MANY university hopefuls across Sunraysia breathed a sigh of relief on Monday when first-round tertiary offers were released.
A record number of first-round positions were offered through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre this year as, for the first time, universities were not required to cap enrolments – effectively letting them choose their own numbers.
Last year’s St Joseph’s College captain Emma Sanderson, who received the region’s highest ATAR score – 99.45, was one of about 56,000 Victorians to find out their VTAC offer online.
Emma yesterday said she was surprised to be accepted to study a bachelor of medicine and surgery at Monash University as she didn’t believe her interview went very well.
But the 18-year-old, who is celebrating her birthday today, won’t make a decision on where to study this year until NSW and SA release their university offers today.
“I’m looking forward to studying medicine,” she said.
“At least now I know I’ve got in somewhere in the country.”
Mildura Senior College graduate Nadine Rudkin was also happy to receive her first preference to study a bachelor of arts at Melbourne University.
“I was pretty relieved, because now I can do what I want to do,” she said.
“I only put three preferences down and that was the only one I really wanted.”
The 17-year-old said she was “pretty excited” about moving to Melbourne as it was “something different” to her life in Dareton.
St Joseph’s 2011 male school captain Ben Harris was happy to receive his first preference to study a bachelor of environmental science at Melbourne University, but has his fingers crossed for the release of SA offers.
The 18-year-old said he was “pretty confident” he would be accepted into a bachelor of engineering and architecture at Adelaide University.
“I needed a score of 80 and I got 89,” he said.
“Adelaide is more comfortable for me and it’s easier to get around and come home.”
Red Cliffs Secondary College graduate Alanna Pasut’s future wasn’t dependent on Monday’s offers.
Despite getting her first preference at Deakin University’s Geelong campus, the 18-year-old was already set on accepting an early-round offer to study speech pathology at Charles Sturt University in Albury.
“I’m looking forward to moving away to give myself a bit of independence,” she said.
Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall said education, health and engineering courses had seen the greatest growth in offers this year.
He said while the majority of students – 44,000 – received offers for university programs, a further 10,000 received an offer to study at TAFE and almost 2000 received an offer to study at an independent tertiary institution.
The number of offers for courses at regional campuses remained steady, accounting for 15 per cent of all offers.
Mr Hall congratulated all students who received a first-round offer, but reminded those that didn’t that there were alternative pathways to tertiary education.
“To those students who may have missed out on a first-round offer, it is important to remember that there are many paths to success, including further rounds of VTAC offers and a huge range of TAFE and vocational education and training courses that can allow students access to future higher education studies,” he said.
Round two offers will be available from 2pm on February 3 at www.vtac.edu.au.
This article appeared in Wednesday's Sunraysia Daily 18/1/2012.
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