UQ extends entry options for potential students

THE University of Queensland will provide extra places for full fee paying Australian undergraduate students in some high demand programs from next year.

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said the numbers would be limited and strict guidelines would be in place to ensure academic standards were maintained.

“About half of Australia’s universities already offer students this option and, in the current restricted funding environment, UQ has little choice but to examine all available revenue sources,” Professor Hay said.

“We expect the fee-paying places will be available in a relatively small number of programs and only Veterinary Science, Dentistry and Law will make the option available in 2003.

“The places created under this scheme will be on top of existing Commonwealth Government HECS quotas and will not reduce opportunities for other students.

“Overseas students can already access full fee undergraduate programs and Australian students can access postgraduate programs on a full fee basis.”

The UQ Senate last night approved additional full fee paying places for Australian graduates on the condition that:

• They do not exceed 25 percent of total places for any program.

• The cut-off for full-fee students is no more than two OP bands below the cut-off for HECS places and not below OP 8 or equivalent.

Professor Hay said the level of fees would be determined on the advice of the Fees Reviewing Committee of the Senate.

“We expect these will be comparable to those currently set for overseas undergraduate students,” he said.

Media: for more information contact Shane Rodgers (3365 6060) or Peter McCutcheon (3365 1088 or 0413 380012) at UQ Communications.