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• Glossary
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Glossary

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A

• Academic Disadvantage
  Defined, ongoing, unpreventable circumstances that hamper a student’s ability to participate in academic activities and demonstrate their academic merit.
• Academic Misconduct
  Includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, forging or falsifying documents, academic results or records or submitting false or incorrect information for enrolment or entry into a course or subject and any other conduct by which a student seeks to gain for himself or herself, or for any other person, any academic advantage or advancement to which he or she or that other person is not entitled.
• Academic Rehabilitation
  The process by which students attempt to demonstrate that their capacity for academic success has improved since they were earlier enrolled in a given degree.
• Academic Status
  The level of progress (satisfactory or unsatisfactory) of a student. A student making satisfactory progress is considered to be of 'good standing'. There are several levels of unsatisfactory progress. See also Unsatisfactory Progress.
• Accelerated Entry
  Exemption from and, in some cases, credit for a tertiary subject at the University of Melbourne on the basis of (a) additional work completed in a secondary educational program and possibly also (b) satisfactory performance (70%) in an exemption examination in the subject offered by the administering department for the subject.
• Accelerated Program
  An approved academic program of study for selected students involving a specified overloaded program resulting in early completion of a course.
• Acceleration
  Progression through an education or training program at a faster than usual rate.
• Act, The
  Means the University of Melbourne Act 2009.
• Actual Course Duration
  Period for which a student is enrolled before they complete the requirements of a particular course. The period may include Leave of Absence or other breaks in enrolment. See also Maximum Course Duration; Normal Course Duration.
• Additional Assessment
  Component(s) of assessment administered to some students in addition to or, in the case of special assessment, instead of the published requirements.
• Additional Work
  Work associated with but additional to a secondary school educational program, such as the Maths Olympiad or advanced language studies.
• Admission Criteria
  Requirements, such as educational qualifications, knowledge, skills or experience, for entry to a particular course.
• Advanced Standing
  See Credit.
• Alternative Assessment
  Component(s) of assessment administered in a different form or under different conditions instead of the published requirements.
• Appropriate Professionals
  A responsible independent person who is not related to the student with knowledge of the student’s circumstances. Examples of a suitable person may include: doctor, lawyer, accountant, social worker, counsellor, religious or community leader, teacher.
• Articulate/Articulation (Articulated Courses)
  Articulation arrangements enable progression from a completed qualification to another with credit. Articulation arrangements are formal established arrangements which link two or more qualifications together by creating/identifying the content relationships between them. These may be two University courses or one University course and a course from another institution.
• Assessment
  The method of determining: • whether a student has passed; or • whether a student has otherwise satisfied the examiners; or • the grade to be awarded to a student in an award course or a component of an award course (e.g. a subject).
• Assessment Components
  Discrete tasks or elements of assessment within a particular subject. A component may be a single task (e.g. examination; essay) or a set of tasks (e.g. laboratory reports; weekly exercises).
• Assessment Period
  The period following the Teaching Period, during which the final Assessment Component (examination or assignment) falls due. The Assessment Period for semester subjects is four weeks (one week for the summer term). An Assessment Period of one or more weeks must be defined for non-standard subjects.
• Assessment Tool
  A method for the gathering of evidence for assessment, such as a knowledge test or a checklist of practical performance.
• Assistant Markers
  Persons assisting examiners assess students' work, e.g. tutors and demonstrators.
• Associate Diploma
  A qualification under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).
• Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)
  National policy regulating post-compulsory education in Australia; www.aqf.edu.au.
• Award/Award Course
  A program of study formally accredited/approved by the Academic Board which leads to an academic award granted by the University or which qualifies a student to enter a course at a level higher than a Bachelor Degree.

B

• Bachelor Degree
  The highest undergraduate degree offered at the University. A Bachelor Degree normally requires the completion of at least 300 points of study at undergraduate level.
• Board of Examiners
  Also called the examination board (see Statute 12.1.6).
• Breadth
  A compulsory part of the following Bachelor Degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Biomedicine, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Environments, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, designed to give students an understanding of one or more disciplines that are distinct from the field of their core studies.
• Breadth Track
  A coherent group of three or more subjects (including at least one subject at level 3 or higher) that progressively develops knowledge and skills relevant to a particular domain, theme, topic or issue. Breadth Tracks may be in a single discipline, or multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary (some Breadth Tracks include subjects that are not available as Breadth in all degrees). A list of Breadth Tracks is published in the Handbook.
• Bridging Course
  A course designed to equip students to take up a new subject or course by covering the gaps between the students' existing knowledge and skills and the subject or course prerequisites and assumed knowledge.

