Units of Study - Definitions

Undergraduate units of study - junior, senior and honours

Junior units of study

Units of study with numeric codes between 1000 and 1999 are first year/junior units of study. These units of study are completed in a student's first year and contain introductory material for the particular subject area. For example, ACCT1001 Accounting 1A introduces the student to introductory principles of Accounting.

Senior units of study

Those units of study with numeric codes between 2000 and 2999 are second year/senior units, and those with numeric codes between 3000 and 3999 are third year/senior units, and so forth. Senior units of study are more advanced units and usually requiring the completion of the general introductory junior units of study (1000 level). Senior units of study tend to focus on a more specialised area within the particular subject area.

Students enrolled in a pass degree can only enrol in 1000, 2000 and 3000 level units of study. Course rules indicate which units of study must be completed in order to fulfil degree requirements. Students should refer to the specific information on their degree for further information.

The following table shows an illustrative example of an undergraduate degree progression

Please Note: This is an example only. For details of how students should enrol in units of study in particular programs, please refer to the individual undergraduate degrees.

Honours year units of study

Units of study with numeric codes between 4000 and 4999 are designated honours units of study. These units of study are completed by students enrolled in the Honours Year only. These units tend to cover highly specialised content in the particular subject area, including a thesis, asindicated by the alpha code. Honours units are not available to students under the pass degree. For details of the Honours Year, please refer to the information under the individual courses or the Undergraduate honours page.

Undergraduate units of study - other definitions

Credit points

Credit points refers to the value of the contribution each unit of study provides to meeting the total course requirements. For example,for the Bachelor of Commerce students must successfully complete 144 credit points in total to be awarded with the degree. In terms of units of study, thiswould mean that students would need to successfully complete 24 x 6 credit point units of study in order to be awarded the Bachelor of Commerce.

Each unit of study has a credit point value assigned to it. The majority of units of study on offer by the faculty are worth 6 credit points. Some honourspreparation units of study are worth 3 credit points and usually two of these are needed to be completed to meet honours requirements. Some senior units of study are also worth 12 credit points and are equivalent in workload and assessment to two 6 credit point units of study. This is also the case with theunit GOVT3558 Internship in Public Policy and Affairs which is worth 18 credit points and is equivalent to three 6 credit point units of study.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites are necessary requirements that need to be completed successfully before students can enrol in another particular unit ofstudy that has the prerequisite.

Examples of prerequisites include the following:

• a particular unit or units of study which is required to be completed successfully before the student can attempt another unit of study e.g. ACCT1001 Accounting 1A is a prerequisite for ACCT2011 Financial Accounting A
• a number of units of study from a particular subject area which must be completed before students can attempt a unit/unitsof study e.g. All GOVT 2000 level units of study have the prerequisite of two GOVT 1000 level units of study
• a particular grade average in particular units of study which must be obtained in order to enrol in higher level unit/units ofstudy e.g. ECOS3901 Advanced Microeconomics requires students to have completed ECOS2901 Intermediate Microeconomics Honours, ECOS2902 Intermediate Macroeconomics Honours and ECOS2903 Mathematical Economics A with a Credit average or better over the three units combined
• the completion of a certain number of credit points before students can enrol in certain units of study at a higher level e.g. to enrol in IBUS2101International Business Strategy, students must complete 36 junior credit points with at least 12 from the Faculty of Economics and Business

Corequisites

A corequisite refers to a unit of study which must be taken in the same semester or year as a particular unit of study (unless alreadycompleted). For example, ECMT1010 Business and Economic Statistics A and ECOS2903 Mathematical Economics A are corequisites of ECOS2901 Intermediate Microeconomics Honours.

Assumed knowledge

For some units of study, a student is assumed to have passed a relevant unit of study or a particular subject in their HSC. Althoughstudents are usually advised against taking a unit of study which they do not have the assumed knowledge for, they are not prevented from enrolling in theunit of study.

For example, students enrolling in INFS3030 BIS Assurance and Control, would find it beneficial for their study in the unit to have already completed theunit of study INFS2010 Managing Information & Knowledge Assets.

Prohibition

Prohibitions or prohibited combinations of units refers to when two or more units of study contain a significant overlap of content.Enrolment by students in any one such unit of study prohibits their enrolment in any other unit of study identified as a prohibited unit.

For example, Students who began their degree prior to 2006 and completed the unit of study FINC2001 Corporate Finance I would not be able to enrol in the unit of study FINC2011 Corporate Finance I as it is a prohibited unit of study (because both units cover similar material).

Core units of study

Core units of study are the units of study which are compulsory and must be completed for the award of the particular degree. Coreunits of study are specified under the course structures for the Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies), Bachelor of Economics and the Bachelor of International Studies.

Compulsory units of study

Compulsory units of study are units of study which must be completed as requirements for a particular degree or area of specialisation(major). In some courses, such as the Bachelor of International Studies, students have a choice of compulsory units of study.

Elective units of study

Elective units of study are units which students choose from a range of options determined by the degree in which they are studying.Elective units of study can be chosen as individual options or as part of majors.

For details of the units of study available for this current year, students should refer to Undergraduate units of study.