Welcome and introductions

Rob: Welcome to the National Virtual Expo and this session on why you might choose the University of Southern Queensland. I'm coming to you today from Garigal land in Sydney. I pay my respects to the traditional custodians of this beautiful land on which I live and work. I couldn't be happier to be joined by Mia from the University of Southern Queensland. Mia, welcome to the Virtual Expo.

Guest: Thanks for having me, Rob. I'm very happy to be here.

Rob: I'm pumped to have you. Where are you today -- which campus are you on?

Guest: I'm in Springfield today. I grew up in Toowoomba, very familiar with UniSQ, but I've made the trip down the hill and now work from our Springfield campus.

Rob: Awesome. I remember visiting Springfield a few years ago -- it was late on a Friday afternoon, really quiet and calm, the sun was going down, just so chilled out. It's a nice campus, and there's always a park, which I love. Never have an issue parking my car. After you've worked in the city and Brisbane, that's a very valuable commodity. It's funny you say that, because people might not realise just how much of a challenge that is across Australian universities. I was at a university here in Sydney last year and went online to look at how much parking costs -- $84.50 a day. I was like, I think I might walk.

Guest: Not an issue for us here. We've got plenty of free parking, so I'm very grateful for that.

Rob: I'm really looking forward to chatting about UniSQ. The institution has so many interesting areas of strength. The different campuses obviously appeal to students in different locations. We might touch on international students -- if you're from overseas and joining us today, we might talk about which of those campuses might suit you as well. I might hand over to you to kick off, and as you go, if I see an opportunity to contribute some of my knowledge, I'd love to be able to chip in. How does that sound?

Guest: Sounds fantastic. Let's do it.

About UniSQ and who this session is for

Guest: Thanks, everyone, for joining this session. My name is Mia and I work in the student recruitment team here at UniSQ, but I've also recently become a student as well -- I'm doing my Master of Business Administration fully online through UniSQ. It's nice to be able to bring both of those perspectives to you today. I'm going to take you through a little bit about our degrees, our campuses, and the different pathways into university that you can access through UniSQ. Rob, feel free to jump in at any time.

Guest: I'd like to start by acknowledging the First Nations of Southern Queensland and their ongoing connection to country, lands, and waterways, and I'd also like to pay deep respect to elders, past and present. We know that our lands have always been places of teaching -- not just since we've been here.

Guest: I think a really good place to get started is to ask: what is the plan after high school? You might not be in high school, but this still applies to you. What are you planning on doing next, and why have you come here today? Is there a specific question you want answered? It's really good to examine where you're at in that journey -- whether you want to go on to university, whether you're undertaking a certificate at the moment, wanting to go straight into the workforce, or completely unsure about your next steps. It's important to examine that, and then we can discuss what options might be good for you.

Rob: Ladies and gentlemen, we do have the chat. If you're joining us live, thank you -- it's great to have you here. Whether you're on the session hub, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube, there will be a chat where you can add your questions or comments, let us know who you are and where you're up to, and pop your questions in. I'll be trying to get to those by the end of this session with a bit of Q&A.

Guest: Absolutely. We also have a lot of opportunities after today's session if you do want to get in touch. We offer some really great appointments that you can book in for personalised, tailored support and more in-depth conversations.

Rob: I've put the link to that down in the description below. Anyone looking to have that kind of personal consultation, don't hesitate -- jump down there and put your details in.

Why go to university at all -- the case for higher education

Guest: My advice to a lot of students is to keep your options open and focus on discovering what you're passionate about, because that's going to lead you to a career that you are going to love. If you love what you do, you don't work a day in your life. So it's really important to keep those options open and take the time to discover what fires you up. If that career leads you to university and means that you need to go there first, then that's fantastic -- that will be an investment in your future.

Guest: In terms of why study at university, there's obviously the reason that it may allow you to go into a career that you're extremely passionate about. But there's also a lot of research to show that there's potential to earn more from your degree and to have more job opportunities. A study of OECD countries shows that people with a tertiary qualification earn 56% more than those with upper secondary education only, and employment rates are also higher -- around 87% for those with a tertiary qualification. It's good to know that the research does show that once you go to university, it's likely that you will have better job outcomes and higher earning potential. University is also a great opportunity to connect with others and meet people from completely different walks of life. It's a melting pot, and a fantastic place to start growing your professional network while you're still studying.

