2007/08 Higher Education Student Information

Higher Education at Charles Darwin University

The University's higher education academic programs are described as:

What do these terms mean?

Course of study

A course of study is described as either an:

Courses of study usually include courses/streams/majors within the course of study.

Each course of study will lead to one award only.

Combined courses will lead to two awards, for example a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts will lead to the award of a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts.

Courses/streams or specialisations

An approved combination of units from one identified stream within a course of study.

Award

Formal certificate of achievement or competence granted to a student after completion of a course of study.

Unit

A unit is a prescribed amount of academic work often characterised by a set of lectures, tutorials, workshops and other teaching and learning sessions.

For detailed information about the university's unit availability please refer to the units page.

Unit code and title

An administrative code and summary of the content. For example:

MUS322 The Community Musician 5
PSY140 Introductory Psychology A

The first three to five letters in each code relate to teaching disciplines, e.g. MUS - Music, PSY - Psychology. Please note that this not always the case, for example, the SBI prefix means Science - Biology.

The first number of the code gives the level at which the subject is taught. For example:

1xx - level one PSY140
2xx - level two MKT201
3xx - level three MUS322

Normally, students would commence a course of study enrolling in 100 level units before they enrol in 200 or higher-level units.

View the Charles Darwin University Higher Education Unit Nomenclature - 2005 (.pdf, 23kb).

Unit prerequisite

A unit which must be completed with a grade of Pass Conceded or better before a subsequent unit can be undertaken.

Credit points

Each unit has a number of credit points, which give a value to the unit, indicating its contribution to the course requirements and to the enrolment load of the student. It also indicates the amount of work the unit might entail.

Most units are 10 credit points, which represents a quarter of a load for a semester. A full load for a semester is 40 credit points; a full load for the year is 80 credit points. Credit points are normally associated with units in multiples of 10 only.

The credit point value determines the Equivalent Full Time Study Load (EFTSL) for a unit. At Charles Darwin University:

Semester or teaching period

Semesters or teaching periods vary in length from 10 to 18 weeks duration depending on the area of study.

You will note that admission or entry into courses is restricted to semester 1 and 2 of each year. However, the number of teaching periods, hence availability and flexibility of unit offerings and choices exceeds this manifold.

View information about Charles Darwin University's semester dates 2007-2008.

Externally enrolled students receive their external study materials and/or get access to Learnline by the first day of classes.

Unit fees

Each unit has four fee levels attached to them depending on the category a student considers him/herself to be in. Categories are normally assigned at the time of enrolment.

For detailed information about unit fees please refer to the unit fees page.

Commencing students who require assistance should contact Student Services 1800 061 963 or 08 8946 7766 or email hesahelp@cdu.edu.au.

Continuing students, who seek clarification in relation to their status, email hesahelp@cdu.edu.au.

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