SCU launches Back-to-Study video for older students

Southern Cross University is preparing to launch a special video and accompanying workbook aimed at helping prospective 'mature age' students understand the requirements to enter university. The video also looks at what pressures - and satisfaction - they are likely to experience from tertiary study, and how best they can prepare.

'Thinking about University?', a film for people considering a return to study, is a new 28-minute video exploring the lives of six actual students and graduates who enrolled, either part or full-time, in various courses at SCU. With frankness they shared the uncertainties, experiences and accomplishments of balancing university study with their personal, family and working lives.

"Nowadays, more than half of any University's undergraduate population will be students who did not enter directly from high school," said Jenny Bird from SCU's Teaching & Learning Centre. "SCU has a long history of helping mature age students to prepare, adjust and succeed at university. The University has a range of support mechanisms for students of all ages and these are also explained in the video."

The video/workbook package, which will be available from SCU, looks at university life through the eyes of two local working women with young children, a Lismore Police officer who wanted to upgrade his qualifications, a separated mature-age woman who went on to qualify for a PhD, a man in his twenties who suffered from dyslexia and, in the interests of honesty, a woman who decided that university was not for her and went on to train as a stock and station agent.

The video was written and directed by Chris Morgan and Jenny Bird and filmed by Rex Forwood, a local camera operator who has since enrolled in the BA degree course at Southern Cross.

"The film takes viewers through the various stages of the university process, from deciding to attend, to preparing, enrolment, the first decisions about how to study (on or off campus/online/full or part time), and the ongoing challenge of balancing study needs with your working and personal lives," Ms Bird said.

'Thinking about University?' will be launched officially by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Rickard, at a function at the University on Thursday, 21 June.

For further details, please contact Jenny Bird, (02) 6620 3518