UniSQ's five-star rankings and what they actually mean

Guest: We've talked about why go to university. Now we'll go into why UniSQ specifically. We've got a lot of things that we're really proud of, but I'd love to highlight the five stars we received through the Good Universities Guide. We've received five stars for graduates in full-time employment, graduate starting salary, social equity, and the student-to-teacher ratio. That last one is something we're particularly proud of, because we're able to provide more in-depth relationships between students and our teaching staff. You can get a lot of dedicated time with your lecturers, and most of them know all of their students by name, which I find quite special.

Rob: Can I just jump back there and talk to this for just a second? I just want to highlight how exceptional these results really are. I've looked at the data about every university in the country, including the most famous universities in the country, and most of them are lucky if they've got one or two "number one in my state" sort of rankings. Look at these: number one in Australia for graduate starting salary, number one for overall experience, number one for skills development and student support. These things mean that if you go to UniSQ, you're going to have a great experience on campus and in class, you're going to be well looked after, and the employers who hire you at the end of the day acknowledge that you've got great skills from the degree you've done. This is one of those reasons that UniSQ flies under the radar for so many people, and I really think it just needs to be higher up on more people's radar, because across the whole experience the results are incredible.

Guest: Thanks for that, Rob. We love to hear people celebrating us and shouting it from the rooftops. It's one of the reasons it's so good to join you here today so we can reach a lot of people and talk more about UniSQ.

Rob: Just to call it out one more time for those watching along: rankings and ratings can be a little bit confusing. Universities will obviously put up the rankings that make them look good. This stuff -- the number one in Australia figures -- you can't lie about. They come from an Australian Government data set called the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching. It's a completely independent, government-run survey involving hundreds of thousands of students and thousands of employers. This is absolutely rigorous, robust data that's independently produced. So this isn't just UniSQ saying "hey, we're really good" or cherry-picking a ranking. These are really important results. When you see rankings and ratings, always pay attention to what's important to you. If you're hoping for a good classroom experience, the fact that UniSQ is number one in Australia for overall experience means something to you. If you want a job that pays really well, graduate starting salary number one in Australia really counts. Whereas a big metropolitan university that says "we're number one or two in Australia on a global ranking" -- that's probably less important to you if that's not the factor you're looking for.

Guest: Definitely. The Good Universities Guide is a great resource, so I'd recommend anyone to have a deep dive in when you're tossing up between universities. And of course there's your fantastic service as well, Rob -- lots of resources out there to help people compare and find the best fit for them.

Understanding university terminology: programs, courses, majors, and double degrees

Guest: You're going to hear a lot of different terms as you do your research into universities and across the different sessions at this expo, so we'll break those down a little bit. In terms of study options, every university calls their degrees and their subjects slightly different things. At UniSQ we have programs and courses. Your program is the degree that you're studying -- for example, the Bachelor of Business. The courses are the subjects that fit into that degree. We also have majors and minors. With your major, that is the specialisation within your degree -- for example, marketing within a Bachelor of Business. That specialisation is a way to tailor what you're studying in order to go into more focused careers. If you're wanting to be a marketing specialist, choosing a major in marketing is a great way to head towards that career path.

Guest: Minors are another way to further personalise your degree and pick other study areas that are complementary to your major. If you're going into marketing, for example, a psychology minor might be something interesting to add in there to think about consumer behaviour. Minors are smaller specialisations -- not as focused or in-depth as your major, but a good way to get some exposure to another study area that might not necessarily be within your chosen field.

Guest: We also have double degrees on offer, and double degrees allow you to graduate with two different degrees in a shorter amount of time. Essentially they take the essential parts of each degree, put them together, and cut out the non-essential elective components. That allows you to get those two qualifications in a shorter amount of time, which is fantastic if you're passionate about multiple areas or if you're wanting to go into a particular job that would benefit from having multiple different study areas and degrees.

