BALLARAT school leavers and those looking to tertiary education gained a glimpse of what their year ahead might look like with first round university offers released on Monday.
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Results were officially released at 2pm, with the Victorian Tertiary Admission Centre’s website struggling with high traffic.
Federation University Australia has made offers to 1421 prospective students, compared with 1773 last year.
Mount Helen offers dropped from 958 last year to 878 this year, Camp Street rose from 112 to 113 and Gippsland dropped from 541 to 344.
The biggest increases saw criminal justice programs jump from 37 to 72 in first round offers. Health sciences at the Mount Helen campus saw a 54 per cent increase, with 40 offers compared to 26 last year. It also saw direct applications almost doubling, with 1107 already made for the academic year.
Deputy vice-chancellor Marcia Devlin said even though total figures were down by about 20 per cent, direct applications were up considerably.
“These solid figures are very encouraging for many FedUni programs as we enter the new academic year.”
Ballarat Clarendon College will see about one-quarter of its 2014 VCE students head to the University of Melbourne, 20 per cent to Deakin, 14 per cent to Monash and 10 per cent to stay in Ballarat to attend FedUni or ACU.
Principal David Shepherd said the college had about 15 students offered an arts or arts combination degree, the same with commerce, and 10 with law. “We also have lots which will study health sciences, including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy,” Mr Shepherd said.
St Patrick’s College careers and transitions officer Anthony Meehan said St Pat’s boys had expressed great desire in commerce, finance, health science and sports management fields.
“Traditionally, these fields are very popular but this year it has also been pleasing to see increased interest from boys seeking careers in areas such as education and engineering,” Mr Meehan said.
Mr Meehan said students were also offered places in optometry, forensic science and construction management.
Australian Catholic University Ballarat saw an increase in first preference application by 5.6 per cent on 2014.
Health-related courses saw the biggest increase with an 18.1 per cent increase in first preference application and 0.7 per cent more offers.
nicole.cairns@fairfaxmedia.com.au
