How pathways work

Twice a year (in approximately May and October), students currently enrolled in eligible pathway courses will be made a conditional offer to progress to further study at VU.

A pathway conditional offer is a guaranteed place (and in some cases with advanced standing) into one of our eligible higher education pathway courses if you complete the VU course you are currently enrolled in.

The pathway conditional offer email will be sent to your student account, and will include your eligible pathway options (browse pathways options to see if your course has a current pathway to further study).

Once successful completion in your current course is confirmed, and we have validated you have met any additional admissions criteria (if required), we will send you an email with your full offer into your chosen higher education course for the next available course start date (admissions intake).

Additional admissions criteria

Some higher education courses have additional admissions criteria which must be met and validated before an offer into the course can be made.

You will be advised during the pathway conditional offer process if your chosen higher education course has additional admissions criteria. Alternatively, check your course page for more information about what additional admissions criteria may be required for your chosen pathway course.

Some examples of pathways that have higher education courses with additional admissions criteria:

• Diploma of Education Studies (EDES) into the Bachelor of Education (P-12)
• Diploma of Nursing HLT54115 into the Bachelor of Nursing.

If you don’t meet the required additional admissions criteria for your chosen higher education pathway course, you will not be made a pathway offer for this course. If you were asked to choose a second course preference during the conditional offer process, you will be made an offer for this course instead if eligible.

If the pathway does not have any additional higher education course options and you would still like to study this course, you will need to apply direct via the course webpage once you have met the required admissions criteria.

Competitive pathway courses (courses in high demand or courses with placements) will have enrolment deadlines. To secure your place in the higher education course, you must accept your offer and enrol in units by the deadline specified in your full offer email.

If you do not accept your offer and enrol by the deadline, your offer will lapse. Once lapsed, you will be required to re-apply for the pathway higher education course.

Not ready to jump into a degree? If you want to start your course at a later stage, you can choose to defer course commencement until you are ready to start.

Once you have received your pathway full offer, you will be able to enrol into your higher education course. If you were eligible for credit, it will be processed at the same time as your offer.

Please contact your College course and unit administrator if you need advice or assistance relating to your enrolment, including which units to enrol into.

If the higher education course has unspecified block credits (advanced standing), it means that specific units are not granted. Instead, you receive the credit points as unspecified credit, which reduces the total amount of credit points required to complete your course.

Some example of pathways that grant unspecified block credit into higher education courses:

• Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care CHC50113 into the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education
• Diploma of Beauty Therapy SHB50115 into the Bachelor of Dermal Sciences.

Check our pathways pages to see if credit is granted into your higher education course from your current course.

If you are eligible, credits will be processed at the same time that we process your offer. To find out what credit has been granted, simply accept your offer and enrol into your higher education course, after which you will receive a notification email outlining credit granted.

Units can be credited if they are part of the course structure for the course you are applying for. Please note that credits relating to prior VU subjects are automatically granted and no further action is required.

Use our credit calculator to find out what credits you may be eligible to receive towards completion of your course, based on past study or work and life experience.

Choosing major & minor when granted block credit 

If your pathway grants credit allowing you to go straight into second year, and the course has a major or specialisation within second year, you will be asked to select your preference during the pathway conditional offer process. It will be actioned at the same time we process your offer.