Getting Started: Glossary of Terms

Accept: You have been made an offer into a course, if you accept your offer you are telling the University that you want to start studying this year. The University will then admit you to your course. Accepting your offer means that you accept the University’s terms and conditions and you agree to abide by the University’s rules.
Activities: Every on-campus unit will schedule activities which you must attend during the study period to pass the unit requirements. Activities include events like lectures, tutorials, practicals, Science Labs and so forth. Some units will schedule a single activity (for example a lecture), while others may be made up of many activities (for example a lecture, a tutorial and a computing lab). Some activities will occur every week (for example a lecture), while other activities may be scheduled less regularly. Each on-campus unit will have a different requirement. Information about the unit’s scheduled activities can be found in the Unit Information Guide which is available online in the unit’s MySCU learning site.
Admit: Before you can start studying you must be formally admitted to your course. You need to accept your offer of admission to be admitted to your course. Once you are admitted to your course you are a candidate for your degree.
Australian Fee Paying: If you are an Australian fee paying student, the Australian Government provides a Commonwealth Assistance Scheme that enables you to defer your tuition fees rather than paying them upfront. To take advantage of this scheme you need to complete a Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) called a FEE-Help form. Some conditions do apply. For more information you should visit the Government’s website at:

Go to www.goingtouni.gov.au
Award: When you successfully complete your course at SCU, an award is conferred upon you at graduation and you are allowed to use the letters after your name in official documentation (for example, John Citizen, MBA or Jane Citizen, BEnvSci). These award initials stand for the degree you completed (for example Master of Business Administration or Bachelor of Environmental Science). Some higher degrees also confer the right to use of a title such as Dr.

Because you “do” a course to complete a “degree” and get an “award”, these terms are often used interchangeably, (for example “I am doing the Bachelor of Arts course, in order to complete the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements, and if I do I’ll graduate with an award called Bachelor of Arts”). It can be quite confusing at first.
Census Date: The census date is the date on which your unit enrolment is finalised and reported to the Government. If you withdraw from a unit after census date you will incur the full cost of the unit and academic penalties. Each unit of study in a study period at Southern Cross University has a census date. Once you have enrolled in a unit, you can see the census date in:

My Enrolment → My Study Plans → Current Enrolment
Class: If you are enrolled in on-campus (internal mode) units, you will attend on-campus classes. Each unit will timetable some classes for the activities scheduled for the unit (for example a fortnightly class might be timetabled for a lecture activity and a weekly class might be timetabled for a tutorial group activity). Unit activities will vary from unit to unit and a number of classes will be timetabled for each activity. Usually all students attend a single class for a lecture (one big class only, no choice, you must attend) but because tutorial groups are smaller, three tute group classes might be timetabled for the tutorial activity — this means you may have some choice about when you attend your tutorial class. Before the study period starts, you need to register in your chosen classes. Classes fill up quickly so register early if you want to get the class that fits best with your life. Use the class timetable to plan your week.
Class Timetable: The online class timetable is published approximately 4 weeks before the study period begins. You can narrow your search by unit, location and study period. You will receive an email in your SCU Webmail account advising you when the timetable is published.

Go to www.scu.edu.au/timetables
Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF): This is a Government form. If you have been offered a Commonwealth Supported Place, you must submit a HECS-HELP form even if you intend to pay your HECS up front. If you have been offered a fee-paying place, you may be eligible to complete a FEE-HELP form and defer your tuition fees. For more information about the Government HELP schemes, visit the Commonwealth Government’s web site.

Go to www.goingtouni.gov.au
Commonwealth Supported: If you are a Commonwealth supported student, then the Australian Government pays the majority of your University fees, but you must still make a student contribution (frequently called HECS) for each unit in which you enrol. You will incur that student contribution fee (HECS) on the census date for the unit. If you are an Australian citizen or the holder of a permanent humanitarian visa you may choose to pay your student contribution up-front (and receive a discount) or you may prefer to defer your fees to the Australian Taxation Office (this is called a HECS debt and it will accumulate until you reach a taxable income threshold when you will be required to pay it back). If you are a permanent resident of Australia or a New Zealand citizen you must pay your student contribution up front (with no discount), but remember that the Government is still paying the majority of your costs. For more information about commonwealth supported University places visit the Australian Government’s:

