This is the transcript for the video Entry Pathways into a Science or Mathematics Degree and Aptitude Assessment.
Hi, everyone, welcome to this video presentation, which will cover the entry pathways into science or mathematics at UTS and will also cover the aptitude assessment. So before I begin, I’d just like to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Scott Chadwick. I am the director of undergraduate programs here at UTS for the Faculty of Science. So before I begin into the specific details about how to get to UTS, I’m just going to give you a little bit of more information on why you might want to consider studying at UTS. So at UTS, we very much prioritise the real world skills that our graduates will need once they leave university. So all of our subjects have been designed to provide you with the technical and real world experience that you would need outside of the classroom so you can learn it while you’re at university. And we do that through hands on practical computer lab classes, as well as the opportunities for students to do internships while you are studying here. Learning at UTS means that you are also learning from some of the world class researchers in a whole range of different areas in science and mathematics, so we, wherever possible, try to have the researchers teach you while you’re, while you’re studying here so that you can learn from the best. The facilities that we have here at UTS are world class, they are very high quality and specialised facilities that we have, and we always make sure that our students get access to them while they’re studying here.
So, for instance, we have two super labs where you might be doing biology or chemistry in some of your subjects, or if you do something like forensic science, you will have the experience of learning in our crime scene simulation suite. There’s plenty of these types of facilities that we have on campus. If you do have the opportunity to come on campus for an open day, I highly recommend you take one of the tours so you can see the facilities for yourself. The other real strength of the University of Technology, Sydney, is that we are connected quite closely to industry. The benefit of being at a city campus is that we are quite connected to a whole range of different private and government sectors. So we work quite close to them, the benefit of being in the city. And because of that, that allows us to connect students with future employers and different areas that our graduates might be moving into. And the way that we do that is we provide our students with opportunities to work on research projects with our partners or the opportunity to take an internship while you’re studying with us. The other really good part about UTS is that when we do our learning and when we do our research, we always want to make sure that it has impact. So we like to, we are doing some amazing things here at UTS and we like our students to be exposed to that from the very first year when they when they come on campus with us. So you’ll have the opportunity to immerse yourself in a world leading research community where we are making some life changing discoveries. And if you’re lucky, you may be part of some of those discoveries while you are studying here at UTS.
So the rest of this presentation is just going to cover some more specific information about how you can get to UTS and the particular pathways for getting into the particular courses you might be interested in. So just to clarify some of the terms that we’ll be using in this presentation when we refer to the ATAR that is the Australian Tertiary Admission rank, and that is a score between zero to 99.95 that shows how you rank compared to all students in your year group across Australia. Now, the selection rank is a combination of your ATAR and any other adjustment factors or adjustment points that will make up your overall university entrance score. So we’re going to focus very specifically on the selection rank for the rest of the presentation. Now, the ATAR is what you get from UAC, and the adjustment points are things that we will take into consideration that are in addition to your ATAR. So how does it work? Well at UTS, if you are a Year 12 student with at least an ATAR of 70, you may be eligible for up to 10 adjustment points through a range of different admission schemes.
And if you had an ATAR of 70 and you were successful in obtaining the 10 adjustment points, then you would have an overall selection rank of 80. So these adjustment points are in addition to your ATAR. So I’m going to go through the different schemes that can contribute to these adjustment points. The I’m going to focus on are the year 12 subject scheme, elite athlete and performers and the educational access schemes that we have. So firstly, the year 12 subject scheme. So this is a scheme that rewards additional points towards your selection rank and it is based on your performance in specific high school subjects relevant to your preferred course. The reason why we do this is that we recognise that if you are interested in something like science or mathematics, then we want that, your performance in those subjects to be recognised when you are applying for a science or mathematics course. So we would provide you with additional bonus points based on how you performed in those science and mathematics subjects. So in order to be eligible for this particular scheme, you have to have applied for UTS course that awards adjustment factors. So please bear in mind that not all courses will have this available to them. If you do want to find out what courses have adjustment points available to them. You can head to our website. You will need to obtain a minimum ATAR of 69 and you will need to have completed the relevant HSC subjects.
