From your initial enrolment to the end of your degree, preparation is key to keeping on top of everything while studying at university.
In brief, to stay organised, you should:
You’ll hear various terms throughout your time at Curtin, many of which will be initially unfamiliar. Read through the table or watch the video below to familiarise yourself with these common terms. You can find a full list of common uni words on Curtin’s website.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Academic integrity | Acting honestly, ethically, responsibly in all aspects of academic work. All students must follow Curtin’s academic integrity guidelines. All new students must complete the Academic Integrity Program. |
| Academic misconduct | Refers to conduct by a student that is dishonest or unfair in connection with any academic work including exams. |
| Census date | The date in the academic calendar to withdraw from any unit without financial and academic penalties. |
| Core unit | A compulsory unit within your course that will ensure you gain the necessary knowledge for your major. |
| Course | The program of study which leads to your degree, usually consisting of a range of units.. You can be studying a single, single with minor/s, double major or double degree. |
| Course coordinator | The academic staff member responsible for managing your course. They can also help with study plans. To find the name of your course coordinator, check Blackboard, check your faculty’s website, or contact Curtin Connect. |
| Course switching | If you meet the criteria, you can change to a different course offered at Curtin. Curtin students can apply internally, and OUA students contact OUA directly to course switch. |
| Course Weighted Average (CWA) | A weighted average percentage score for all graded and marked units that you have completed in a course. This includes units credited as automatic credit or designated credit. Your CWA is included on your Academic eRecord and Academic Transcript. Each course you study will have a separate CWA. |
| Credit | How the value of a unit within a degree is calculated. Most units are worth 25 credits at Curtin and you need to achieve a specific amount to graduate. The amount of credits you need will depend on what you are studying. |
| Credit for Recognised Learning (CRL) | Credit for Recognised Learning (Advanced Standing) is an application you can submit for unit exemptions based on previous study or experience completed. |
| eCAF | An electronic version of the Commonwealth Assistance Form for university course fees. |
| Elective unit | A unit that you can select from any school or discipline as part of your course, provided you meet the prerequisites. |
| Faculty | Broad areas of study within the University. Curtin has five Faculties: the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Business and Law, Humanities, Science and Engineering, and Health Sciences. |
| Full/part time student | A full-time student studies four units per semester. A part-time student studies one-three units per semester. For OUA students, full-time is two units per study period. |
| Leave of absence | Taking a break from your course due to unforeseen circumstances. Curtin students can apply internally, and OUA students contact OUA directly. |
| Lecture | A large group presentation conducted by academic staff in some units. The academic staff that present these sessions can be called lecturers. |
| Library catalogue and databases | The searchable collections of resources provided by Curtin. |
| Major | The main discipline you are studying within your course. E.g., Creative Writing, Geography, or Health Sciences. |
| Minor/specialisation | Selection of four recognised units within a specific discipline. |
| Optional units | A specific list of units you can choose from as part of your course. |
| Prerequisite | Study you must successfully complete before enrolling in a subsequent unit, e.g. the UniReady Mathematics for Science unit satisfies the Mathematics Applications ATAR prerequisite for many courses. |
| Reading list | The list of essential and recommended resources selected by your unit coordinator for each unit. Resources could include textbooks, journal articles, videos or websites, among others. Readings and resources will be relevant to your assessments and exams. |
| Respectful Relationships | An online training program that most newly enrolled students will be required to complete during the first four weeks of their study. |
| SSAF | Student Services and Amenities Fee. This fee supports the provision of a wide range of non-academic services to all students. It is charged each Semester. |
| School | A department within a Faculty, e.g. School of Accounting in the Faculty of Business and Law. |
| Study period | The period in which the units for your course are delivered/offered. At Curtin there are a range of different study periods. Your studies may follow the semester calendar, with two 14-week study periods each year, the trimester calendar, with three study periods each year, or the OUA calendar with four 13-week study periods each year. |
| Terminated status | You are no longer allowed to continue in your current course due to not achieving satisfactory course progress. |
| Textbooks | A type of essential reading for your course, and will usually be listed in your unit outline, Reading List or the Library’s textbook finder. Remember to check if you can access the book via the Library before buying textbooks. |
| Tutorial | Small discussion groups led by a tutor. Each unit will usually have one tutorial per week. Tutorials involve a number of tasks and activities to help students develop their understanding of the content covered in the previous lecture. . |
| Unit | A component of a course that covers one subject area in detail. |
| Unit coordinator | A subject expert who coordinates the whole unit, including the teaching materials, resources and assessments. The name and contact details of your unit coordinator can be found in your unit outline. |
| Unit outline | A resource for a particular unit that contains information on what you will learn and how you will be assessed. |
| Withdrawing | Cancelling a unit or course you were enrolled in. If you withdraw anytime after the census date, you are liable for the full fees. Curtin students can withdraw internally, and OUA students contact OUA directly. |
Preparing in advance for your semester or study period will help ensure you are ready for your units when classes begin. Working through these steps beforehand will set you up for success.
