curious about? What would be the passing marks to finish the subject? 99% it would be 50 marks for the subject. You need to score at least 50% in all of the above tests to successfully complete the subject without much stress or can be scored overall to 50%. If you organise your time and study accordingly, there is no chance of failing the subject. The lecturers and tutors are very helpful at every University and very friendly to talk to.
Happy student journey!
*Data from homeaffairs website.
