Undergraduate Study
Degree programmes at Victoria are designed to give you as wide a range of subject choice as possible. Here are a few things you need to know about Victoria’s academic year, teaching methods and degrees.
Victoria’s academic year
Victoria’s academic year is divided into three trimesters, each lasting four months:
Trimester 1: February– July;
Trimester 2: July – November;
Trimester 3: November – February.
The main teaching period is the first and second trimesters. In the third trimester most international students return home for a break although some stay to study or work.
Most students begin their studies in February; the next biggest intake is in July. The November intake is becoming more popular with international students but due to the limited number of courses run in Trimester 3 it is not possible to start all programmes. You can check whether it is possible to start in November by checking out the individual degree pages.
The structure of a first degree
Here are a few facts about first (undergraduate) degrees at Victoria:
First degrees take at least three years of full-time study.
The building blocks of a degree are called courses. A course of study generally lasts one trimester, sometimes two trimesters.
Each course is taught at a certain level; 100-level is first-year level, 200- and 300-level courses are more advanced. A course also has a subject code, a course in Chemistry is indicated by the letters CHEM. Therefore CHEM 103 can be recognised as a first year course in Chemistry; the letters indicate the subject, the first number shows the level.
Each course is worth a number of points, which reflects the amount of work required. A single-trimester course at 100-level is 18 points, most 200-level courses are 22 points and 300-level courses 24 points.
A full-time year requires passing, on average, 120 points a year – this is, on average, six courses. A three-year degree therefore requires 360 points.
There are a required number of 200- and 300-level points in each degree.
If you are coming to university for the first time your courses will usually have 100-level codes.
In a BA, BSc or BCA you plan your degree around your major subject or subjects. These generally make up between 25–40 percent of the courses required for the degree.
Some degrees, for example BCA, BArch, BBSc, BIT, LLB, BMus, BDes, BTM and BScTech, require certain core courses and a number of electives.
Teaching and assessment
All undergraduate degree courses at Victoria are made up of lectures as well as tutorials or laboratories.
For each course you take, there are two or three lectures a week, each usually 50 minutes long. Tutorials or laboratories are held in small groups of around 15 to 20 students, so that you have the chance to discuss your ideas and get individual assistance from tutors.
Assessment is usually a combination of work done during the course and final examinations.