By Jamie Salter
Nursing, Education, Veterinary and Wildlife Science and Biomedical Science are among the most popular programs for prospective students at Federation University Australia’s Berwick campus in 2022.
There are 381 offers at the Berwick campus from the Victorian Tertiary Admission Centre (VTAC) January round of offers.
Student Erin McGarry has accepted an offer to study a Bachelor of Nursing at the Berwick campus.
She said she was relieved to have been offered a spot at her first choice of university.
“I was a bit worried at first because the offers stop going out at 2pm and I got mine at 1.30pm, so I was so relieved when I got the offer,” she said.
“When I went to the open day I was really impressed by the campus – I cant wait to get started there.”
Erin said a Bachelor of Nursing stood out to her, as both of her auntie’s work in the industry.
“It’s been something I’ve grown up around and for Year 10 work experience I spent time in a paediatrics ward and I loved it so much – since then I’ve known that’s what I wanted to do.”
Erin said she was looking forward to attending campus following ongoing coronavirus lockdowns.
VTAC offers account for around one third of domestic enrolments at Federation, with most applications being made directly to the university.
Based on current projections, the overall number of domestic enrolments for higher education and TAFE is likely to be on par with 2021.
Vice-chancellor and president professor Duncan Bentley said he was looking forward to having students back on campus this year.
“The current Year 12 graduates have competed their entire two years of VCE in the Covid-19 pandemic with long periods studying from home, which has made it difficult for some students to look beyond the pandemic and consider post-secondary school study,” Mr Bentley said.
“We know this has impacted enrolments over the past two years and we have put extra support in place to help incoming students, which has helped us maintain steady enrolments this year.”
Mr Bentley said the university sector had experienced two difficult years due to Covid-19 and Federation was rolling out a big change agenda to lock in sustainable growth for future years.
This includes improving student experience at all campuses, taking a digital first approach and aligning programs with industry needs to provide a pipeline of job ready graduates in the regions where Federation operates.
