IMPORTANT DATES

1-9 December - Tri 3 exams 3 January - Enquiry Centre reopens 12-16 December - Semester 2 supplementary exams 4 January - Advisory Days (Callaghan, Ourimbah & Port Mac) 12 December - Semester 2 Fully Graded Date 30 January - Trimester 1 commences 14 December - HSC results released 18 January - Main round offers released 15 December - ATARs released 30 January - Trimester 1 commences 16 December - Tri 3 Fully Graded Date 27 February - Semester 1 commences 21 December - University Shut Down 22 December - Enquiry Centre Shut Down

End of Year Edition — 2011

Make sure all staff in your area are part of the student-admin-info email group and Student Admin Who’s Who

STUDENT ADMINEWS

Inside this Issue: Admissions & Enrolments 2 Sixty Seconds with... 2 15000 — UON Enquiries 3 Systems & Projects 3 Student Financials & Scholarships 4 Graduation & Prizes 4

Sustainability Tip: What to do with your Christmas leftovers...

60 SECONDS WITH...

Paul Bodell*

...the guy with the rat’s tail who sits at the bus stop reading a novel...

Role: Student Loans and Welfare Officer Location: Student Financials and Scholarships Favourite Food: Korean, Vietnamese and contemporary Australian. Alcohol: Coopers Sparkling and Hunter Wines. Movies: Das Boot, Seven Samurai, anything with Jet Li or by Quentin Tarantino. Music: Listen to JJJ and ABC Classic FM as well as Folk and Blues so take your pick. Dinner Guests: William Gibson, George Orwell, Kate Blanchet and me darlin Trish. Would have invited Hunter S Thompson but he would probably try to snort the salt and shoot the table. Ideal Holiday: Samoa to relax but anywhere really, just open the atlas. Quote: "He either fears his fate to much, or his desserts are small, that dares not put it to the touch to win or lose it all." Montrose. What's the most rewarding part of your role: I do genuinely get to make a difference in some peoples lives.

*Disclaimer: above image greatly inferior to

Paul’s actual appearance. **Everyone at SAS wishes Paul a speedy and

full recovery from his recent accident.

Admissions and Enrolments

Admissions

UAC 2012 undergraduate on-time applications

closed on the 30 September 2011. Applicants

can still apply but will pay a late fee.

Important Dates for UAC UG Applications

- 30 September— On time applications closed

- 14 December—HSC results released

- 15 December—ATARs released

UAC 2012 postgraduate applications open in

September and offers have been going out from

mid-October. Applicants can still apply for most

programs and no late fee is added. Check UAC

for individual program closing dates at http://

www.uac.edu.au/postgraduate/course-search/

index.shtml

Enrolments

Nursing Enrolments opened on 14 November with

relatively few problems.

Grad School students will enrol in late November

Enrolments and NUSTAR are getting ready to

enrol the rest of the continuing students in time for

next semester and are currently in negotiation with

schools regarding the planning of classes.

ESOS

Currently checking university programs against

the CRICOS register and that programs are still

compliant with government legislation

Ensuring that CoE extension requests are

processed before the influx following the Fully

Graded Date

Running the No Load report for Trimester 3.

Student Adminews -2- End of Year - 2011

15000 – UoN Enquiries Since our last update the team has answered almost 13,000 calls. That makes 85,880 so far in 2011 with release of ATARs, fully graded date and HSC results still to come! Another 3,138 emails have been answered, bringing us up to over 12,000 for 2011. We have successfully completed a number of SEEWP funded projects, including improvements to the online campus maps, the development of a new feedback portal and procedure, and the development of multimedia content for student engagement. Much of this work will continue in to the new year and beyond. The introduction of AskUoN has been a resounding success and has really given us a solid foundation to build on for further improvement in our service to students, staff and the community. A number of the team were proudly awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Award for General Staff Excellence (pictured), including our colleague Dean Robinson from Web Services and Lauren Shield now in Shortland Hub as AAC-FSCIT and Deputy Hub Manager. Jessica Burden was also awarded a Student & Academic Services Award for her outstanding work this year on improving student experience. Jess has left us now for an incredible opportunity in Toronto, Canada, but we’ll certainly hope to see her in UoN in the future. To see Jess’ final piece of work before leaving 'Start Smart in 2012!' go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXtkSq6pSEs

