STUDENTS thinking of studying at university next year are being encouraged to apply for early entry with the deadline for applications closing just before midnight on Friday.
Even if unsure of their study plans, applying now through the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) will save them processing charges with a discounted early bird fee and keep their options for the future open.
The University of Newcastle has already offered almost 10,000 early entry spots to HSC students as part of its new Early Entry Program.
1600 of those were in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens area, 680 were in the Upper and Lower Hunter, 970 were in the Central Coast and over 500 were in the Mid North coast.
"Overwhelmingly this is a program for a lot of students in our areas," UON deputy Vice-Chancellor Kent Anderson said.
He said by offering early entry it allows the students to focus on their HSC without the stress of their results.
"We find that best performance happens when people are confident and not overly stressed," he said.
"We're pretty confident that the students will perform, and so we give them an early offer so that they can focus on their HSC."
There have been nearly 55,000 people apply through UAC for undergraduate study in 2024, and almost 40,000 of those are year 12 students.
The most popular Early Entry programs at the University of Newcastle included Bachelor of Laws Combined, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science.
Professor Anderson said the university's Enabling Program Pathway into a variety of degrees is also proving popular.
"The enabling program basically says come start with us and get some university skills and as long as you complete that, we guarantee you can get into whatever program you want," he said.
The Early Entry application closes at 11.59pm on September 29 through UAC and takes 15 minutes to complete. Preferences can be changed as many times as required at no extra cost.
