confusion: university system here (1 Viewer)

[Abtari]

can someone pls explain to me how university degrees work? i know this sounds ridiculous but im a bit confused about all these credit points business..

oh and if someone could clarify the terminology too, e.g. major, subject, courses, degrees and so forth that would be great..
thanks

 

[kami]

Terminology: http://www.uac.edu.au/other/glossary.html

Well basically your uni degree will have requirements to be met for you to recieve your degree when your finished - a certain amount of study, study in certain areas, and studying at certain levels. Credit points are set by unis(and their worth varies across different unis so dont try to set a standard) to indicate the worth of your subject to your study load I suppose - pretend you have an account of say 60 academic credits a semester, then you would take 6 subjects with 10 points or 5 subjects with 12 points otherwise you have to make up that study somewhere else later.

 

[Abtari]

so there are different ways of fulfilling requirements of ur degree..by choosing different subjects..

thanks for the link.

 

[poloktim]

Units are not like units in the HSC. When she says units, she means subjects.

Units can be compared to credit points at university. You need to complete a certain amount of units at high school, and you need to complete a certain amount of credit points at university. The difference is, sometimes some subjects are worth more credit points than normally expected, which means there's more work involved (in theory), or the subject lasts longer than a semester (the whole year for example), others have less credit points which could mean there's less work involved over the semester, or the length of the subject is smaller.

For many degrees you get given a list of subjects you have to complete. However, there is also an amount of credit points which must be completed. Much of the time, the list of subjects makes up less credit points than required, which means you have to do elective subjects to make up the rest.

For example: BCompSc at Imaginary University which has 10 credit point subjects (some universities have three, some have six, some have eight, some have ten and some even have fifteen), the degree length is three years. A standard full time study load would be 40 credit points (four subjects), a semester. So in a year, 80 credit points (eight subjects) would normally be completed. A student must reach at least 240 credit points in three years or more to graduate.

Core subjects (subjects which must be done):
MATH100 - Mathematics I - 10 cp
MATH101 - Mathematics II - 10 cp
MATH111 - Discrete Mathematics - 10 cp
MATH112 - Probability - 10cp
COMP101 - Introduction to Information Technology - 10 cp
COMP150 - Introduction to Programming - 10cp
MATH200 - Mathematics for Computer Scientists - 8 cp
COMP200 - Advanced Programming - 10 cp
COMP210 - Database Management Systems - 10 cp
COMP220 - Network and Distributed Computing - 10 cp
COMP230 - Ethics in an Information Technology Environment - 10 cp
COMP300 - Computing Project - 20 cp
COMP301 - Operating Systems Design - 10cp

Total credit points taken up by core subjects: 128 credit points
Total credit points to be taken as elective subjects: 112 credit points or more.

These electives can be taken from anywhere the course handbook allows. Some degrees have strict rules regarding electives, and provide a list of subjects from which you can choose from. Others might be more relaxed and say you can choose electives from anywhere (so long as you meet the requirements of that subject).

You'll pick it up very easily. Don't worry.

 

[santaslayer]

Units are not like units in the HSC. When she says units, she means subjects.

Units can be compared to credit points at university. You need to complete a certain amount of units at high school, and you need to complete a certain amount of credit points at university. The difference is, sometimes some subjects are worth more credit points than normally expected, which means there's more work involved (in theory), or the subject lasts longer than a semester (the whole year for example), others have less credit points which could mean there's less work involved over the semester, or the length of the subject is smaller.

For many degrees you get given a list of subjects you have to complete. However, there is also an amount of credit points which must be completed. Much of the time, the list of subjects makes up less credit points than required, which means you have to do elective subjects to make up the rest.

For example: BCompSc at Imaginary University which has 10 credit point subjects (some universities have three, some have six, some have eight, some have ten and some even have fifteen), the degree length is three years. A standard full time study load would be 40 credit points (four subjects), a semester. So in a year, 80 credit points (eight subjects) would normally be completed. A student must reach at least 240 credit points in three years or more to graduate.

Core subjects (subjects which must be done):
MATH100 - Mathematics I - 10 cp
MATH101 - Mathematics II - 10 cp
MATH111 - Discrete Mathematics - 10 cp
MATH112 - Probability - 10cp
COMP101 - Introduction to Information Technology - 10 cp
COMP150 - Introduction to Programming - 10cp
MATH200 - Mathematics for Computer Scientists - 8 cp
COMP200 - Advanced Programming - 10 cp
COMP210 - Database Management Systems - 10 cp
COMP220 - Network and Distributed Computing - 10 cp
COMP230 - Ethics in an Information Technology Environment - 10 cp
COMP300 - Computing Project - 20 cp
COMP301 - Operating Systems Design - 10cp

Total credit points taken up by core subjects: 128 credit points
Total credit points to be taken as elective subjects: 112 credit points or more.

