Welcome and introduction to Perth

Rob: Good evening and welcome to the National Virtual Expo. I'm your host, Rob Malicki, coming to you today from Garigal land in Sydney. When I think about all of the campuses in Australia and all of the universities I visit, the one that stands out to me as perhaps the most beautiful -- and definitely one of my favourites in terms of student vibes -- is the University of Western Australia. And of course, that's what we're covering in this session. If you've got questions as we go, make sure you drop them in the chat if you're here live. If you're on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok, you can ask your questions in those chats and they'll come through. If you're watching on the replay, jump in and ask your questions on the Choosing Your Uni Discord, and parents can use the Facebook community -- details for both are in the session description. Without further ado, I'm going to hand over to my colleagues over in Western Australia.

Guest: Hi everyone, welcome to the UWA live session for the Choosing Your Uni Virtual Expo. We're really glad you've come to join us today. My name's Molly. I work in the domestic students future students team.

Guest: Hi guys. I'm Allison. I'm in the international recruitment team. Welcome to our presentation.

Guest: Really great to have you here with us today. We're going to take you through a whole lot and hopefully answer all of your questions. If not, at the end we'll have lots of resources available for you to get in touch with us. So we'll get straight into it. We're going to go through four main categories today: the basics of UWA and a little bit about what you can study, how you get into uni, and then what it's like to be a student at UWA.

Guest: What I really want the main takeaway from this session to be is that, if you're doing your exploration and you're not sure what you want to study -- or maths and data are sending you one direction but your heart's going another -- what's really important about uni is that you have lots of opportunity, and there's lots of time to figure out what it is you'd like to do. I'm a great case study for that. When I moved to Perth from Victoria, I thought I wanted to study anthropology. When I got to WA, I actually pivoted the whole direction of my degree. By just getting started and seeing the different opportunities available to me, I was able to make changes, and you'll be able to have that same flexibility. So I want that to be your main takeaway today: you've got lots of time to figure it out, and we're always going to be here to help support you.

Why Perth? City livability, industry connections, and the UWA campus

Guest: So let's give you a bit of an overview of the fundamentals of UWA. If you are currently not in Perth, I want to talk to you a little bit about Perth, because as a long-time Perthite, I love it here, and our students love it here too. Perth is located on the west coast of Australia, in the biggest Australian state by land size, Western Australia. We have just over 3 million residents in Western Australia, with the majority living in Perth. We are the fastest-growing capital city in Australia -- forecasted by 2030 to be the third largest, just behind Sydney and Melbourne. It's a very multicultural city, with over 40% of residents born overseas. We are also known as the sunniest capital city in Australia, with over eight hours of sunlight per day. And at the very bottom of the slide, we always like to show our little quokka -- native to Western Australia and a little island called Rottnest. We always say it is the number one happiest animal on Earth, because it really does enjoy a selfie. So if you're ever in Perth, please visit Rottnest and take a selfie with a quokka.

Guest: Other things about Perth: it's a really beautiful and livable city. When you look at things like pollution, transport, affordability, and health care, we are consistently ranked in the top 15 most livable cities in the world. It is a biodiversity hotspot as well, so you will see many things on a street in Perth that you won't see anywhere else in the world. And we are in the most populous time zone, so if you are located overseas and would like to come to Perth, it's very well connected, because our time zone is the same as most of the world's population.

Guest: In terms of industry, Perth is a very connected city -- connected not just to different industries locally, but also globally. About a third of all companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange are headquartered right here in Perth. That's great for students looking for internships and for graduates looking at working in really big multinational companies. Almost half of Australian exports actually come from Western Australia, which is why so many of those companies are looking globally. And if you are not an Australian citizen or resident and want to work here after you graduate, studying in Perth will get you an extra year on your student work visa, so you can build more Australian work experience.

Guest: We also have a campus down in Albany, located just south of Perth. It's a really beautiful town, and if you are interested in nature and the oceans, it's a great place to study, even just for one semester.