Systems and Projects

QAS Address Validation Project : - This project aims at delivering functionality (via a 3rd party product) to validate student home and mailing addresses stored in NUSTAR to Australia Post addressing standards. - Project went live on 13 October 2011 and is merrily processing and validating student addresses. NUSTAR Remediation Project : - This project has a hardware component (replace the IT infrastructure NUSTAR sits on) and a software component (PeopleTools upgrade and application of new functionality released in Feature Packs and Bundles since our last upgrade). - A number of preparatory work items have been started in parallel. - Tentative delivery aiming at towards the end of 2012. Graduation Management Project : - This project is aimed at replacing the aging MS Access Database that is currently used to manage Graduations with functionality within NUSTAR. - Requirements analysis and gathering has started in November 2011. Majors and Specialisations Project : - Development work has been delayed by other urgent enhancements. Development has now started (mid November 2011). - Tentative delivery date is now January 2012. ODA - Online Direct Admissions : - Project delivered functionality allowing Enabling and Research to begin using Online Direct Admissions on 18 October 2011. - Functionality for GradSchool and Admissions & Enrolments still to come.

Student Adminews -3- End of Year - 2011

Changes to legislation for 2012 will impact students, and it is intended to workshop these with staff once

implementation is finalised:

i. Abolition of the Student Learning Entitlement will mean that there will no longer be a time limit on the

amount of Commonwealth support a student can claim. Students who have been affected to date will

be contacted and transferred to Commonwealth support from 01 January 2012.

ii. Introduction of new Student Services and Amenities Fee for all students; At this time the University is

considering the implementation of the new Student Services and Amenities Fees and will have made a

decision by 1 April about whether to charge a fee and hence any fee payable will be charged in the

second half of the year. This is not a student union fee, it is intended as a fee for service. Students will

receive more information once final decisions are made.

iii. Changes to discount for upfront payment of Student Contribution (HECS). Currently discount is 20% for

payments over $500. From 01 2012 this will be reduced to 10%.

Changes to OS HELP policy will mean that the OS HELP loans will not be available for 3rd year B

Medicine students who enrolled in the Health Equity Field Placement at an overseas location. Students

have been advised of this, and policy will be amended from 01 January 2012.

Nominations for Vice Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence in Year 12 closed 1 November with

169 nominations received from eligible schools.

SF & S staff are participating in workshops on student loans and welfare issues with School staff .

These have been successful to date and we will be carrying these on to 2012.

Graduation ceremonies have now concluded for 2011. Our final ceremonies for the year were held in

Singapore on 19 November and Hong Kong on 22 November 2011. Over 470 graduates attended across

the two ceremonies in Singapore and 72 graduates attended the Hong Kong event.

Domestic Graduation dates for 2012 are:

24 February 2012 Port Macquarie Graduation

12,13,14,20 & 21 April 2012 Callaghan Graduation

28 & 29 June 2012 Ourimbah Graduation

4 & 5 October 2012 Callaghan Graduation

Student Financials & Scholarships

Graduation & Prizes

Student Adminews -4- End of Year - 2011

Exams

The team are busy with the madness of Semester 2 and Trimester 3 exam periods. We have actioned

the majority of the feedback we received from the semester 1 exams and have improved our

processes during these exams. This has resulted in a much smoother exam period for both students

and staff.

Accommodation have very graciously allowed us to borrow their Green Room to hold exams in for

Trimester 3 and Semester 2 supps. For those of you who are not sure where this room is, it is above

the Examinations and Timetabling Office in the accommodation precinct at Callaghan. And we are

very happy to say that it is air-conditioned. Unfortunately some students were affected by the heat in

our non-air-conditioned rooms during the first week of semester 2 exams. As a result of this we have

worked with FM to come up with ways we may be able to alleviate the heat in some rooms where

necessary to provide conditions that enable students to perform their best. Students that feel their

performance in their exam was affected by the heat were invited to apply for special consideration.

Lecturers have also been notified that the heat may have affected some students’ performance.

We are very excited to be trialling the management of exam papers for Singapore through our online

exam management system. The system is very user friendly and supports a much better process for

the management of examination papers.

Timetabling

We have received some initial reports from the room and condition audit but are still eagerly awaiting

the final reports.

Student Administration is on the web….

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/student-administration/

Exams & Timetabling

Finally a thank you to all our colleagues across the University for your support and efforts in working with us during 2011.