Off campus study??

Oh thats great and such positive feedback!! Thanks so much :)

Can I ask how you went about applying for the course? Did you apply through SATAC or open universities or through your states tertiary admissions centre?

I think that off campus is going to be the most sensible solution with young kids and part time work etc.

I'm in a similar position to you, looking at doing my Bachelor through University of SA externally. Family commitments are the main reason, also the closest Uni to me is Deakin Geelong and they aren't too flexible, all full time studies and all on campus.

I've emailed Uni SA and asked them about a few things regarding enrolment. It's via SATAC and I've even started the enrolement process which is quite straight forward and guides you through what you need to do. You can save your information and go back in and change it, add things etc, until you are ready to hit the apply now button.

With regards to the registration, once registered you need to apply for registration with the nurses board of Vic who will recognise your training and register you in the state of Vic. That's how it works now, although once you've finished this course, national registration will be in force and hopefully you'll only need to register the once.

My next step is to talk to someone in the nursing dept. at this uni and ask them about placements. I've heard the workshops in SA aren't that often, and given enough warning shouldn't be too hard to work around. I'd like some indication of where the placements will take place (hoping they aren't all in SA) aswell as the option of changing to part time study if it all gets too much.

Hi,

I'm a second year external student through uniSA. The flexibility of external study is great, so long as you can stay motivated. However, if you find you have trouble staying motivated, it probably isn't ideal. To be successful in external study you also need to be prepared to seek out help (something I should do more often). I know that my mum was worried that I wouldn't get the chance to form networks with other students studying externally, but you do get to form online relationships through workshops and group assignments, which is always good when you need someone to talk to or just to vent!

I would also advise you to think ahead with placement. I am fairly sure the EN's now get credited for the first (4 week) placement which is at the end of second year. However, there are still 2 blocks of 8 week placement in the third year, and there is no garuntee you will get them close to home. I know a lot of external second years are feeling rather stressed at the moment, waiting to know whether our placement in October will be in our home states or SA... so there is the pressure of not knowing if we will be able to work a bit around placement or not at all, accomodation costs, and for a lot of people child care costs (and not being able to put their kids into care until they know).

I also wouldn't recommend uniSA if you are looking to transfer to another university, because most other uni's start placement earlier and embed it into other courses, which you would then have to repeat. I know this is probably a whole lot of babble and might even confuse you more, but if there's any questions I can help with let me know.

:) Steph