Go to www.goingtouni.gov.au
Course: A degree program at Southern Cross University (eg: the “Bachelor of Nursing”, the “Master of Business Administration”, the “Associate Degree of Creative Writing”). Courses are sometimes called “awards” or “degrees” (eg: what award are you working towards? What course are you doing? What degree are you studying?)
Course Enrolment Guide: Your Course Enrolment Guide contains in-depth information about your course structure, the majors you may choose to take, if any, and the units you will need to study. It contains suggested unit enrolment plans, unit descriptions and important information specific to your course. It also contains the contact information for your lecturers and School based support staff. It is critical that your download your course Enrolment Guide and save a copy for the life of your studies. It will answer most of your questions and you will refer to it over and over again.

Go to Course Enrolment Guides (www.scu.edu.au/enrol/courseguide)
Decline Your Offer: You have been made an offer into a course, if you decline your offer you are telling the University that your circumstances have changed and you do not want to start the course after all. Once you have declined your offer, you will need to submit a new application for admission if you wish to start the course in the future.
Defer Your Fees: Australian citizens who supply a tax file number on their Commonwealth Assistance Form have the option of deferring their fees on a study period by study period basis by using a HELP-Loan. If you choose to defer your fees, they will be collected by the Australian Taxation Office once your annual income reaches a specified threshold level. For more information about HELP loans, visit the Commonwealth Government’s web site:

Go to www.goingtouni.gov.au
Defer Your Offer: You have been made an offer into a course, if you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place you are allowed to defer your offer. If you defer defer your offer you are telling the University that your circumstances have changed and you are unable to start your studies this year, but that you would like to start the course next year instead. Deferring your offer costs money, but in November you will automatically receive an offer into the same course for the next calendar year. Do not confuse deferring your offer (delaying the start of your studies) with deferring your fees (using a Government Loan Scheme to pay your fees).
Distance Education: Distance Education is also known as external mode, if you study by distance education unit you do not need to attend on-campus classes. Distance education students are well supported by specialist staff, online study materials and virtual classrooms where you can interact with your lecturer and other distance education students. Although you do not have to attend regular on-campus classes as a distance education student, sometimes a unit will require you to attend a residential workshop. When you enrol in a distance education unit, make sure that you read the unit information guide in MySCU to find out about any residential requirements.
eCAF: See Commonwealth Assistance Form.
Enrol in Units: Each Study period you will undertake a number of units (individual subjects) in accordance with your course rules. You enrol in your units for the full year, enrolling is the action of selecting where, when and how you choose to study your units. You will self enrol in your units using My Enrolment. You will receive an email to your SCU Webmail advising you when enrolment opens.
General Offer Conditions: In your official offer to study at SCU there will be a section titled “General Offer Conditions” which will detail any conditions that are specific to your offer. For example: recipients of some offers will not have the option of deferment. Other offer conditions will be explained if your offer if they exist.
Lapse Date: The date by which you must respond to your offer. If you do nothing by the lapse date, then the offer will lapse automatically and you will need to submit a new application for admission if you wish to commence studies.
My Enrolment: My Enrolment is the University’s student management system; it contains your official student record. Your access into this system enables you to self manage your studies; it is where you will officially self-enrol in your units, self-register into on-campus classes at the beginning of a study period and get your official results at the end. You can request a leave of absence here or change your enrolment if necessary. The invoice for your studies can be found here and so can the details of any examinations you may need to sit. It contains details about you too – your contact details and so forth. You can update these details here and it is your responsibility to ensure that they are always accurate. You will use My Enrolment for a lot of important tasks throughout your studies at SCU so take the time to get to know your way around it now.

Go to My Enrolment (www.scu.edu.au/myenrolment)
MySCU: MySCU is the secure intranet available to all students. You login to MySCU from the public webpage. It provides you with a portal into all the key services you will need as a student studying at SCU (for example the library). Most importantly it contains your Unit Learning Sites. Your Unit Learning Site becomes available only when you enrol in a unit. It is where you will find your unit documents, text book lists and from here you can communicate with your classmates, tutors and lecturers online.

