Further studies in Oz?

[WayneAndMel]

I was wondering if anyone here has had experience or knowledge in either of two respects pertaining to obtaining further qualifications while in Oz?

 

First, are there any realistic options open to skilled immigrants around part time studies with Australian institutions similar to UNISA? By that question it would be whether a) they offer such courses, b) skilled immigrants could enjoy the same costs of tertiary education as citizens do and c) whether prior South African qualifications would help get one to at least get enough credit (or however they determine entrance) for one to be let in altogether even if starting from scratch?

 

Otherwise, what about those who have studied through UNISA while in Oz? How did you find it and was it worthwhile/not worthwhile? Was it logistically feasible or was UNISA/the SA postal service an administrative issue? 

 

And to both approaches, can you also stagger the number of courses you'd do early on to be low; then scale up in subsequent terms as one's family settles down fully?

[Mara]

Check "Open Universities Australia" . Sorry, just google it, my tablet is playing up tonight.

[RedPanda]

 ....but tangentially related....

Australia has a University of South Australia, also abbreviated UniSA, I don't know if it causes confusion when people talk about UNISA/UniSA in the work environment, but worth knowing about.

[RedPanda]

Here is the link Open Universities Australia 

[RYLC]

4 hours ago, WayneAndMel said:

b. skilled immigrants could enjoy the same costs of tertiary education as citizens do

c) whether prior South African qualifications would help get one to at least get enough credit (or however they determine entrance) for one to be let in altogether even if starting from scratch?

 

Otherwise, what about those who have studied through UNISA while in Oz? How did you find it and was it worthwhile/not worthwhile? Was it logistically feasible or was UNISA/the SA postal service an administrative issue? 

 

And to both approaches, can you also stagger the number of courses you'd do early on to be low; then scale up in subsequent terms as one's family settles down fully?

 

b. you don't get the same basis as citizens.  You have to pay on-shore fees (as opposed to the very expensive international student fees).  Only citizens get to use the government "loan" scheme called HECS / HELP where they only pay back once they are earning over a certain amount (its a few k over $50K from what I remember). Very generally course fees are about $1-2,000 per subject but will vary widely depending on what you want to study.

 

C) My husband's engineering degree was accepted for further study but he had had it assessed previously and was also registered with the engineering association so not totally sure.  I think credits for a partial degree from RSA will be a problem but you'll have to check with the specific university.  I know somebody who was half way through a teaching qualification in RSA, moved here and had to start all over again.

 

I studied part-time myself and you can do one course at a time or a full load.  It's really up to you how many you register for.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by RYLC

[ottg]

Also consider the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). Have done various post grad studies through them. They offer on and off-campus education (however a few modules cant be done off-campus). Their online study desk is great.

The online studies are video recordings from on-campus classes with lecture notes/slides. However it depends on the prof

They also provide credits based on prior learning from (inter)national universities

Some universities have better faculties than others and often very industry focused. eg USQ is strongly agriculture research focused in using smart technologies

This has to do with there standing in the industry, sponsorship and industry JV agreements

https://www.usq.edu.au/study/apply/credit

[WayneAndMel]

Thank you all. Those links have been helpful.

 

My existing skills are in Finance and IT but I'm wanting to start a push towards a BSc qualification. I see one or two of the options I'm considering would perhaps be supported financially as well seeing as they're on the SOL list but another wouldn't. Part time studies for the third might also not be feasible from what I've read thus far.

[Dill]

Hi Wane and Mel

I started a UNISA (South Africa) degree 5 years ago. We arrived in Jan 2015, so have been doing my exams in Perth since then.

If I knew then what I know now, I would NOT have started the degree. The postal system is slow, but all material is online now, so is easily accessible. The bigger problem is that the general admin is shocking - way too many students for the number of staff. Very frustrating to deal with and not sure if the degree will be worth anything by the time I finish it. The regular protests have sometimes made things even worse and standards have also dropped, but that's a fairly subjective opinion.

The only positive is that it's cheap as chips compared to anything here. Sadly, you get what you pay for. Open University is a much better option, but also much more expensive.

All the best,

Dill

[monsta]

On 13/09/2016 at 6:34 PM, WayneAndMel said:

Thank you all. Those links have been helpful.

 

My existing skills are in Finance and IT but I'm wanting to start a push towards a BSc qualification. I see one or two of the options I'm considering would perhaps be supported financially as well seeing as they're on the SOL list but another wouldn't. Part time studies for the third might also not be feasible from what I've read thus far.

 

Just a thought... Aussies employers don't rate qualifications as highly as experience. You work in IT, so here is an IT example. You might have worked at a successful startup that used Chef to automate deployments of dozens of servers on Amazon. A company looking to move a bunch of servers to amazon would pay you big bucks... more than if you had a shiny BSC degree.

 

Studying in Aussie is really expensive, even for the locals. Educating foreign students is one of Australia's top money earners. In order to have such great universities, they need to charge an arm and a leg. 

[WayneAndMel]

Thanks @monsta and @Dill 

 

It makes it difficult as I would really like to enhance my skills in either IT security and/or process change and/or some sort of work productive programming to make my skills more marketable.

 

I'm also first Finance and second IT hybrid in my skill set that deals with financial data, databases, process changes and financial models. It's admittedly an odd skill fit that I find most SA employers don't understand the need for outside some large entities but I'd like to enhance the IT ability from what I've seen from experience - being in running battles in the boardroom between directors and auditors over IFRS disclosure just is not for me.

 

The idea for computer science is because I encounter circumstances where, for example, in advanced IT security fields a lot of the work I've seen technical specialists handling assumes a prior knowledge of BSc specific skills or training that I admittedly lack and a BComm IT does not provide. There are obviously many other gaps in skills and knowledge that would also give me skill - for want of a better word - synergies (a very overused fancy speak word in business!).   

 

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. And there is some sort of Aussie diploma or certificate course setup that allows one to gain those selective skills or training over earning an (expensive) degree? 

 

[RYLC]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for: the courses seem to be called cyber security.  Lots to choose from.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=study+cyber+security+australia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=6bTpV_yLNarM8getmai4CQ