Enrol for the first time – local students

Congratulations on being offered a place at Swinburne!

LOCAL STUDENT
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
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Before you start

Local vocational education (TAFE) students

This information is for new local vocational education students enrolling for the first time. 

Enrolling online takes between 30 minutes and an hour. It’s best to use a laptop or desktop computer as this process is not optimised for tablet or mobile. Keep this window open and refer to these steps while enrolling in another window.  

If you’ve completed prior study or have work experience relevant to the course you’re enrolling in, you may be able to apply for academic credit for prior study or experience.

Apprenticeship or ELICOS students

If you intend to enrol in an apprenticeship or ELICOS course, the way you enrol is different. Refer to your offer letter for instructions. 

Gather your information

To enrol online, you'll need to have the following close by:

  • your letter of offer
  • your Tax File Number (TFN) or certificate of application of TFN
  • your course planner – you'll need to refer to it throughout the enrolment process
  • your Unique Student Identifier (USI). This is a government requirement. If you don't have a USI already, get your USI now.

Accept or defer your offer

Note: If you have previously accepted or deferred your offer, please proceed to the next step to enrol in your units.

To accept or defer your offer, you’ll need to log in to eStudent and click on the Offers tab. 

Your username is your student ID as it appears in your offer letter.

You can create or reset your password here.

To accept your offer

  1. Select ‘Respond to offer’ for the offer you wish to accept
  2. Check the details are correct and, if so, select ‘Accept’.

It’s also possible to defer your offer (and commence study at later date) for up to:

  • one year if you are a vocational education student
  • two years if you are an undergraduate, postgraduate or UniLink student.

To defer your offer

  1. Select 'Respond to offer' for the offer you wish to defer
  2. Select ‘Defer’
  3. Provide details of the year and study period you'd like to defer until
    Please note: Swinburne assesses each deferral request and will inform you via email on the outcome of your request.
  4. Select 'Continue'. 

You may also apply to take a leave of absence later in your course – see taking time off for local students.

Enrol in your course and units

Accepting Swinburne's terms and conditions

  1. Go to the ‘My Enrolment’ tab, select the course you wish to proceed with and accept our terms and conditions by selecting ‘Read and Accept’.
  2. If you are asked for further details e.g. your parent/guardian details, select ‘Provide’, then enter your details and select ‘Update’.

There are two ways you can enrol in your units. If you see a 'Group Registration' link to the right-hand side of your course information box, you need to register in a timetable group instead of enrolling in individual units.

Enrolling in individual units

  1. Refer to your course planner to check which units to enrol into and how many you should be doing.
  2. You can find information to help you with your unit selection by viewing the planning your course structure pages on our website. If you wish to view a sample timetable, refer to your course planner to guide your unit selection, then visit the online timetable planner.
  3. In the grey search box, select the year you are enrolling in, study period and location as per your course planner.
  4. Select the units you wish to enrol in. Choose the teaching period from the drop-down menu in the grey bar. If there is no choice, we will select the period for you. 
  5. You may be able to study some units online, or partly online and partly in a classroom on campus. If you can see these options, choose your preference.
  6. Select the ‘Enrol’ checkbox on the right-hand side for each unit you're enrolling in. Then select ‘Enrol’ at the bottom of the screen.
  7. Select ‘Confirm Enrolment’ to finalise enrolment.

    Make sure your enrolment matches your course planner. You need to study some units in a certain order. If you enrol in units in the wrong order it can affect future units you're able to study and how long it takes you to complete your course.

Registering in your timetable group

Only follow these steps if you see the 'Group Registration' link to the right-hand side of your course information box.

  1. In the course name information box, select the ‘Group Registration’ link on the right-hand side to display the different timetable groups.
  2. To view the timetable for a specific group, select ‘View Timetable’ link. Note: There may be several timetable options for each group depending on which elective you’d like to choose.
  3. Once you have decided which group suits you best, register in that group by selecting ‘Choose’ on the right-hand side of the screen.
  4. Select ‘Register in selected group’ at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Choose your elective by clicking ‘Select’ on the right-hand side of the elective option.
  6. Select ‘Add to study plan’ on your chosen elective.
  7. Select ‘Save changes on study planner’ to confirm.

    Note: If you have been granted Advanced Standing (Academic credit), it will show on your online study plan as ‘Exempt’. You can also apply for academic credit after you have enrolled.

  8. Select the ‘Enrol’ check box on the right-hand side of each unit you’re enrolling in. Then select ‘Enrol’ at the bottom of the screen.
  9. Select ‘Confirm Enrolment’ to finalise enrolment.

Pay your fees or apply for government assistance

Your fees will vary based on the course and units being studied. To learn which fees you need to pay and when, and what government financial assistance you may be eligible for, see paying your fees. 

You may be eligible for a fee concession, or a VET Student Loan to defer some or all of your course fees.

To display your fees, click on the 'My Financials' tab

  • To pay up-front, click on Make a Payment in the left-hand navigation
  • To find out more about loans and discounts, see loans and discounts on our fees website.

Set up your class timetable

If you have enrolled in online vocational education (TAFE) course, you do not need to set up a timetable.

If you have enrolled by registering into a timetable group, your timetable has been set up for you. Select the ‘Class Timetable’ tab to view your timetable. You will need to wait until the next business day for your timetable to display. You cannot unregister from any of your classes or change your timetable. If you have any questions, you can speak to studentHQ.

If you have enrolled in individual units, you need to set up your timetable:

  1. Select the ‘Class Timetable’ tab
  2. To register into a clash-free timetable, select the ‘Register into clash-free classes’ button on the right of the screen. If the timetable generated doesn't suit, you may have some options on this screen to change it. To learn more about registering into classes, see setting up your class timetable.

Once you have your timetable, congratulations – you’re enrolled!

What happens after you enrol

Now that you have your enrolment sorted, you can organise access to your email, wi-fi and other online systems. And don’t forget to collect your ID card from studentHQ on any campus.