New college for UWA

The University of Western Australia will use Edith Cowan University’s historic Claremont campus to assist international students meet the university’s tertiary benchmarks and entry requirements.

UWA bought the Claremont facility late last year and wants to use the foundation college to ensure international students are well prepared, linguistically and academically, before entering UWA.

Course length will vary from six to 18 months, depending on the needs of different groups of students.

Director of the UWA Institute for International Development, Paige Porter, said the foundation college would allow the university to recruit international students who needed a “pathway” to enter tertiary study. These students typically were those who needed additional language and academic work, she said.

“Up until now we have not had our own program and have been taking international students, both directly and from other foundation colleges, once they had finished there,” Professor Porter said.

“While this has been satisfactory, and will continue, the new college gives us a chance to control more of the pre-university process for more of the students.

“International students at UWA have to meet the same high standards as local students.

“We have not seriously recruited in a number of large markets because so many of the students needed this kind of a pathway to enter UWA. This strategy will allow us to reach further into different markets.

“It provides an option that was not there before.”

Professor Porter said UWA hoped the foundation college would be up and running at the beginning of next year. ECU is due to vacate the premises by next month in time for renovation works to start.

Plans for a UWA presence at Claremont have been under consideration since ECU advised of its intention to vacate the campus several years ago.

The foundation program for Claremont emerged in recent months and aligns with UWA’s long-term goals of achieving international excellence.