Trinity College Foundation Studies – Preparing Students for Australia’s Number One University

For over 25 years, Trinity College Foundation Studies (TCFS) has been preparing international students for bachelor degrees at the University of Melbourne. Each year over 1000 students come to the College for the program that embeds them in the University campus and prepares them academically and experientially for university life and study.

In many cases, students who have taken an international curriculum proceed directly to universities in Australia and elsewhere, without the need for a pathway program. However, many students, particularly younger ones, choose the additional preparation to make sure they are on an even footing with their local classmates when the university study commences.

At Trinity, students take a combination of five subjects – two core plus three electives – in preparation for their degrees. The choice of electives is guided by requirements for the favoured Bachelor degree, as well as the student’s own interests. Access to the University of Melbourne is based entirely on the marks achieved in the best four of these five subjects - there is no further entry requirement. TCFS graduates enjoy the only guaranteed entry of this kind at the University of Melbourne – provided the marks in their best four sub- jects reach the required level, there is no entrance exam, no interview and no personal statement required.

Each year between 80-85% of our graduates achieve the necessary scores to receive a full offer from the University of Melbourne and these students go on to make up part of the highest performing cohort of international students entering the university.

TCFS graduates report that the big advantage is being on the university campus from day one. With access to the university’s libraries, sports facilities and clubs and activities, Trinity students are immersed in campus life long before their degree begins. This provides a great advantage over those international students who arrive in Melbourne only weeks, or in some cases days before their degree starts, only to find they spend much of their first semester adjusting to their new surroundings and discovering what is expected of them in their classes.

As Talya Cassim (February Main intake, 2016) discovered after arriving in Melbourne, it’s easy to make that big adjustment from high school to university student if you are curious and willing get involved. Talya joined TCFS at the beginning of 2016 after completing studies at Lyceum International School, Nugegoda. Once in Melbourne she embraced the academic side of life at Trinity quickly making friends and joining study groups within her tutorials.

Outside the academic timetable however, Talya has made full use of the University of Melbourne libraries, sporting facilities, and clubs & activities. Before long she was writing a regular blog about her experiences on and off campus. In fact, Trinity has many students who write about life in Melbourne in general, publishing it on the College blog site

( trinityunimelbfs. wordpress. com)

Talya’s impressions of Melbourne make interesting reading – she has certainly settled into Australian daily life and moves through the city of Melbourne like a local, searching out exotic food, attending concerts and generally making the most of what a large multicultural city has to offer.

At the same time though she is diligent in her studies, never losing sight of that all-important ‘Best 4’ average required to get through to her chosen degree (Bachelor of Arts, University of Melbourne February 2017). While the History of Ideas (HOI) subject presents challenges in terms of the quite intense reading and analytical work it requires, she finds it thought provoking and very useful in developing higher level academic skills she will need next year.

Talya is also taking Psychology and Media & Communications as two of her electives and these subjects are allowing her to develop interests which will probably form the major sequence of study in her Bachelor degree.

“I’m having a great time in Melbourne – I’ve made good friends, enjoyed the study at Trinity and I’m on track to commence at Melbourne Uni in the beginning of next year. I feel really at home here in Melbourne now, I know the university campus very well and I feel prepared and confident about staring my degree.”

For Talya and hundreds of other students just like her, Trinity College Foundation Studies will come to a close in December with a valedictory ceremony and no doubt many happy celebrations. The welcome break at the end of the year will fly past and before they know it, this year’s TCFS students will have become next year’s degree students at the University of Melbourne.

For more information regarding Trinity College Foundation

Studies and the University of Melbourne, meet the representatives at Edlocate Colombo on 3rd and 4th September and Queens Hotel Kandy on 5th September 2016. For appointments contact

0771- 770361/ 081- 5631583.