Entry requirements: ATAR, prerequisites, and adjustment factors

Guest: In terms of entry requirements, there are a few terms that you're going to hear a lot. The ATAR is one you'll come across very often. This is the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank -- essentially the score you get at the end of Year 12 after completing specific subjects. That number will be between 0 and 99.95, with 99.95 being the highest score you can achieve. We also have subject prerequisites, which are high school subjects that must be completed in order to gain entry into a degree. For example, in our Bachelor of Education, one of those subject prerequisites is at least one maths subject in high school.

Guest: You'll find that a lot of our degrees at UniSQ don't have prerequisites. Most of them have assumed knowledge -- those are subjects that we assume you've completed on day one of teaching. They won't impact your eligibility for entry into that degree, but on day one of teaching, the assumption is that you've done that subject in high school and the teaching starts at that level. We've also got recommended knowledge -- subjects that you don't need for entry into the degree, but that could be helpful as you go into your studies.

Guest: We'll dive a little deeper into adjustment factors as well, because these will have an impact on the score you achieve at the end of high school if you're currently there. At UniSQ we offer a maximum of ten tertiary entrance rank adjustments as part of our adjustment factors, and these are awarded for a wide range of reasons. It could be because you're the first in your family to go to university, it could be that you live close to one of our campuses or your high school is close to where our campuses are, or it could be due to a specific subject that you've done in high school. For example, a language other than English provides you with two tertiary entry rank adjustments per subject. We also have the Educational Access Scheme, which is a scheme to support students whose studies have been negatively impacted by personal or financial circumstances, and that's provided through QTAC.

Study areas at UniSQ -- and the case for studying in regional Australia

Guest: Moving on to our study areas -- Rob mentioned that we have quite a few different specialties, and that's absolutely right. No matter what you're interested in, chances are we have a degree that will cater to that interest. One of our particular strengths is allied health, and that's where we've had a lot of expansion in recent years. We recently added social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech pathology to our degrees, and excitingly we also have pharmacy coming in 2027, so keep an eye out for that. Apart from that, we also have fantastic degrees in areas like aviation, business, education, engineering, and law -- a really wide range to choose from.

Rob: Can I just jump in there? I just want to add, once again for those people from overseas thinking about options, and also actually for domestic students from Australia -- the opportunity to live, study, and work in regional Australia is incredible. Springfield and Ipswich are sort of on the outskirts of Brisbane, but Toowoomba is genuinely regional Australia. Degrees in things like allied health and education are fairly standardised across universities because they're accredited degrees, so if you go to UniSQ or the University of Queensland, to a great extent the actual course content is going to be very similar -- you have to cover certain things in order to be accredited to get a job. So it becomes critical to then look at what else you're looking for from that experience. I can't speak more positively about going to regional Australia for that, because firstly, your skills are going to be highly in-demand in those communities. As we've seen, graduate employment and starting salaries are going to be strong in those regional areas because your skills are in-demand. Cost of living is lower, so you don't have to do as many hours of work on the side just to get by. You can spend more time thinking about your uni work and getting involved in campus life. So if you're from overseas thinking about coming to Australia, there is no disadvantage in going to a regional institution -- in fact, I think it's a strong advantage if you're looking at things like allied health, education, and other accredited programs.

Guest: As a Toowoomba girl, I love to hear you say that. You know, I used to hear people say "oh, why would you move for uni?" The more I've explored the amazing regions we have in Australia and the incredible regional institutions, the more persuaded I've become that for the right person it's the perfect choice. A big city like Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane can be fun, but there's a huge group of people out there that probably have to move for uni anyway and end up thinking about the big smoke when really they should be in Toowoomba, on the Gold Coast, or in Ballarat. I'm really passionate about people considering all of their options, not just the ones that have the marketing dollars.

Guest: I think you bring up a great point about the variety of experiences you can get as well. We find that a lot of our health students really value the more remote placements. They find that they need to be more things to more people because there are fewer staff in those regions, and it really does provide them with a valuable experience that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

Rob: If you're out in regional Australia where the health services aren't what they are in the big city, and people are so grateful that you're there -- let's just focus on allied health -- if you're going into a health field because you want to help people, the gratitude you get from working in a regional area is, I reckon, like ten times what you get in the city, because people just know how valuable you are as an individual.