Guest: Now, not just about Perth -- I want to talk about what makes UWA unique. We are a fairly large campus with over 25,000 students and 3,500 staff, making our staff-to-student ratio very good. We offer a comprehensive range of courses across many different study areas, so there really is something for everyone. We also have 130 different partner universities for exchange, so if you're interested in studying overseas for one semester or a year while still getting your qualification, that is definitely possible here. UWA is ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide, and we are the only university in Western Australia that holds this ranking. This means we partner extensively with industry, and our students are looking not just locally but globally for their careers.

Guest: Our campus is located just five kilometres from the Perth city centre. It's very easy to get to: all the train lines go to the city and we have frequent buses from the city to UWA, taking around ten minutes. One side of our campus faces Matilda Bay, and the other borders Kings Park, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. Our health campus is located about ten minutes' walk north, so if you're studying medicine or biomedical sciences you may be placed there. We also have five residential colleges located right opposite the campus if you want to live on campus -- each one offers something a little different, so have a look at all five to find the right fit for you.

Connecting students to industry: careers, mentoring, and work-integrated learning

Guest: UWA is very committed to helping students connect to employers and different types of industry partners. We have our Careers and Employability Centre, which is the one-stop shop for students interested in getting casual work while studying, help with resumes or interview techniques, and specifically getting internships and graduate work. We have our Career Mentor Link, which matches students with current professionals in the industry they want to work in, so they can really get some insight into their mentor's journey and support in their study. And at least two-thirds of our courses include some sort of work-integrated learning component. Make sure if you come to UWA that you have a look at all of those opportunities for internships and work experience. The partners you see on the screen are just some of many -- companies that come to campus at least twice a year to talk to students about different work experiences they can offer.

What you can study: bachelor degree types and how to mix and match majors

Guest: So, what can you study at UWA? You'll probably have heard a lot of these terms while visiting different vendors through the expo, but just to make sure you know the vocab: tertiary study is the study you do after finishing high school. A bachelor's or undergraduate degree is your first degree at university -- we use those terms fairly interchangeably. You might then choose to go on and do postgraduate study after your first degree. Within your bachelor degree, you'll be studying majors and minors, which are the areas you choose to focus on, made up of different units -- a bit like your subjects at school. Another key difference from high school is that university operates in semesters rather than terms, so rather than four terms a year, you get two semesters with a nice big break in between.

Guest: UWA is really flexible. We know that one size doesn't fit all, so we try to offer as much flexibility as possible to make sure you're getting exactly what you need out of your degree for your career aspirations. We have 11 different disciplines, ranging from STEM -- science, engineering, maths -- all the way through to the arts, law, and psychology. There really is something for everyone. And when you look at that list of disciplines, if you're thinking you're interested in more than one, the way our degrees are designed is that you can mix and match disciplines to get the specific skills and knowledge you need.

Guest: The three kinds of bachelor degrees we offer are: first, a comprehensive degree. This is your general degree and is very flexible -- we have over 200 majors to pick from, and within a comprehensive degree you can have up to two majors as well as a minor area of study. You don't even have to have your major figured out before you start. You have right until the end of your first year, and you can treat that first year a little bit like "try before you buy" -- figure out what you like and what you don't. Second is a specialised degree. As the name suggests, it's a little more specific and focused. Rather than one or two majors, you'll have one extended major, with still some flexibility to add a minor. And then finally, we have the combined bachelor degree -- the best of both worlds. You get a specialised bachelor degree as well as a comprehensive degree, combined into one, with just one extra year of study tacked on. It's almost two for the price of one, with lots of combinations to pick from.

Guest: So let's say, for example, you're studying a Bachelor of Science with a major in psychology, but you're thinking you'd go down the organisational psychology route rather than clinical. You might take your second major from the business and commerce discipline and do a human resource management major. Or perhaps you're studying a Bachelor of Arts, you've watched a lot of NCIS, so you're doing a criminology major, but you're also really interested in how drugs affect the body -- so you might take your second major in pharmacology from a health and biomedical sciences discipline. Lots of different ways to mix and match our majors to really suit your needs.