C

• Capstone Subject/Experience
  An activity or experience, including but not limited to an examination or research project, which requires students to consolidate and integrate the work undertaken in their Major. The Capstone experience is intended to: • offer both disciplinary and cohort coherence; • function as a bridge between the undergraduate experience and what lies beyond; • consolidate the content and skills acquisition components of a student’s Major area of study; and • encourage the student to apply those skills and experience both within the Capstone Experience itself, and after they have graduated.
• Census Date
  The date whereby a student becomes financially liable for a subject they have enrolled in.
• Class
  A set instruction or learning time held at a specified time during a Teaching Period, which may be a lecture, tutorial, seminar, laboratory, or practical.
• Combined Board of Examiners
  A committee, comprising subject boards of examiners for a number of subjects within a degree.
• Combined Course
  An approved program in which two degree courses are undertaken concurrently and where the requirements of the two degrees may be completed within less than the normal aggregate time for completion of both degrees, as a result of the granting of credit for specified subjects. Undergraduate combined degrees were replaced in the Melbourne Model by sequential double degrees. Graduate combined degrees may still be approved by the Academic Board.
• Commencing Student
  A student entering a course type (undergraduate, postgraduate coursework, research) at the University of Melbourne for the first time. A re-enrolling, or re-admitted student is not a Commencing Student, nor is a transferring student, nor a student entering an Honours program.
• Commonwealth Assisted
  Eligible for enrolment in a Commonwealth supported place and/or deferment of student contribution or tuition fee payments via HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP.
• Compulsory Subject
  A subject required for completion of a course.
• Concept Proposal
  A business plan developed by faculties/graduate schools and reviewed by the Provost with the advice of the Concept Proposal Advisory Committee before the development of the full course proposal.
• Concurrent Diploma
  An award course consisting of 100 points involving study equivalent in depth to an undergraduate Major, which is undertaken simultaneously with a Bachelor Degree. The Concurrent Diploma involves some special cross-crediting arrangements that reduce the length of time required to complete the Diploma.
• Confirmation of Enrolment
  A formal document issued to student visa holders that certifies their enrolment in a course and the expected duration of that course.
• Confirmation of Enrolment (COE) 'course end date'
  A date provided to an international student when a student visa is granted that, based upon the full-time duration of the course, indicates when their student visa expires.
• Contact Hours
  Hours in which a student is expected to be in attendance at classes (including lectures, tutorials, laboratory classes and field work).
• Continuing Degree
  Undergraduate degrees offered by the University that predate the introduction of the new generation undergraduate degrees under the Melbourne Model and are not currently being taught out. These include the Bachelor of Agriculture and the undergraduate degrees offered by the VCA.
• Core Subject
  A subject required for completion of a particular Major or Specialisation.
• Core-Disciplinary Studies
  Subjects undertaken from within the broad discipline central to the degree (i.e. Arts, Science etc.). These may include compulsory and elective subjects.
• Corequisite
  A subject which must be taken in conjunction with another subject, in the same period of study (e.g. semester) as that given subject.
• Course
  See Award Course and Non-Award Course.
• Course Progress Committee
  A committee chaired by the custodial dean or their nominee (often a relevant faculty Associate Dean) which makes recommendations to boards of examiners on re-assessment after borderline failure or for additional assessment for the last subject of a student's degree.
• Course Reports
  Regular reports on each course submitted by faculties or graduate schools to the Academic Programs Committee, providing the course structure and noting any significant developments within it. Course Reports are required annually for undergraduate programs and biennially for graduate programs.
• Course Standing Committee (CSC)
  The committees responsible for administration of the following undergraduate degrees: bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Biomedicine, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Environments, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science.
• Coursework Degree
  A program of study leading to an award of the University that comprises more than one third of coursework. Coursework usually involves attendance at lectures, classes or seminars and may have a research component comprising less than two thirds of the program.
• Coursework Thesis
  A thesis or research project report completed by a student under the supervision of a member of the academic staff of the University as part of a coursework higher degree, an honours program or at the fourth year of an undergraduate program. See also Thesis.
• Credit
  Points granted towards the requirements of a degree for studies completed outside of that degree and/or the University of Melbourne.
• Credit Points
  An allocated number (usually 12.5 or multiples thereof)that functions as a measure of the relative magnitude of subjects that are available in a courses. Credit Points are used to: • provide students with a guide to the amount of work a course may entail; • indicate enrolment load; • define the requirements for an award of the University; • quantify the recognition of prior-learning; and • indicate the amount of work a student has successfully completed towards an award of the University.
• CRICOS
  Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students; www.cricos.deewr.gov.au.
• Cross-Credit
  Where a subject taken towards one Award Course may also be included in the points required for a second Award. Cross-crediting allows a student to complete awards without accumulating the combined total points of each Award.
• Cross-Institutional Study
  Studies undertaken by a student enrolled in a course at a particular institution (the first institution) at another institution (the second institution) for Credit towards the course at the first institution.
• Custodial Faculty
  A faculty to which Courses and/or Subjects have been assigned for administrative purposes.