GRIFFITH University will offer degrees that take just two years to complete in a shake-up expected boost the number of international students by 10-20 per cent.
Deputy Vice Chancellor Debra Henley said the Gold Coast university would adopt “trimesters” from 2017 for students who wanted to power through traditional three-year degrees in two years.
It will continue to offer three-year degrees for students who want to take on fewer subjects over the course of a year.
The university believes international enrolments will jump in the two years following the change.
Bond University has offered similar accelerated degrees since its founding in 1989.
“The primary reason we’re doing it is to provide all our students with greater flexibility,” Ms Henley said.
“We get a lot of international students who finish their high school and their previous university careers midyear which means that if they wanted to join previously, they might have to wait until February/March the next year to come on board.
“Having an intake in late June/early July and then again in October gives them the flexibility to finish their courses and then join us without having to waste many, many months.”
The senior academic said about half the 50,000-strong Griffith community would be eligible for the trimester program but said some courses such as medicine and dentistry were excluded from the initiative due to clinical placements and low student enrolments.
“We’re also mindful that more than half our students aren’t school leavers so their lives are likely to be much more complicated with family responsibilities and work,” she said.
“That group of students is excited to be able to reduce the load they have to do each semester but still finish their degree in a reasonable amount time.”
Originally published by The Gold Coast Bulletin.