University sees surge of students

MANY people are using the unexpected pandemic upheaval to switch careers – with the Southern Cross University seeing a strong intake of new domestic students amid COVID-19.

The university, situated in Bilinga on the southern Gold Coast, along with two campuses in NSW, started session two last week with enrolments from Australians on the up.

Its new domestic enrolments are up 35 per cent this year as a year-on-year comparison. A total of 2010 new students are enrolled at Southern Cross University for session two, taking the university’s tally to 18,432.

The most popular study areas for new students are the Sciences and also Health, up 192 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. Teaching is up 39 per cent, arts and social sciences are up 14 per cent and law is up 5 per cent.

Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Nan Bahr said it was an “exciting moment to take control of your future by embarking on study with Southern Cross University.

“COVID-19 has presented many challenges and changes relating to family, work, community and health,” Professor Bahr said. “We look forward to helping you create new opportunities.

“Our libraries, student administration, technology, student welfare and advisory services will continue to provide top-quality online support for session two as they did during the first half of this year.”

Teaching will remain online for session two until August after moving to a full online program when COVID-19 forced the school to stop faceto-face learning.