These electives can be taken from anywhere the course handbook allows. Some degrees have strict rules regarding electives, and provide a list of subjects from which you can choose from. Others might be more relaxed and say you can choose electives from anywhere (so long as you meet the requirements of that subject).

You'll pick it up very easily. Don't worry.

CP=Credit points...

cp's cannot be measured between different unis...a lot of them have different systems...

 

[poloktim]

CP=Credit points...

cp's cannot be measured between different unis...a lot of them have different systems...

For example: BCompSc at Imaginary University which has 10 credit point subjects (some universities have three, some have six, some have eight, some have ten and some even have fifteen), the degree length is three years. A standard full time study load would be 40 credit points (four subjects), a semester. So in a year, 80 credit points (eight subjects) would normally be completed. A student must reach at least 240 credit points in three years or more to graduate.

Not as clear as you had it, but it was in there.

Though, there is a way to compare credit points between universities. If a subject is worth six credit points at the University of Wollongong, and three credit points at Macquarie University, yet they're both considered to be 0.125 esitmated full time study loads, so they both take up 0.125 years from your student learning entitlement, then you can assume that they're similar.

If you were transferring from Wollongong to Macquarie, and were able to get all subjects you've completed at Wollongong credited to your Macquarie degree, then you could just halve the number of credit points you've completed. Seventy-two credit points from a one hundred and forty-four credit point degree becomes thirty-six credit points from the degree you're studying at Macquarie.

At Wollongong, an EFTSL (estimated full time study load) is forty-eight credit points, whereas elsewhere, such as UWS, an EFTSL is eighty credit points.

All of UWS units are worth 10cp

That's surprising. Are you saying UWS doesn't offer a variety of subjects which may not be worth the full ten credit points, or subjects which require more work than a standard subject? Or is it simply a case of no matter what the subject matter, every subject has the same weighting, so it's better if everybody chooses the easy ones if possible (when they have a choice)?

 

[AsyLum]

There are a remote few which aren't 10 CP, but they use a different 'level' system to differentiate i think ?

 

[Abtari]

You'll pick it up very easily. Don't worry.

i'm sure i will

im not stressed about it atm, and there is no reason to be.. i was curious though

 

[*Buttercup*]

well this sorta seems like a relevant thread to post my question in... so here goes...

if u do a combined degree... how do u get all the work done in like 5 years (or however long the degree is)? Does that mean u have to do extra subjects each semester?

And does that make combined degrees really really really hard and stressful?

i hope that Qn makes sense....

 

[Frigid]

if u do a combined degree... how do u get all the work done in like 5 years (or however long the degree is)? Does that mean u have to do extra subjects each semester?

single-major in each degree as opposed to double-major in a single degree.

for example,

in B.Commerce, the units you could do are: Commerce core subjects + Comm. major 1 electives + Comm. major 2 electives

whereas, in B.Commerce/B.Laws, the units you could do are: Commerce core subjects + Law core subjects + Comm. major 1 electives + Law electives.

 

[Demandred]

well this sorta seems like a relevant thread to post my question in... so here goes...

if u do a combined degree... how do u get all the work done in like 5 years (or however long the degree is)? Does that mean u have to do extra subjects each semester?

And does that make combined degrees really really really hard and stressful?

i hope that Qn makes sense....

You do the more important units from both courses, still 4 units per semester, but usually a year longer. Many think that a combined degree is 'watered down', but don't think it's an inferior degree, some might see it as taking the best from both worlds.

 

[Lexicographer]

Don't forget that in single degrees you have all those electives to burn, whereas in combined degrees the electives in one course are usually filled by the core subjects of the other course.

As for credit points, before the student learning entitlements were introduced, the simpler (and still academically definitive) method for comparing subject values between institutions was to compare the credit point value with the yearly full time load. For example, at UTS etc where a full year load was 48 credit points spread evenly over two semesters, a "standard" unit was worth 6 credit points (or 1/8th of the year's credit points). If at a different university the same fraction corresponded to a 10 credit point subject, then you knew that the two were equivalent in weight.

 

[*Buttercup*]

thanks heaps!!