Exciting new courses on offer at Southern Cross University

With campuses at Gold Coast, Lismore and Coffs Harbour and many courses available online or mixed mode, there has never been a better time to pursue your dream career.

With orientation for Session 2 starting this week and classes commencing Monday July 2, Southern Cross University is still accepting applications directly through www.scu.edu.au

Southern Cross was recently named as one of the top 100 young universities in the world in the 2018 Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings, and outperformed many metropolitan universities in the federal government’s latest Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) data where it rated above the national average in key areas for student experience, graduate satisfaction and graduate employment.

A new double degree will combine the Master of International Tourism and Hotel Management (MITHM) with a Master of Business Administration (MBA), with graduates receiving two internationally recognised management qualifications, taught at the Gold Coast’s only beachside campus Southern Cross University, just 400m from the beautiful North Kirra Beach and right next to Gold Coast Airport.

Course coordinator Dr John Haw said the course was specifically designed to give graduates a competitive edge in a dynamic and diverse industry that offers opportunities to travel and work in some of the most attractive destinations in the world. It also includes an Industry Research Project to explore a topic in-depth.

“This postgraduate degree combines advanced subjects in business and tourism management with the core business knowledge and management skills development of an MBA. Subjects areas include entrepreneurship and marketing, accounting and management, tourism planning, systems and contemporary hotel management, with graduates emerging as confident leaders of the global tourism and hotel industries,” Dr Haw said.

From late June, Southern Cross University will also offer a double degree in Psychological Science and Laws at the Gold Coast campus, ahead of launching the full-time Bachelor of Psychological Science for the first time on the Gold Coast in 2019.

The double Bachelor of Podiatry, Bachelor of Pedorthics degree will be offered at the Gold Coast campus next year. Southern Cross was one of the first universities to offer a pedorthics degree when it was launched in 2013, and is the only University in the southern hemisphere to offer the course.

The Coffs Harbour campus will launch the highly anticipated Bachelor of Exercise Science and Psychological Science combined degree in 2019. The course will have an application in elite sport psychology and school programs that promote health and self-esteem through a healthy lifestyle. The Bachelor of Occupational Therapy, already available at Gold Coast campus, will also be offered at Coffs Harbour campus from 2019.

Responding to industry demand, Southern Cross University has recently launched online Master and Graduate Diploma courses in both Mental Health and Mental Health Nursing, with shorter ‘Study Period’ intakes in July, August and October.

From 2019, Southern Cross will offer a Graduate Diploma in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities which responds to an increasing demand for skilled professionals in this area following the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) rollout. The course can be studied online part-time over two years.

Southern Cross University has also developed a 25-week pathway for international students wanting to study nursing in Australia, offered at the Lismore campus. The English Language Program component has the first intake in August, followed by the Undergraduate Qualifying Program (UQP) which prepares international students for undergraduate study in nursing and allied health in October. Students with the required proficiency in English can begin at the UQP stage, before the Bachelor of Nursing intake in Session 1 from March 2019.

From Study Period 5 commencing in August, Registered Nurses can study the Graduate Certificate in Primary Healthcare Nursing online, with application in healthcare leadership.

Aspiring writers can study the Graduate Diploma of Creative Writing online part-time over two years. This is a new postgraduate course available online from Session 2 with units on Creative Nonfiction, Literary Studies, Poetics, Writing across the Genres, and Writing as a Profession. Students receive the feedback they need to move to the publishing stage and pursue a profession as a creative writer. The course includes an extended writing project, and an optional work placement at the Byron Writers Festival.

For the first time, the Bachelor of Laws will have a midyear intake at Gold Coast and Lismore, and the Bachelor of Contemporary Music in Lismore will also offer a midyear intake.

In October this year, the Master of Information Technology will be launched at the Gold Coast campus for Session 3 intake.