UniSQ's three campuses and the free inter-campus shuttle

Guest: This is a nice segue into our lovely campuses. You mentioned Toowoomba first -- this is our largest campus. If you're not familiar with where Toowoomba is, it's around two hours from Brisbane in southeast Queensland. It's a beautiful town on top of a mountain range -- gets very cold, but very beautiful. I grew up there, so you can tell I'm a bit biased. Our Toowoomba campus offers a broad range of our degrees, with some specialisations including our aviation flight simulator and our agricultural precinct.

Guest: Moving on to our Ipswich campus -- this is located around an hour from Brisbane, and this is our health hub. This is where the majority of our allied health degrees are offered, along with degrees like law. And then finally we have our Springfield campus, which is where I'm based. Springfield is around 45 minutes from Brisbane. It's a really exciting, fast-growing region, and our Springfield campus is our technology hub -- that's where we have aviation, engineering, business, and information technology.

Guest: Because we have three campuses that are quite spread out, we want to make UniSQ as accessible as possible for our students. I've mentioned the free parking already -- that's obviously a bonus. We also have a free shuttle bus that runs between the three campuses four times a day, and it has Wi-Fi on it so you can make the most of your commuting time. A lot of students do use it. We have a lot of health students in particular who might want to live at our residential colleges in Toowoomba for the social experience, but then jump on the shuttle bus to go to their practical classes in Ipswich and use things like our ambulance simulator. We also have public transport links, with bus stops at both our Toowoomba and Ipswich campuses.

Pathways into UniSQ beyond the ATAR -- VET qualifications, Head Start, and free prep programs

Guest: We're going to move on to pathways into university, and this is something I get really excited about, because I think a lot of people just assume there's one way to get into university, and if you don't get an ATAR at the end of high school, university is not for you. But it just really isn't the case. We'll start with VET qualifications. These are qualifications you'll gain through a training organisation like TAFE. We accept a Certificate III and above for entry at UniSQ. A Certificate III will give you a selection rank of 68, which if you go through our different programs, you'll find makes you competitive for quite a few of our programs. If you have a diploma or advanced diploma, that will provide you with a higher selection rank for entry as well. This is a great option for students who may have decided early on in high school not to go down an ATAR pathway but have since had a change of heart about university.

Rob: I love this. People look at the ATAR, they look at uni entry, and they think it's a wall you've got to climb over. The ATAR isn't a wall -- it's a swinging gate. If you get the number, the gate swings open and you walk through. But it's also a gate that opens with all these different opportunities. The fact that you can go and do another qualification at TAFE, for example, get practical skills, and not have to go through the gate -- you go around it -- is incredible. The ATAR isn't this big blocker that people think it might be. You don't have to be the most super academic person. It's hard to get super high. You just have to be following a path that suits you. So I really respect you guys for acknowledging those pathways in through TAFE.

Guest: Absolutely. And just because you may not be academically excelling in high school does not mean that you're not going to excel at university. Once you get into a degree that you are super passionate about, there's no reason why you can't excel and do an amazing job at university. We're really passionate about providing opportunities for students.

Rob: Let's talk about the Head Start program -- this looks good.

Guest: Yes! Head Start is an opportunity for students in Years 10, 11, and 12 to study university subjects while they're still in high school. You get a taste for university and the level of academic writing, academic skills, and time management that you'll need before actually committing to a degree. You also get a taste for the study area you're wanting to go into -- you might be interested in nursing, but you do a foundational course in anatomy and physiology and find out it's just not for you. So it's a nice, low-risk way for students to dip their toe into university and get a feel for what they like.

Guest: There are lots of other benefits as well. If you do a foundational anatomy and physiology subject and then go into a nursing degree with us, you can gain credit for that subject -- you won't need to do it again. You can also save money, because our first Head Start course is completely free, and subsequent courses are heavily subsidised by the university. And you can gain two QCE credit points upon completion of subjects in this program.

Rob: Can you say that again? It's free and you're getting QCE points as well?

Guest: Yes! The first subject you do with us is free. We never want students' high school studies to be impacted by doing a Head Start program with us, so we always want them to prioritise what they're doing in high school. If that means they need to withdraw, it's low risk -- they haven't been set back financially.

