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campusreview.com.au
Bite-size study
OUA becomes
more accessible
to postgrads
by introducing
standalone units.
Paul Wappett
interviewed by
Loren Smith
16
O
pen Universities Australia, which offers
online education, is broadening its
offerings. In a self-styled Australian first,
118 postgraduate standalone units – or subjects – can
now be completed.
The higher education provider – an alliance between
Monash, Curtin, Griffith, Macquarie, RMIT, Swinburne
and the University of South Australia – already provides
this study option at an undergraduate level.
These university partners, bar Monash, and with
the addition of the Australian Catholic University,
have signed on to the new offering, which will span
university curriculums, including in the arts, business,
education, health, IT, law and science.
OUA said it released the postgraduate program
in response to industry demands for employee
upskilling. It added that it can provide a taste of a
degree to students who are unsure whether they want
to fully commit.
Depending on which units they choose, students
may be eligible to transfer credits towards a
postgraduate qualification.
Campus Review sat down with Paul Wappett, chief
executive of OUA, to discuss the reasoning behind
the new single study units and how they’ve been
received so far.
CR: Why did OUA decide to introduce single study
units for postgraduates?
PW: Well, increasingly we’re seeing that students
would like to study differently to the way they’ve
done in the past. There’s a tendency, particularly
for experienced learners, to try and get short, sharp
increases in their skill base, their experience base,
which they can use to fast track their career, or to
make a change in their career. Often, certainly at a
postgraduate level, they don’t have the time or the
energy, or the inclination or the funds, to be able to
undertake a full postgraduate degree, and so single
units offer them the opportunity to be able to build
their skills in particular areas with a very focused
improvement for their career prospects.
What was the response to your undergraduate single
unit offering? Are you expecting the same for the
postgraduate offering?
Yes. Well, in fact, the single unit offering was OUA’s
long history. That’s where we started – not actually