So through this scheme, you would be eligible for up to five adjustment points for each of the UTS courses that you’ve applied to, assuming that the bonus points could be applied to that particular course. So to give you an example, here is an example of the bonus or adjustment factors that could be applied to the Bachelor of Science (Environmental Sciences). And we have tables similar to this for all of the courses that have these adjustment factors applied to them. So you can head to our website to find out about a specific course. So in the case of the Bachelor of Science, Environmental Sciences, depending on which subjects you’ve taken, if you’ve taken biology, chemistry, earth and environmental science, mathematics or physics, you would be eligible per subject to get a maximum of four adjustment points if you received a band six. So if I just choose a specific subject here, so let’s go with earth and environmental science, if you received a band six you would receive four adjustment points, a band five would receive three and a band four you would receive two. Now, if you completed biology and earth and environmental science, you would be able to achieve a maximum of five points towards your adjustment factors. So, for instance, if you received a band five in biology, you would receive three points and a band four in earth and environmental, you would get five. But if you achieved a band, six in biology and a band six in earth and environmental science, the maximum amount of adjustment points you would be awarded would still only be five.
So just keep that in mind that it is a maximum of five points through this scheme. And it does depend on the course that you are applying for. So, for instance, the Bachelor of Science with a major in mathematics or statistics, the subjects that would provide you with adjustment points are mathematics, mathematics extension one and mathematics extension two. So please do go to our website and check out the different adjustment factors that can be applied to the different courses so you can have a bit more of an understanding of which courses and subjects are going to work for you for the course that you want to apply for. The other schemes is the elite athlete or performer program. So this is where we recognise that if you are in your HSC and you are someone who is an elite athlete or a performer, then there may have been some commitments to your particular area of interest that might have impacted your educational performance. So the way that you would receive some adjustment factors for this is you want to apply through UAC for the course you wish to study, and then you would need to submit a separate application for this special admissions schemes directly to UTS. So there, again, is a link on our website that talks specifically about elite athletes and performers.
Again, using this scheme, you would be eligible for up to five adjustment points for each of the UTS courses you have applied to. And just to clarify what we mean by elite athlete or elite performer, for an elite athlete, you need to have represented school or state at a national level competition during years 11 and/or 12, and your selection to the relevant team was competitive. So it needs to be a competitive process. Now for an elite performer, you need to have performed in extended or significant productions in Australia or overseas during year 11 and/or year 12. So please do go check that website for the more specific details and instruction for how you might wish to apply to this particular scheme. The educational access schemes are a few different schemes that could apply to a whole range of different students and we have these schemes here because we want to ensure that the students at UTS come from a very wide range of backgrounds and everybody has access to our courses. So the main through line of these schemes is that there may have been some educational disadvantages that you may have had during your studies that would have impacted your academic performance. And again, we want to recognise that that may have impacted your score, but we don’t want that to stop you from coming to UTS. So I’ll be going through some of the more specific schemes in the next few slides.
So the first one there is inpUTS, so this is where a student may have experienced a long term disadvantage, which may have impacted on your school, vocational or university education results. Again, if you are wanting to apply through this particular scheme, you can apply through UAC. And as part of your application, you will need to provide a personal statement which describes your circumstances. And you need to outline that you have experienced one of the following educational disadvantages during year 11 and/or 12 or equivalent like TAFE or other studies. So on the right hand side here, we do have the further information. Again, to be eligible for this particular scheme, you need to be an Australian or New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and you need to have at least a minimum ATAR of 69. And some of those disadvantages that you may want to be applying or explaining for this particular scheme is if there was any personal illness or disability, there was a significant disruption to your schooling, refugee status, severe family problems or carer responsibilities, English language difficulties, financial hardship, adverse study conditions, or attended a school that received additional equity funding. If you believe that these apply to you, then again, you can head to our website to find out more information or head to UAC to find out more about the particular application process here. The school recommendation scheme is another equity focused scheme that is aimed at helping 12 students gain entry into the university.
