Kaylah Edwards and her journey to university

Completed year 12 in the same city. Was and still am living with, and as I have no work experience and had and still have no income; couldn't afford to move out yet alone move to another city. The University of Canberra was the only university within my city that offered the course I was interested in.

Sort of what is expected from the particular course I chose. I found it helpful that I studied chemistry and biology in high school as the first year of the course is basically covering high school content, so it gives me a bit of a recap while still remaining challenging. I find justice studies quite hard because I have not done any law studies in high school and am not well versed in the political law aspect. But I think with the sources and readings they provide; if used they are very helpful.

I've always been fascinated by the investigators and forensic scientists in movies so I chose to try to study in that area as I didn't know what else I would study. Wasn't particularly worried about the ATAR requirement because it was quite low (around 70s). Was one of the 2/3 universities I got accepted into and chose this particular one because it was better suited to me financially.

I'm not too sure how many students are successful in the placement and job opportunities as I do not know anyone who has done either. But personally, for the job opportunities, I think they provide a wide range. On the webpage you can choose what kind of jobs you are seeking. I have also noticed there are jobs listed on the page that aren't listed elsewhere such as the popular job seeking websites.

They offer internship opportunities. Later In my degree, on the justice studies side, I am required to complete an internship in the justice sector. I'm not too sure how we get one or how long we are required to work as an intern for as of yet. The campus also provides a lot of job opportunities and support for students. For example, they have a webpage on the campus website for job vacancies which I have recently been using to apply for jobs which is really helpful.

Open days and market days where several stalls provide free food and items and different faculties and clubs provide information to students who are interested in joining.

There are two types of fees students are required to provide - amenities fees and their course fees (per semester). I myself am not currently paying off my uni fees until I have a steady and stable income when I am older with the help of HECS. Both domestic and international students have access to a wide range of scholarships in each faculty and due to different personal circumstances

The exam structure is very formalistic but also very simple and straightforward. I personally get special conditions for my exam conditions which have been put in place for this second semester and have noticed it is very different to the normal exam conditions as other people in which I myself experienced in semester one.

Because I am studying a double degree with half on the science side and a half on the law side. I fall in the Law and business faculty. I find the law teaching is quite useful and easier to understand the content because it is more interactive in-class lessons where lots of examples are given. On the science aspect of my course. I struggle a lot more. Although there is a lot more support in the science department with student tutoring and tutorial classes aimed to help give students a more teacher on the student learning opportunity. The lectures in chemistry are very difficult to understand as they go very fast and just have a lot of content given within one hour.

I have been lucky enough to be able to live at home where I don't have to pay rent or pay for groceries. So I am able to instead focus on getting my textbooks and worrying about my study rather than my finance. The only downside to this is that I am not close to uni and have to drive around 30 minutes each way to and from uni which is not only frustrating and sometimes an inconvenience but also costs me more fuel. I also have to pay for parking which is not cheap.