Already have your offer, but can’t travel? Don’t worry! You can continue to study your program to the exact same timeframe, transitioning to Charles Darwin University as planned, (pending issue of your Certificate of Enrolment, COE). You do not need a Student Visa before commencing online study at home. However, when the border re-opens, you will need to have your Student Visa to travel to Australia and continue study on campus.
Dr Mark Holt
Head of College
A warm welcome is guaranteed for all our international students joining us at Charles Darwin International College.
The college and staff are dedicated to ensuring the best possible study outcomes for our students and a smooth transition into undergraduate or postgraduate level programs here at the university.
Located at the Waterfront campus, our students enjoy living and learning in a fantastic location, close to all the amenities for study and leisure activities Read more to find out about our Foundation, International Diploma and Pre-masters programs and we look forward to welcoming you to Darwin.
Your progression to university can continue as planned
Delivered through proven purpose-designed platforms like Blackboard Ultra, Education Perfect and Microsoft 365
Extensive experience in helping international students prepare for university study
You will be fully guided just like you were in a classroom rather than being left to your own devices
Helping to ensure you stay on track.
You will be fully equipped with professional software, learning materials and online library access
Revised timetables and fun initiatives to help you adapt to at-home learning
Here at CDU IC, your wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us.
We provide three levels of care within the International College in addition to the care facilities provided by CDU.
We believe teachers have a responsibility for the well-being of the students in their class. Time is given in the weekly tutorial where you can ask for general advice from your teacher.
One of your teachers will be assigned to you as a Tutor and work with you to discuss your overall progress and discuss option choices and future study.
Our student support officer will contact you at least once a week to personally offer support and care and to discuss your learning experience, including any attendance issues.
A live, 55-minute web conferencing lecture where students interact with the teacher and the other students. The focus of the lectures is to present new material and preparation for assessments. Lectures are supported through video, sound and text material stored on Blackboard Ultra. You will receive eight of these each week (two for each unit).
Blackboard Ultra is the main state-of-the-art online platform we use and is simple, intuitive and fun.
Within the platform, you can:
Office 365 is provided so that students have extensive experience with the kind of software they will be using in their future careers.
Professional levels of collaboration, creativity and communication are facilitated through:
Our experience, so far, has been that Microsoft Teams has allowed increased interaction and language use by students because of the ability for all students to take part in lessons through screen sharing and voice or text chat.
Education Perfect is an innovative tool that is ideal for out-of-class workshops because our teachers have created step by step weekly presentations, specific to the unit, that give automatic feedback with the ability for students to record written or verbal answers.
So, Education Perfect is an effective tool for helping students practice English skills through the slides, quizzes and assessments prepared.
Staff are already comfortable with this technology because Blackboard Ultra and Education Perfect were being used to support our face to face classes.
Here is a sample timetable including the different modes of delivery:
| Period | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 1 | Unit 1 Lecture | Unit 2 Lecture | Online workshop for Unit 2 | Online workshop for Unit 4 | |
| 2 | Unit 1 Lecture | Unit 1 Tutorial | |||
| 3 | Unit 2 Lecture | Unit 3 Lecture | |||
| 4 | Unit 3 Lecture | Unit 2 Tutorial | |||
| 5 | Unit 4 Lecture | Online workshop for Unit 3 | Unit 4 Tutorial | Unit 3 Tutorial | |
| 6 | Unit 6 Lecture | Online workshop for Unit 1 | Unit 3 Tutorial | Unit 4 Tutorial | |
| 7 | Unit 2 Tutorial | ||||
| 8 | Unit 1 Tutorial |
Note: This timetable outlines the allocated hours for online web conferencing sessions when students MUST attend – lectures and tutorials are live at set times, whereas you can choose your own time for completing each online workshop.
Students study a total of four units per semester. There are two compulsory units and two elective units in the student’s first semester. Click here for more information.
International Foundation Studies Program
Diploma of Business Studies
Diploma of Information Technology
Master’s Qualifying Program (Accelerated)
Master’s Preparation Program or Master’s Qualifying Program (Standard length)
We understand the challenges of study and we’re here to help. Following these simple guidelines and tips will help you manage your learning experience and lead to the best outcome.
The course will start on 20 July.
Students study a total of four units per semester. There are two compulsory units and two elective units in the student’s first semester, please find a breakdown below:
International Foundation Studies Program
Diploma of Business Studies
Diploma of Information Technology
Masters Qualifying Program (Accelerated)
Masters Preparation Program or Masters Qualifying Program (Standard length)
Charles Darwin International Pathway College Staff have been preparing for online delivery for the past few months and are skilled and experienced in this mode of educational delivery.
11am–7pm Australia Central Standard Time (ACST).
Students should still expect 8 hours study per day. This will consist of a combination of streamed classes and independent study. You can find a sample timetable here.
No, as long as you have received your Confirmation of Enrolment, you can enrol into the program and commence online learning. However, when the border reopens, you need to have your student visa to travel to Australia and continue studying onshore.
Please be aware that due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, CDU is temporarily delivering its courses online, until the University deems it is best to revert back to on-campus delivery, in accordance with Australian Government guidelines.