So in order to be eligible through this particular scheme, there needs to have been socioeconomic disadvantage, some financial hardship, as well as the school environment that may not have been very helpful for your learning. In order to do this, you need to receive endorsement from your school of your potential to achieve at university study. You will need to still have obtained a minimum of 69 for your ATAR. You will need to apply through inpUTS adjustment for course entry and still apply through UAC. So there is, again, more information on the inpUTS scheme, which includes the school recommendation scheme on our website for you to review. Humanitarian access, so we do recognise that there may be some people with refugee or asylum seeker background that wish to study at university and the UTS is wanting to support those students to have those opportunities. So if you are somebody who has a permanent humanitarian visa, you then can be considered as a domestic student and are eligible to apply for inputs and the UTS school’s recommendation scheme, as well as through the humanitarian access scheme. If you are successful in obtaining this, then there is also going to be some additional support for you when you arrive at UTS. This can be through the areas of outreach, transition, support services, potential scholarships and academic and personal support network.
The Jumbunna Pathways program is is offered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who can have an opportunity to illustrate their capacity for higher education through testing, assessment and an interview process. So this will apply to recent school leavers. Now they can, they can be with or without an ATAR. It could be non school leavers, people from TAFE, college or previous university qualifications. So the Jumbunna Pathway program is quite a broad entry scheme and it can be a direct entry pathway into UTS. You will need to apply via UTS for this particular program. So this is not directly through UAC, this is a direct entry through UTS. After the testing and assessment, participants will be notified with a recommendation for one of the following pathways, one of them could be direct entry into UTS, it could be Unistart, humanitarian, in search or UTS College or TAFE or further preparation. So, again, there is some more information about this on our website. UTS also recognises and supports students who are in formal out of home care, and there is a carer’s leave support system in place. So this is for students that when they are at UTS, that they are provided with enough support and guidance to have a successful university experience. So some of the support that we have for carers is that there is appointment to discuss support options before or after they accept offers to study here. When you are studying, there is access and assistance in providing you with the support services on offer here, as well as tours and visits to student accommodation. So again, if you are somebody who may be in this type of position, then please do check our website to find out some more information of the specific support that we have.
The other particular pathway is through the aptitude assessment. So we at UTS Science completely recognise that some students may have an aptitude for scientific study that is not quite reflected in the HSC results. And if you are not eligible for some of the other adjustment factors, then perhaps the aptitude assessment is for you. This assessment is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your potential and your acumen or your skill for science and mathematics. And through this assessment, it could possibly secure you an offer of study at UTS Science. The point of the assessment is to assess your analytical, critical thinking and problem solving skills. Just bear in mind that it is not something that you need to study for. It is not a knowledge based assessment. It is more around you demonstrating your skills. So who is eligible? Well, any student of UTS who wants to start in the coming years, 2020, 2021, but feel that their HSC result may not reflect their potential to do science. If you have not previously attempted the assessment within the last 12 months, you will be eligible. But if you have attempted it in the last 12 months, you would need to wait until that 12 month period is over. Bearing in mind that the aptitude assessment does not apply for advanced science courses, the combined courses or any of our Honours degrees. So it will apply to our Bachelor of Science and our named courses. There will be more information about this assessment available to you closer to open day or open week and to results released in December.
The other thing to consider, these pathways are not available to you through UTS. There are another set of pathways through Insearch, UTS College, TAFE or a different degree at another university that can lead to you coming back to UTS science. And this might mean that you study your first year or your first semester at another institution and then you’re able to transfer after completing some of those studies to study here at UTS. So if you are not successful with your ATAR and the adjustment factors don’t quite work out, there are plenty of other opportunities for you to study at UTS if that is what you are wishing to do.
Thank you for listening to this particular presentation. If you do have any other questions, you can always email us at science@uts.edu.au or if you want to learn more about our courses, you can head to science.uts.edu.au/future. If you are wanting to see some of the things that we do on campus, then please connect with us on our social media at UTS science on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for listening.