Rob: Just for those watching along: every subject you do at uni has a fee attached to it, anywhere from around $600 right through to well over $1,000. So if you're a Year 12 student, this is an opportunity for you to try a subject that fits with your interests and goals without having to pay for it on your HECS. That's amazing.

Guest: Exactly. I wish I'd had it! So, moving on to our free pathway programs. We have Uni Prep and UniSQ Ready, which are really similar pathway programs but designed for different students. Uni Prep is for Year 11 and 12 students, and it's designed to be studied alongside your final years of high school. What Uni Prep provides you with is a selection rank that can be used for entry at UniSQ -- this is specific to us. It's a great option for students who haven't gone down an ATAR pathway but have decided they want to go to university. They can start studying Uni Prep while still in high school and complete it before they graduate, then gain entry at the same time as their peers who have done an ATAR. It also means that they meet prerequisite requirements as well. It's a free program that's delivered completely online, and you can also gain two QCE points upon completion.

Guest: UniSQ Ready is also completely free, but it's for people who are outside of high school. No matter where you are in your life or your career, if you're wanting to come back to study and you don't have an ATAR and haven't done a certificate either, you can complete UniSQ Ready and get a selection rank. It will also allow you to meet prerequisite subjects depending on the different subjects you do. And if you've done a certificate that allows you to gain entry into university but you don't yet feel confident and ready for university, Uni Prep and UniSQ Ready are also fantastic options for building those foundational academic skills. Because it's free, there's really no reason not to -- and if that's the difference between you coming to university and doing well versus not doing well, then it's definitely worth your time.

Guest: Finally, we have INOW, which is our pathways program specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It's been designed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide really important cultural context to getting ready for university. As part of this program, you study two courses. You have the opportunity to do that online, but you can also come on to campus and meet with our First Nations Student Support and Engagement team. It's a really dedicated, tailored program to help our First Nations students gain entry into university. Once you complete it, you'll be eligible for entry into a range of UniSQ degrees.

Understanding the costs of university -- and why it's still a sound investment

Guest: Now let's talk about costs. I think it's a really important conversation, because there are a lot of economic pressures for students right now. There are tuition fees associated with the subjects you're doing at university, and those fees accumulate as you go. There will be points in the year where you can either opt in or opt out of a subject, and we call that a census date -- keep an eye out for that once you do get started. Those course fees can be deferred to your HELP debt, which is a nice segue.

Guest: One way to defer those tuition fees is through HECS-HELP. This is applicable for students with a Commonwealth Supported Place. Generally for domestic students you will be able to defer your fees onto a loan that you'll start paying back once you get into the workforce and start earning over a certain threshold each year. A lot of students don't pay those fees upfront -- some do choose to, but you do have the option to defer, which makes it a lot more manageable. You also need to consider the cost of things like textbooks and uniforms -- our paramedicine and nursing students have specific uniforms they wear. There's also transport, public transport costs, and then accommodation and living expenses -- whether you'll be living at home, going to a residential college, or moving out into a shared house.

Rob: On those 50-cent public transport fares -- at the time of us holding this session, there are places in Australia where you might pay $40 or $50 a week for public transport. That's like $2,000 or more in a year that you would otherwise need to work just to cover your transport costs. So being in Queensland for that is a massive advantage. Two grand is a lot of money -- a lot of hours you'd otherwise have to be working just to cover that. It looks like a little thing, but it's actually a big thing if the cost of living is a real issue for you. The other thing I'd say about costs is that you mentioned people earn 56% more if they've got a degree. There's other research showing that a university graduate will earn over the course of their lifetime more than $1 million more than someone without that degree. If I were to say, "okay, you need to put $30,000 or $40,000 on your HECS debt, but over your life I'm going to give you back a million," would you sign for that deal? The media loves to say the cost of uni is expensive and the debts are crazy. I'm not saying uni shouldn't be less expensive -- but in the end of the day you might have to hand over $20,000, $30,000, or $40,000 and you're going to get back an order of magnitude more than that. Always keep in perspective that the return on investment over your lifetime is disproportionately enormous.

Guest: Definitely. We see uni as an investment -- obviously a financial investment, but also an investment in what you love doing and making sure you're doing something you're passionate about.

