Albany’s Great Southern Grammar to join UWA pilot program offering courses for university credit to students

Senior Great Southern Grammar students will be able to get a head start in studying at university while they are still at school through a new partnership with the University of WA.

The school has been selected as one of 12 across the State to take part in the pilot of UWA’s Starter program, beginning in 2023.

The program will provide Year 11 and 12 students with the opportunity to undertake micro-credential UWA courses as an extension of the university’s existing UWA Plus program offering pre-university courses to adult learners.

Each micro-credential course will take about a school term to complete and will be worth two credit points towards a UWA undergraduate unit.

With one unit equalling six credit points, students will have the chance to accumulate up to six credits through a hybrid online and on-campus learning system, undertaken outside of school hours.

UWA’s associate director of academic innovation and business development, Amanda Fritz, who is managing the project, said it aimed to be an alternative to university enabling programs offered at other universities.

She said it would be offered to ATAR and non-ATAR students.

“We recognise that a lot of the other universities in WA have gone out with the university enabling programs,” Ms Fritz said.

“We are not attempting to enter that space necessarily, because they’ve got the grasp on that.

“We’re entering with something different, an acknowledgement that UWA is looking at standing above the crowd and standing outside of what’s traditionally being offered.

“So we’re making sure that students, no matter what pathway they’re undertaking, if they have an aspiration for study at UWA, or study at university in the future, they can take up to three micro-credentials across their senior secondary years.”

Courses on offer will cover a range of undergraduate degree topics including across the sciences, law and business, as well as academic writing and researching skills.

The full program of micro-credentials available to students will be released to participating schools in the coming weeks.

The UWA Starter program will begin with start next year, with term one dedicated to orientation and the first round of micro-credential courses to start from Term 2.

The pilot program will initially be offered at 12 schools across WA and Perth including GSG.

After the initial trial, feedback will be taken and any changes made, before it is expanded in 2024 to any school in the State wanting to be involved, as well as international schools that offer WACE studies.