As soon as we are confident that the borders will re-open, we will work towards welcoming students to Australia. We will teach out the semester that you are studying online, so that all students can join face to face at the beginning of the following semester together.
Note that there is likely to be a delay with visa processing due to the backlog. Our goal is that there will be enough time for students to obtain visas for the following semester’s intake. However, we will commit to providing online learning for as long as required while students wait for visas to be processed.
All students will be able to commence their learning online. If you experience difficulties with accessing the online course material, you can apply to defer you to a future intake, assuming that classes will resume face to face in Australia. Please note that changing to a future intake may mean that your whole study plan is pushed back, you must advise by the census date if you wish to withdraw and defer to a future intake. To do so, you must notify the Student Support Administrator and the Admissions team: international.admissions@utas.edu.au
If decide to defer your place the next study period AFTER commencement, you will incur the fees for the semester of study that you have started.
We have no reason to think that you will fall behind, as you will be studying at the same pace as your classmates in Australia. However, we will run additional tutorial classes, provide extra exam preparation and revision and we will have welfare staff available who will be dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition for you once you arrive in Australia.
We are considering some alternatives to the IELTS tests given the current circumstances. In addition to our normal equivalencies, we have also decided to accept the IELTS Indicator test and Linguaskill test based on the below scores:
CDU Course | IELTS Indicator | Linguaskill |
Pathways – Foundations | ||
Foundation programs | IELTS 5.5 (no band less than 5.0) | B1 |
Pathways – First Year Diplomas | ||
International Diploma of Business Studies | IELTS 5.5 (no band less than 5.0) | B1 |
International Diploma of Information Technology | IELTS 5.5 (no band less than 5.0) | B1 |
Pathways – Pre-masters Courses | ||
Masters Preparation Program (MPP) | IELTS 6.0 (no band less than 5.5) | B2 |
Masters Qualifying Program (MQP) Standard | IELTS 5.5 (no band less than 5.5) | B2 |
Masters Qualifying Program (MQP) Accelerated | IELTS 6.0 (no band less than 5.5) | B2 |
Our central LMS (Learning management system) is Blackboard Ultra.
For over 10 years, UP Education has been using Education Perfect to help our students practise their English.
Microsoft Teams is used for interactive lectures and tutorials and Education Perfect is used for workshops and formative testing (software for Microsoft Office is included in your tuition fee).
Yes, please pay the tuition fee and Overseas Student Health Cover only in order to commence your online study with us. Semester fee example here:
Semester Fee: $12,750
Annual Fee: $25,500
Total Tuition Fee: $25,500
Generally, your units are determined based on your intended degree progression at the university.
In the case of commencement online, we require you to have been issued your Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) – although this means that you need to prepare further in advance for your online studies, it will reduce the risk of a visa rejection.
In order to ensure that you have the best chance of obtaining your visa quickly once you commence, we expect students to submit their visa application within the first week of commencement.
However, even once we have issued the CoE, it is still possible that some students may have their
visas refused, in which case, we will apply the following refund guidelines:
A: if the student receives a visa refusal during the first semester of their course, we will refund fees for the second semester.
B: If the student receives a visa refusal during the second semester of their course, there will be no refund for the student, however the student may complete their course online.
All students will be able to commence their learning online. If you experience difficulties with accessing the online course material, you have some different options around deferral, depending on when you decide to do so.
A: If you choose to defer before course commencement, we will transfer your offer, CoE and any fees paid to the next available intake.
B: If you choose to defer after course commencement, you must do so before the census date (which is 14 August). We will transfer your enrolment, CoE and any fees paid to the next available intake.
C: If you choose to defer after commencement and after the census date, you can do so, but you will incur the cost of the tuition fee for the first semester of your course.
Please note that changing to a future intake may mean that your whole study plan is pushed back, you must advise by the census date if you wish to withdraw and defer to a future intake. To do so, you must notify the Student Support Administrator and the Admissions team: international@cdu.edu.au
We understand that this is new and that you may not have studied online before, but we would recommend that you try and see if it is for you so that you can stay on track for now. For now, this option is the best way to progress you to the next stage of study in Feb/March 2021. If this changes in any way, we will of course keep you updated.
We are considering acceptance of alternatives here as well, please contact admission team for further information. Admissions email: international@cdu.edu.au
Student grades and attendance are available on
Blackboard and you can discuss this with your
child/student. If academic or attendance issues
arise, you or your parents (where appropriate) will be
contacted directly.
The unit teachers will be your main source of contact
but you are welcome to contact Ms Abbie Swapnil, Student
Support and Admin Officer, abbie.swapnil@cdu.edu.au
If there is anything that you’d like to discuss, please contact Ms Abbie Swapnil, Student Support and Admin Officer, abbie.swapnil@cdu.edu.au
All enquiries to: Abbie Swapnil
Before orientation, we will introduce you to your individual support contacts who will include the teachers of your course.
Apply now – talk to your local education pathway counsellor, email our Regional Manager, or apply online here.
345 Queen St
Auckland, New Zealand
Postal address
PO Box 78-359
Grey Lynn, Auckland 1245
Level 3, West wing
Wellington Railway Station
2 Bunny St
Wellington 6011, New Zealand