Guest: A typical bachelor degree is three years long when you study full time. A comprehensive degree gives you the ability to have two majors, a minor, and some room for electives -- those units you do just for fun that don't have to be related to your degree at all. Specialised degrees are a little more specific -- so rather than a Bachelor of Science, you might have Environmental Science or Molecular Science; rather than a Bachelor of Arts, something like Art History and Curatorial Studies or Modern Languages. Some of these have a higher entry requirement, but we can always help you find pathways through. Engineering is a great example: having an engineering qualification is a specialised skill, but there are lots of facets of engineering, so even within that degree you still select an extended major. And with a combined bachelor degree, you get that extended major taking up most of your study plan, still with room for a minor and some electives, plus that second degree in the final year.

Postgraduate pathways: assured, combined, and graduate entry options

Guest: Not everybody wants to study a second degree after their first, but some jobs do require one. So we have lots of ways to do postgraduate study at UWA. The first is called an assured pathway. This is where you use your ATAR or equivalent mark to apply for both the bachelor and the master's degree at the same time. If successful, we hold your place in that postgraduate degree while you complete your bachelor. The entry requirement is a little higher in this case because you are applying for a higher-level degree, but the beauty of an assured pathway is that we can accelerate the timeline slightly -- so what might otherwise take seven years we can usually do in five or six.

Guest: Next is the combined bachelor and master's pathway. A bit like a combined bachelor degree, you get two degrees in one extra year of study -- except now your second degree is at a master's level, which looks really great to future employers when you're graduating and already hold a master's-level qualification. And then finally there's our graduate entry pathway. This is a very common pathway if you don't know yet whether you want to study postgraduate. You focus on your bachelor degree first, studying what you're passionate about, and then use the marks from your bachelor degree to apply for a postgraduate programme. This will take you anywhere from four to seven years, depending on which bachelor and which master's programme you choose.

Entry requirements for international students

Guest: Now that we have a bit of an idea of what you might like to study, let's chat about how you go about getting into a degree. On screen you can see our admission requirements for international students. Generally there are three things students need. First, they need to meet the academic requirement. There are ATAR equivalents that you would need to meet to get into a set of courses, and we accept equivalent scores for a range of different curricula -- for example, the International Baccalaureate, the GCE A-levels, and a whole range of academic curricula worldwide. We also accept foundation programme or diploma courses, so if you are coming through somewhere like Canning College, we accept that as the academic requirement.

Guest: Everyone also needs to meet our English competency requirement. Generally, for most courses, that would be an IELTS Academic score of 6.5 overall with no section below 6. But similar to the academic requirement, you can meet English competency in a number of different ways. If we recognise your high school curriculum -- like the IB, SATs, or A-levels -- you could use your English subject to satisfy the requirement. Other tests like the TOEFL or the PTE are also accepted. And then the last thing we look at is subject prerequisites. Certain courses have different prerequisites -- for example, engineering might need higher-level maths, chemistry, or physics, whereas something like music might need an audition. Please have a look at your chosen course to see if there are any prerequisites, because you would need to complete them while you're still in high school.

Guest: We also have pathway programmes for international students. We have UWA College, which is actually on campus. If you're in Year 10 or 11 and would like to do a foundation programme -- or perhaps you didn't do so well in Year 12, or chose not to do Year 12 -- you could get into a diploma programme at UWA College. We offer diplomas in commerce, computer and data science, engineering, and science. Within those diplomas you will actually study the first year of the degree. So, for example, once you graduate from a Diploma of Commerce, you go directly into second year of a Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Business. By your final semester of the diploma you'll actually be studying alongside first-year bachelor students, which makes for a really great transition.

ATAR entry, adjustments, and bridging options for domestic students

Guest: Now a little bit about domestic students. The ATAR is not the be-all and end-all anymore, but it is still a very popular pathway and the most direct way into your chosen course. If you're studying via the ATAR pathway in Years 11 and 12, the requirements we look for are: satisfying your state's WACE (your Year 12 education certificate), which requires studying at least four subjects to generate a score; meeting English language competency, which for us can be a school grade of C or a scaled mark of 50 or higher in English, English Literature, or English as an Additional Language or Dialect; and meeting any prerequisites or special requirements -- as Allison mentioned, engineering, for example, requires maths or a science subject.