Scholarships and academic excellence awards

Guest: So, scholarships. There are lots of ways to offset your university costs -- through academic excellence scholarships, study support grants, equity scholarships like our Access Excellence Scholarship, and many more. We find that each year we have a lot of scholarship money that isn't allocated to students and is left over, because people don't apply for them. The worst thing that can happen is they say no, and the best thing that can happen is that you get some money to help support your studies. Head over to our website to see our full list of scholarships, and you can filter to make it really specific to what you could be eligible for. I recommend applying for as many as you can.

Guest: Diving a little deeper into our Academic Excellence Scholarships: these are for high-achieving Year 12 students who achieve an ATAR of 98 or above. They are automatically awarded to students who put UniSQ in their QTAC preferences. The Chancellor's Excellence Scholarship, for an ATAR of 98 and above, is valued at up to $24,000, and the Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Scholarship is valued at up to $20,000. That can make a huge difference over the course of your degree, and there's no application process -- it's automatically awarded to eligible students.

Early entry and what it means for Year 12 students

Guest: Moving on to early entry. We know that Year 12 can be quite a stressful time, and our early entry program is one way to take a little bit of that stress off when it comes to your external exams. You can apply for early entry into our degrees in a couple of ways. You need to submit an application form and place UniSQ as number one on your QTAC preferences. As part of that application form, you either need a recommendation from your principal, or if you've successfully completed a Head Start course with us, you don't need that principal's recommendation. This program allows students to get offers before they sit their external exams. They are conditional offers, so you still need to be pushing through to the end of Year 12, but it does mean that there's a place for you once you do graduate.

Student life: clubs, support services, and the Student Guild

Guest: It's time to talk about student life -- one of the most important aspects of university. We're obviously here to study and get a degree, but university is a really important time socially, and it's where students meet some of their best friends for life. From our support services to make sure your wellbeing is taken care of, to our social and sporting clubs -- we've got everything from a cricket club to a Dungeons and Dragons club. That's actually our most popular club at UniSQ, Dungeons and Dragons -- very popular. You can also get employed by the university, with job opportunities on campus either at iConnect, which is our student support service, or as a student ambassador going out to high schools and talking to students about UniSQ.

Guest: We've also got our Student Guild, which is a not-for-profit, independent organisation run for students, with a lot of student representatives. They're there to make sure your interests are taken care of -- they're separate from the university and can support you if you're having any issues with university or have come across any challenges throughout your study, providing really great independent advice. They also host a lot of really fun activities. We always have free breakfast here at Springfield, we've got movie nights, sporting events, and our food pantry, which is run by the Student Guild and is a great service that a lot of our students make use of.

Residential colleges in Toowoomba -- affordability and community

Guest: Our residential colleges -- I mentioned these earlier. We have three residential colleges at our Toowoomba campus: Steele Rudd, Concannon, and MacGregor colleges, each with their own colour and mascot, which they hold very dearly. There are lots of different options in terms of the rooms you can choose from. All of the rooms are single occupancy -- you wouldn't have to share a room with anyone. You might need to share a bathroom, but you can choose whether you want to share a bathroom or have an ensuite to yourself. Fees start from $166 per week, which is quite affordable.

Rob: Holy smokes -- sorry, I have to jump in here. I do a lot of work looking at the cost of different programs and different options around Australia, and in Sydney or Melbourne you're looking somewhere between $500 and $850 a week for accommodation. So think about what that means. If cost of living is a factor, you can live in Toowoomba and you don't have to earn $500 a week just to stay somewhere. Look at your options and look around. If you want to do allied health, and you're weighing up studying in Sydney versus being prepared to move to regional Australia, the difference there is literally 20 hours in your week that you don't have to be working a casual job in order to cover the cost of living. To me, that is an absolute no-brainer.

Guest: And I like that you mentioned more time for social events as well, because that's another fantastic aspect of living at our residential colleges. They have a lot of social events, and it's pretty much an inbuilt social community that you get access to. They do fill up quite fast, so applications always open on the 1st of July and we encourage students to apply quite early. If you want to take a look around our colleges, we offer tours in person at the Toowoomba campus, and we've also got some great videos and photos on our website to help give you an idea of the different rooms we offer.