Go to MySCU (study.scu.edu.au)
Offer: Your formal offer to study a course at SCU. Your offer contains important details including the name of the course, the location where you’ll be studying, the SCU School/College offering your course and the year and study period when you’ll start. It also contains the SCU student number that has been allocated to you.
Offer Conditions: Specific Offer Conditions: Your official offer contains a section called “Specific Offer Conditions”. These are conditions that must be fulfilled before you will be allowed to start studying. For example sometimes we may need to get a copy of a transcript of your past academic results. Check your offer to see whether there are any specific conditions attached to it. If so, you will need to provide the Admissions Team at SCU with any information they may have requested before you can enrol in units.
General Offer Conditions: Your official offer contains a section called “General Offer Conditions”. These are conditions that are generally placed on every student in your course — this section will advise whether or not you have an option to defer your studies.
On-campus: On-campus study is also known as internal mode, if you study on-campus you are expected to attend on-campus classes.
Register in Classes: Approximately three weeks before a study period starts, class registration opens. You will receive an email in your SCU Webmail account advising you of registration opening date. You will register for your classes online through My Enrolment.
Schedule of Units: The Schedule of Units (SOU) lists, alphabetically by the Unit Name, all Units planned to be taught by all of the Faculties at SCU in a particular study period. The SOU is updated daily and reflects the most up-to-date information about unit availabilities.

Go to Schedule of Units (www.scu.edu.au/scheduleofunits)
SCU Webmail: SCU provides you with a University email address. It is SCU policy that we will only send official communications to your SCU webmail account — we will not send them to any other email address. It is therefore very important to regularly check your SCU webmail account. It is possible for you to set up your SCU webmail account to forward all emails to your personal email account, but this will not happen automatically, you must set this up yourself.

Go to SCU Webmail (email.scu.edu.au)
Student Number: Your SCU student number is unique to you. You will be asked for your student number many times during your time at SCU and you will use it to access some SCU systems. It can be found in your offer — make sure you keep it somewhere safe.
Study Period: SCU runs two academic calendars; the Session Academic Calendar for most undergraduate courses and the Trimester Academic Calendar for most postgraduate courses. Each of these calendars contains 3 study periods: Session 1, 2 and 3 are the study periods in the Session Calendar. First, Second and Third Trimesters are the study periods in the Trimester Calendar See Teaching Calendar/Key Dates for more information about study periods.
Study Plan: Your study plan in My Enrolment follows your course structure — any core units (compulsory Part A units) will already be planned for you and you will be able to see them individually on your study plan. Where you must make a decision (for example choosing a Part B major or choosing a Part C elective and so forth) your study plan will contain an “Option” line. When you enrol in a unit or complete a unit successfully, it will remain on your study plan but its status will change allowing you to keep track of your progression through the course requirements.
Unit: Every course at SCU is made up of a series of units (individual subjects that you will study). Enrolling in one or two units in a study period is considered a part-time load. Enrolling in three or four units in a single study period is considered a full-time load. Most (but not all) Bachelor Degrees are made up of 24 units. Most (but not all) Masters Degrees are made up of 12 units. Check your course rules in the Student Handbook to find out how many units make up your degree. Your Course Enrolment Guide will give you valuable advice about your units of study.
Unit Learning Site: Every unit in which you enrol has an online Unit Learning Site. It is critical to your studies that you can enter your unit learning site(s). Your Unit Learning Site contains a Unit Information Guide which will give you your assignment and assessment tasks, due dates and important information about the unit. Your Unit Learning Site(s) also contain various other online resources and contact details for your Unit Assessor. If you are studying by Distance Education, your Unit Learning Site will be your virtual classroom for the unit and will be the primary method by which your Unit Assessor will communicate with you. You will find your Unit Learning Sites inside MySCU. Login to MySCU, scroll down the page and find the links to your Unit Learning Sites.
University Place: When you accept your offer of admission to Southern Cross University, you will be “occupying a place”. Due to physical space limitations, Government rules and teaching resources, every University has a limited number of places that they can offer. If you decline your offer, the place becomes free and we can re-offer it to another applicant.
Webmail: See SCU Webmail entry.

Updated: 04 April 2012