Guest: When it comes to the ATAR, we do make adjustments to give students the benefit of the doubt, and we do this in three main ways. First is a subject bonus: our admissions office reviews your ATAR in combination with which specific ATAR subjects you've taken, so that if you fall a little short overall but have done really well in an ATAR subject related to the degree you'd like to study, we can often make an adjustment to still get you into that course. A great example: our assured pathway to law requires a minimum ATAR of 98. If you fell short -- say you got just under -- but you really excelled in ATAR English Literature, our admissions office might be able to give you a bump and still make you an offer into that assured pathway.

Guest: Next is the Educational Access Scheme. This is an additional application you make through TISC when applying to UWA, and it allows us to factor in extenuating circumstances that may have affected your final exams -- things like moving interstate, a family member passing away during your final year, or a medical condition that kept you out of school. These are all things we want to know about so that when we review your ATAR, we can make an adjustment considering the circumstances you faced. And then finally there is our First in Family bonus. If neither of your parents attended university -- regardless of whether you have an older sibling who did -- we can consider you for this bonus. To activate it, you email our admissions office to let them know, and again they will make an adjustment to your ATAR on that basis.

Guest: Prerequisites are really important. Engineering is a great example of what we'd call a hard prerequisite -- meaning you do need them before you can commence in the course. For us that's something like Maths Methods, as well as either Chemistry, Physics, or Specialist Maths. If you didn't quite get your ATAR Maths Methods or didn't pass one of those prerequisite units, we do have bridging units. So, for example, if you didn't have Maths Methods you could do a maths bridging unit, or if you didn't have ATAR Chemistry you can do a chemistry bridging unit. You can then use those units to transfer into alternative courses, or you might start in that degree and decide you love it and stay there.

Experience-based entry and the new fee-free enabling programmes

Guest: The next entry pathway we love to talk about is our experience-based entry. You might hear other universities call this portfolio entry or work and life experience, and it's all about your experience. This is where we consider both what you've done academically and what you're doing in your life outside of school. It's a little bit like applying for a passport: you need 100 points of ID to get your passport. For experience-based entry, we look for 100 points worth of experiences to give you entry into our courses.

Guest: On the academic side, this might be making an attempt at an ATAR and not quite getting the score you need, or doing just one or two ATAR subjects in Year 12. If you're doing really well in your general subjects, or your school offers VET certificates -- Certificate IIIs and so forth -- that you can do in Years 11 and 12, these are all things we can consider. It might even be the case that you're doing a university enabling course as part of your Years 11 and 12. And then in addition, we look at life experience: whether you're playing sport or music at a high level, whether you do a lot of volunteering through church or in the community, whether you have a part-time job. We can even consider an educational reference from one of your teachers as part of this application.

Guest: Here are a couple of real students who came in through our experience-based entry pathway. This is Myles: he made an attempt at an ATAR but didn't quite get the score he was looking for. However, he was playing football for the South Fremantle Colts, was attempting an enabling course at another institution, and was volunteering at the footy club. All of those things together meant we could still make him an offer into the Bachelor of Science, conditional on satisfying English language requirements. And this is Sarah: she didn't attempt an ATAR at all, but had done a Certificate IV while in high school, was getting A's and B's in her general subjects, and had a teacher who was able to write a great reference speaking to her capability for study. All of that together meant we could still make her an offer for a Bachelor of Arts, again conditional on satisfying English language competency. We have a great checker on our website -- if you search "UWA EBE" or "UWA experience-based entry," it will take you to a little quiz. You pop in all your different experiences and at the end it will either say "fantastic, that's enough, you'll receive an offer," or "not quite there yet," and show you how you might boost your application.

Guest: Brand new and launching in Semester 2 of 2026 is our new pathway programme -- a fee-free university enabling programme that runs for one semester. These programmes are designed to give you a foundation of university knowledge before you go into your desired bachelor degree. We offer a few different categories. The first is our UWA Delia Beatty pathway, designed specifically for Indigenous students: you do four units -- two compulsory and two electives -- which can pivot depending on what kind of degree you'd like to study, and this comes with lots of support from our School of Indigenous Studies. The next options are Catalyst, Headway, and Thrive -- foundation programmes made up of five units each: one learning-for-university orientation unit and four others that pivot towards your type of degree. If you're heading into something more STEM-driven, you'd look at Catalyst. If it's health-driven, you'd look at Thrive. For arts, education, or business, you can do Headway. These are all fee-free -- no cost to you as a student -- and once you pass, you proceed into your desired bachelor degree.

