News Archive

The only way to get into university is by getting a good score in your Year 12 TER results, right? Not anymore. UWA Albany's Uni Smart Start program provides an alternative pathway to university study which is tailored towards students who, for whatever reason, do not have university entry qualifications including mature aged and school leavers.

For Peter Nevin, now in his first year of an Arts degree, the free Uni Smart Start program proved an invaluable introduction to studying at university.  ‘It gives you a second chance. I wouldn't have been able to do what I'm doing now without it. I'd worked in a variety of trades after I left school in year 10 - and that was quite a long time ago,' he joked. ‘Coming back to study as a mature age student I realised that having a bit of life experience was going to help me make sense of the ideas that I was reading about. But it was the help I got from the Uni Smart Start tutors that gave me the study skills and the confidence to make the most out of it.'

‘I wish the program had been around when I started uni,' agreed Sarah Drummond who is now a tutor in the UWA Albany Uni Smart Start course. ‘When you come to uni as a mature age student you don't always have the computer skills and essay writing skills you need. I learnt them while I was doing my degree but it would have been really useful to have learnt them before.'

The UWA Albany Centre is now taking enrolments for the Uni Smart Start program for 2011.   Phone 9842 0888 for further information.

Media references

Paula Phillips (UWA Albany Centre) (+61 8) 9842 0810