Demand for the Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne stronger than ever
The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) yesterday released its first round of offers for University places in Victoria. The Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne made 810 offers to students for a place in the Bachelor of Commerce in 2012. This year’s Clearly-In Rank of 95.45 was up from 94.1 last year and means the Bachelor of Commerce continues to have the highest cut-off score for a single undergraduate business and economics degree in Victoria.
Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Professor Margaret Abernethy, says student demand continues to position the Bachelor of Commence as Victoria’s premier undergraduate business and economics program, “We are delighted with the high demand from Australian students for the BCom. This reflects the exceptional education, experiences and graduate outcomes that our students benefit from,” she said.
The Bachelor of Commerce continues to attract Australia’s highest achievers. The first round of offers included fifteen students with ATARs of 99.9 or above who were offered entry into the Chancellor’s Scholars Program while seven with an ATAR score of 99.85 were made offers to join them in the Copland Program.
Professor Paul Kofman, Deputy Dean (Faculty) of the Faculty of Business and Economics, says this program recognises students for their outstanding work during secondary studies, “The Chancellor’s Scholars Program provides students access to unique opportunities including guaranteed entry into the graduate program of their choice, individual mentoring from one of Australia’s leading CEOs and a generous scholarship scheme.”
The Faculty of Business and Economics’ also continues to support those who have experienced disadvantage. This year 272 students received a first-round offer for a place in the Bachelor of Commerce through the Access Melbourne program. This accounts for more than 34 percent of offers made and provides access to disadvantaged students including those from rural areas and from low socio-economic backgrounds.
According to Professor Kofman the Access Melbourne program facilitates access to the highest quality education for students from any background or opportunity, “These students will be the leaders of tomorrow and it is important that they are allowed the opportunity to study at one of Australia’s finest Universities, irrespective of their background or financial situation.”
Professor Kofman also cites the wide range of Faculty scholarship and support programs for students from low socio-economic and rural backgrounds, “The student outcomes from scholarship programs such as the First in the Family scholarships and our Commerce Opportunity Bursary are particularly pleasing,” he said.
11 Comments
Looking forward to BCom 2012!
That’s great Dave. We hope you enjoy your first year here at Melbourne. See you in late March.
Access Melbourne is a corrupted and unfair system. Not the applicants’ fault – whoever looks after it should be ashamed. Think you are helping disadvantaged people? In probably most cases, yes and they deserve your help. But your guidelines are frivolous, and you neglect the verification process so much that just about anyone can apply. In the end, you punish honest and hardworking people who deserve better.
How do people receiving youth allowance with an enter of 88 deserve to get in BCom over someone who just missed the clearly in atar? If they need to work throughout the year to support their family then yes, they deserve the help. But most youth allowance receivers simply focus on their studies.
Other ridiculous guidelines include non-english speaking background – you can apply if you are not born in Australia and have been in Australia for less than 6 years. There is a subject called English Second Language which help these people. I am a fluent English speaker, yet amazingly I meet this requirement and trust me, there are plenty of people like me who apply for access Melbourne and gain a massive advantage for University offers.
Both student A and B have parents with little education background.
Student A’s parents work extremely hard as cleaners – 15 hours, 7 days a week. So Student A’s family income exceeds family tax benefit A bracket, and as a result is ineligible for access Melbourne.
On the other hand, Student B’s parents decide to be lazy and rely on centrelink support (tax payers’ money). As a result, Student B receives all the help and attention from his parents throughout year 12, and is eligible for access Melbourne.
Student A scores 95.
Student B scores 88.
Guess who University of Melbourne takes? Yep, Student B. The inferior student with lazy parents.
Tell me that is fair.
Dear Bernard,
It is unfortunate that you feel that way about the Access Melbourne program.
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing education opportunities for students educationally, financially or socially disadvantaged backgrounds enrolling in our undergraduate programs. The Access Melbourne program is designed to enable access to our undergraduate programs but also increase the diversity of students in those courses. In addition to the categories you cite (disadvantaged financial background and non-English speaking background) the program is available to applicants:
- from rural or isolated areas;
- from under-represented schools;
- who have experienced difficult circumstances;
- who have a disability or medical conditions;
- who identify as an Indigenous Australian; and,
- fit the mature age category.
More information about the Access Melbourne program can be found at http://www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/admissions/entry-requirements/other-entry-options/access-melbourne. Contact details are also available on that site if you have any further questions or concerns.
Best of luck with your future studies.
so excited about uni this year…
Great to hear Fleur! Looking forward to having you here at Melbourne.
any details on enrolment and start time would be helpful
Hi sharpie3241,
Congratulations on the offer.
Information on how to accept your offer can be found at bit.ly/zeZsLD – it has details on enrolment, orientation, etc.
See you soon!
Hi Bus & Eco,
First of all, please accept my apologies for such a wild complaint. I am not a recent graduate from high school; my strong feelings on this program are rooted from way too many unfair cases I have witnessed over the past years.
Please do not get me wrong – I have no doubt Access Melbourne is a program that began with great intentions. Many of the categories you cited are legitimate, and certainly creates a disadvantages for students.
However, there are currently too many flaws with Access Melbourne to make it a fair system.
Students with disadvantaged financial background deserve help. However, it is simply too easy to meet the requirements for this category. As long as you have youth allowance, you are allowed to apply. There are many students who benefit from youth allowance – and most of them certainly were not disadvantaged in their studies in any ways. In fact, I know students from Melbourne High and MacRobertson Girls’ High School who are on youth allowance, applied and got into the University only through Access Melbourne. They most certainly did not experience any stress through their supposed “financial problems”. If anything, they receive BETTER education than the rest of the state. And they were able to afford tutors for just about every subject. The students who deserve help are the ones who are forced to work throughout year 12 to support their family. Having Youth allowance or being in family tax benefit A should NOT be an accepted criteria.
Another problem is the poor verification process. It is simply way too easy for anyone to apply without getting rejected. One example that baffles me is this rich family I know. They bought a house in the rural area when their daughter was going into high school, just so that they can use that address to register at VTAC, making them eligible for Access Melbourne. You would think that surely this application would be rejected, but no. There was no check up whatsoever – and she gained a place at the University through Access Melbourne with an ATAR way below the clearly in rank.
I agree with Bernard. i worked so hard in year 12 to achieve a great atar. You give out almost 26% of your places to access Melbourne applicants.
I am in fact double eligible for access but i didn’t know that getting youth allowance made you fall into the ‘disadvantaged financial background’ category!
How is that fair; someone was 0.05 below the clearly in and a person with access Melbourne getting”youth allowance” scored 89 and received an offer.
Is this even justice?
Dear Bernard,
Thank you for clarifying your position.
I will ensure that your concerns are forwarded on to the unit responsible for administrating the Access Melbourne program.