Guest: There are still even more pathways to choose from. If you've successfully completed a university preparation pathway at another university with an average mark of 65% or higher, you can use that as a basis for entry into our courses. If you've started a bachelor degree at another university and completed at least four units, we can use those to give you entry here. A diploma can also be used to get you into a course at UWA. And if all else fails, there is always the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) -- a general academic aptitude test made up of a written English section and a multiple-choice section. When you complete both sections, a score is generated, our admissions office converts that into an equivalent ATAR, and on that basis an offer can be made.

Fees, HECS-HELP, and scholarships for domestic and international students

Guest: Of course, we do need to talk a little bit about fees. University is not free anymore, but UWA and Australia in general has a great system in place for domestic students called the HECS-HELP scheme. This means students are not required to pay any fees upfront -- you can put that onto a loan scheme and make repayments once you're in the workforce and your degree is putting money in your pocket. For international fees, they will depend on the specific course, so make sure you have a look at your particular course and the fees for that, as you will be required each semester to pay your international tuition fee. The HECS-HELP repayment threshold currently sits at around $67,000 a year -- that is the minimum amount you would need to be earning before compulsory repayments kick in on your HECS debt.

Guest: Scholarships -- I love to talk about scholarships, because this is literally free money. We have over $2 million a year available for students coming to study at UWA. And what I really love to remind students is: if you don't apply for a scholarship, the answer is already no. But if you do apply, the worst they can say is no. I would really encourage you to consider applying. We offer scholarships across a range of areas: academic-based scholarships, diversity and equity-based scholarships, international scholarships, and leadership and social impact scholarships.

Guest: Here are a couple I'd like to highlight. Our two high academic scholarships are for students on track to achieve an ATAR of 95 or above (worth $10,000 a year) or 98 or above ($12,500 a year). These two do have an earlier closing date than most of our other scholarships, so we highlight them so you can get your application in as soon as possible. They also include your postgraduate study -- so, for example, the Fogarty Scholarship is up to $100,000 in funding for your study at UWA.

Guest: Two others I'll highlight: our Engineering Excellence Scholarship. If you are choosing to study engineering, engineering is your number one preference in TISC, and you achieve an ATAR of 90 or higher, you will automatically be awarded this scholarship -- $10,000 for your first year of study. No action required from you on that. And then our Connect Scholarship, which is for any students facing hardship in getting to university. This scholarship awards $5,000 a year for the length of your degree, plus $1,500 in startup costs, and you can apply for it directly through your portal.

Guest: One great thing about the UWA scholarship process is that we have a portal where you do a little quiz, it filters all the scholarships you're eligible for, and then you do one application that goes out to all of those scholarships. There's really no excuse not to apply -- it's about 15 minutes of work, and you could have someone else paying for your degree.

Guest: And here are a couple of our international scholarships. The first is the Global Excellence Scholarship. Starting from an ATAR of 74 or equivalent, you automatically receive a $6,000 per year scholarship for up to four years. An ATAR of 90 or equivalent gives you a $10,000 per year scholarship, and an ATAR of 98 gives you $12,000 per year. These scholarships are automatically assessed once we receive your final transcripts, so make sure you send us your final high school transcripts so we can assess you for this. The other scholarship I'm really happy to announce is new for 2027: the UWA Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship, which will give you a 50% or 100% tuition fee reduction. There are only a small number of these and they are for select countries, but I am very excited about them. You are looking at an ATAR of 98 or more, and you will need to write a 150–200 word personal statement. These scholarships will also be open to students who have already accepted their offer, so if you are already starting at UWA in an upcoming semester, you are still eligible to apply.