Campus tours, open days, and experience days

Guest: There are many opportunities to come and visit us on campus this year. We offer personalised campus tours throughout the year, where you get the opportunity to look around our different campuses one-on-one with a student ambassador. Wherever we can, we'll make sure that ambassador is from your study area, so you can get really in-depth information and a real student-experience perspective on the degree. These happen during term time on Thursdays and Fridays, but we've also introduced some Saturday campus tours. The next one coming up is the 6th of June if you'd like to stop in on a Saturday and bring your parents or family -- everyone's welcome.

Guest: We've also got our Experience UniSQ sessions for Year 11 and 12 students, happening on the 17th and 18th of June at our various campuses. These are a great way to get more hands-on in your chosen study area and participate in activities run by the academics who will actually be teaching you when you're at university. And finally, we have our UniSQ Open Days coming up in August -- the 8th of August for Ipswich and Springfield, and the 15th of August for Toowoomba. This is a great opportunity to chat with current students and teaching staff, get your application questions answered, talk to our accessibility and support teams, and just get a feel for the campus and see if it feels like home to you.

Guest: With that, I'll hand back over to Rob in case we have any questions.

Audience Q&A -- choosing between campuses, online study, and returning as a mature-age student

Rob: We do have some questions. Thank you to everyone who's been participating in the chat as we've gone. I also have some pre-submitted questions from those who registered earlier. Before we get to those -- and I'm just checking on time -- I want to pull out one more thing. Personalised campus tours don't happen at big-city universities. It just doesn't happen. And I think that really comes back to this theme of small class sizes, being connected to your community, and the personalisation you get at UniSQ and regional universities. That's going to really suit a certain type of person. If you're looking for an experience where you want to know your academics by name and you want them to know you, then going to a small or regional institution is something you must consider.

Rob: Okay, first question: it's about campuses. How do I decide between campuses? Any suggestions on that?

Guest: That is a fantastic question. Often the degree that you choose will only be offered at certain campuses, so you might find it's not so much that you're choosing the campus -- you're choosing the degree, and then you'll attend the campus where that degree is offered. On our website and in our undergraduate guide, you'll be able to see the locations of the different degrees listed. We also have over 130 of our degrees offered online, so you might find that you don't actually need to go into campus at all -- you can use the library at the campus closest to you. I'd recommend doing that research and seeing what your options are in terms of where you'll need to be studying. And of course, you also have the opportunity to visit our campuses through campus tours, open days, and experience days. You might find that one just has a better feel to you than others, and that can help inform your decision about where you'd like to spend most of your time during your studies.

Rob: Awesome. I'm glad you mentioned online -- we've actually got a whole session on studying online. You and I will be back to talk about that, I think it's on Saturday. Check out the session schedule or the session catalog down in the description below. We'll be diving deep on studying online and the particular options at UniSQ. That's a nice segue -- we probably only have time for this last question. This is from a student who's interested in returning to study -- what we would call a mature-age student. I get the sense this person has more life experience, perhaps has had kids, and is ready to come back to study. They had a question about the UniSQ Ready program -- how much commitment is involved in a program like that?

Guest: It is designed to be extremely flexible for that very reason -- we know it's for students who might be working full time or have a family. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of time commitment. I'm not 100% sure on the exact hours per week, but that's something you're very welcome to explore by booking an appointment with our admissions team. We have dedicated pathways advisors, and we've got the booking link down in the description. If you want help with that and want to ask individual questions in a free consultation, please do reach out. The great thing about being a small university is that we do offer bookable appointments with our admissions team, so you've got a direct line to the people who will be assessing your applications. But I will say that these programs are designed to be flexible in order to cater to the non-school-leaver cohort. We have a lot of those students at UniSQ.

Rob: Thank you so much. We're out of time, so sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that we can't take more questions. Once again, the Choosing Your Uni Discord is down in the description below -- whether you've been here live or are watching the recording, jump into the Discord. All the questions we haven't gotten to will be answered in that space, as well as in the Facebook group for parents. Mia, I'm looking forward to catching up with you again in a couple of days for our next session about online study. Thanks for joining me here at the National Virtual Expo.

Guest: Thanks for having me, Rob. I'm looking forward to chatting soon.

Rob: Sounds good. Take care. Thanks. Bye.