You may know which units you need to do, but it can be difficult to plan the best order to study them. Some of your units will be first-year units, while others may have prerequisites, meaning you may need to complete one or more other units before enrolling in them. The best way to plan out your course is to find it in the Curtin Handbook and have a look at the course structure. You can also contact Curtin Connect or your Course Coordinator for assistance.
When you’re studying through OUA, you need to enrol in your units through OUA directly. For more information check out the online study page.
Orientation Week, or O-Week is a week-long event full of activities for new and existing students. All newly enrolled Curtin University students are invited to various online or in-person workshops to help with their studies.
If you’re studying through OUA Curtin offers an online OUA orientation.
Curtin’s student essentials is where you’ll find information on ordering your student ID and important dates, forms that you may need to complete, and further information on managing your course.
The Academic Integrity Program is a mandatory online module for students studying at Curtin for the first time. Respectful Relationships may appear as a mandatory online module depending on your units. Not completing these modules will result in sanctions, restricting access to your results. Check your Official Communications Channel on OASIS for updates.
Curtin provides access to a range of software for students. For example, as a Curtin student you can download Microsoft Office for free and access other programs using your Curtin credentials.
To help manage your study time and other obligations, you should prepare before starting each unit and attending each class. Ensure you have downloaded these resources before you begin each study period.
Each unit you undertake will have a unit outline. This document contains essential information on the unit’s assessments, weekly topics and readings, referencing style, and more. It will also help you to determine how much time you should expect to allocate to each unit, as each unit has an expected number of hours to put in each week. These include contact (class) hours and personal study time, where you will do readings, research and assignments. You should expect to put in around 10 hours per unit per week, but check your unit outline for more information. The outline can be downloaded via OASIS under the My Studies tab one week before the study period commences.
You should refer to this document continually throughout the study period and note the important assessment dates in your calendar ahead of time.
Each unit will have a list of readings for you to complete to help you succeed. Readings can be any resource, including book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, websites, and video files and have been chosen by the unit coordinator.
To access the Reading List for your unit, open Blackboard, select the unit, and click on the Reading List link in the left menu. If you can’t find this, ask your unit coordinator. Readings for each week may be split into ‘essential’ (required) and ‘recommended’.
For strategies on reading academic resources effectively, view the reading and note-taking guide
For every assignment, you will be given a marking rubric, which breaks down the assessment task and provides details the criteria you will be marked against.
For more guidance on reading your rubric, view the getting started guide.
Some assessments may have additional documents outside of the information on your unit outlines and on Blackboard. They may include a template to write your assignment directly into or a list of requirements you must include in your work. Usually, these will become available closer to the assignment’s due date and can be accessed via the assignment page on Blackboard. If you are provided with these materials, download, refer to, and use these throughout the assignment process to ensure you meet the assessment requirements.
Another useful resource is the academic calendar. This calendar lists important dates such as census dates and results publication dates. The default view is in semesters, but this can be changed using the drop down menu.
Using this calendar along with the information in your unit outlines will help keep you on track throughout the semester. If you would like extra guidance on managing your time, view the study habits guide.
Whether studying on campus or online, you will need to use online platforms and spaces to access content and engage with your units and study. The two main platforms you should be familiar with are OASIS and Blackboard.
OASIS is Curtin’s online student portal and is the single access point to important information, resources and services. As part of Curtin’s policy, students are required to login to OASIS at least once every seven days.
A range of services are available through OASIS, including the official communications channel (OCC), student email, events, news, and your student records, enrolments and results. For more information visit the OASIS help pages.
Click on the purple i buttons below to discover the functions on your OASIS Welcome page.
Blackboard is Curtin’s learning management system and provides access to your unit content. This is where you will find your learning materials, assessment information and submission links, grades, discussion and collaboration tools, and further resources.
To access Blackboard, go to the My Studies tab in OASIS, then click the Blackboard button in the Important Links channel at the top left of the screen.
Content is often organised into topics or modules on Blackboard. Teaching staff will include some information and resources on each topic. Essential and recommended readings for each week will often be included in a Reading List, which can be accessed from the menu in the Blackboard unit.
For more help using Blackboard, visit Curtin’s help guide.