Campus life: clubs, sport, volunteering, and student wellbeing

Guest: The next part we'll chat about is student life, and I think this is probably one of the most important parts of your university selection. High school is Monday to Friday, 9 to 3, for 13 years -- you're there because it's a requirement. But university is not a requirement. So it really is up to you what experience you're going to have, and how you experience campus life is as important as the quality of education you're going to get. University life is not about showing up, doing your class, and going home -- it's about getting involved. And UWA does this really, really well.

Guest: We have over 160 different clubs and societies, ranging from academic-based interests -- like the Blackstone Law Society, the Economics Society, or the Accounting Society -- through to hobby-based clubs. Maybe you love bubble tea, so you join our Bubble Tea Appreciation Society. Maybe you're still a diehard Harry Potter fan, so you join the university Quidditch team. And if you have a really niche interest and there isn't a club for it, you have the opportunity through our guild to start your own club so you can meet other people with similar interests. Our clubs and societies run over a thousand events a year and our students are really engaged. We have a really active student guild -- like your SRC at school -- holding events like study sessions and bringing puppies on campus during stressful periods. At one point, we were nominated number one in Australia for campus life, and what that tells us is that our students are getting a world-class education and having a really great time while they do it.

Guest: In addition to all the social side, we have sport. We've got over 400 teams that compete both competitively and socially. On campus you'll find tennis courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, fields for hockey, soccer, and cricket, and even some swimming pools. We send teams to compete in the National University Games, so you might meet students from other universities while competing. We've got a gym on campus with a really great student rate, giving you access to all the facilities and group classes, plus a new Reformer Pilates studio. We even have our Student Athlete Development Programme: if you're competing at a sub-elite level, we can help you learn how to balance your training commitments with your study commitments -- and there is even a bursary with a little bit of funding available for some of our high-performing athletes.

Guest: Volunteering is also a really great opportunity at UWA. We want to produce students who are making a positive social impact, and we do that by partnering with 300 different organisations for volunteering. We even offer what's called micro-badging: if you complete a minimum number of volunteering hours in the year, we'll put a little badge on your transcript. When you're applying for jobs, your future employer will see both your academic results and the fact that you were making a social impact by volunteering -- and that looks really great.

Guest: We also care deeply about your wellbeing. We have our Academic Skills Centre on campus, where you can get help with essays, have someone look over your assignment before you hand it in, or speak to a learning advisor during drop-in times at each library. We have health and wellbeing services including a medical centre, physio, and pharmacy all on campus. For international students, you can access support through your overseas health cover; for domestic students, these are bulk-billing services. We also have financial support available, including a student pantry and financial assistance through student administration -- and we encourage you to come and have a chat with us before you're in a crisis, just to know what's available.

Support for Indigenous students and study abroad opportunities

Guest: UWA is located on Whadjuk Noongar land. That land has always been known as a place of learning, and we are very privileged to work and study on such a beautiful campus. We have a great space for Indigenous students called the Bilya Marlee building, which is halfway down the campus with a beautiful view of Matilda Bay. It is a real gathering place for our First Nations students -- for studying, socialising, or seeking wellbeing support. Our School of Indigenous Studies works very closely with Indigenous students: through tutoring, assistance in finding a scholarship or gaining financial support, and help with living on campus. If that's you, we really encourage you to reach out and make the most of those services.

Guest: And your journey doesn't have to stop at UWA and in Perth. We have so many exchange partners worldwide. Even if you've lived in Perth your whole life, or you're new to Perth, you still have the opportunity to go overseas and study part of your degree there -- a semester, a year, or even a short exchange during the summer or winter break. We have over 130 different partner universities in Europe, Asia, North America, and around the globe. The best thing about those partners is that they are all teaching in English, so even if you go to Japan, you will be learning in English and bringing that back to UWA.

How to get in touch and next steps

Guest: So that brings us to the end of our presentation. We really hope you enjoyed everything we had to share, and again, the takeaway is that you have a world of opportunity. We're going to give you all the skills and experience required to go out and have a great life and a great career. We are on just about every social media platform, so if you do have questions you can find us there. We also have our Ask UWA function on our website, or if you'd like to speak to one of our future student representatives directly, you can always give us a call. Thanks again for joining us -- talk to you soon.