How to enrol as a new international higher education student
This is a step-by-step guide on how to enrol for new international students studying higher education. Higher education is our name for associate degrees, bachelor degrees, double degrees and honours degrees. If you're continuing your studies with us, please enrol as a continuing student.
This information is for all new international higher education students enrolling for the first time. New international pathway program students and new international vocational eduaction students have different enrollment processes.
You must accept your offer and make your payment of your fees deposit and Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) before you can enrol as a new international student.
If you’re enrolling in an English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students (ELICOS), the way you enrol is different. Refer to your acceptance confirmation email on how to attend an enrolment session.
Note: If you have received an offer from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) and plan to enrol as a new international higher education student, your process for enrolment is a little different from the steps outlined on this page. Please refer to the VTAC offer guide for higher education students for instructions on how to enrol.
If your offer has come directly from Swinburne (not through VTAC) and you are a new international higher education student, begin the enrolment process by following the steps below.
Need to defer?
If you need to delay the date you start your course or take time off from studying at the start of your course, you may be able to defer your course. You need to defer before the first census date in your course. Contact studentHQ to find out more and get help with deferring as an international student.
Gather your information
To enrol online, make sure you have the following before you start the enrolment process:
a download or printout of your course planner — you'll need to refer to it throughout the enrolment process
your Letter of Offer, which includes your Swinburne student ID number
your new password, which can be created or reset here.
Ready to enrol? Follow these steps:
Unless you have received official approval from Swinburne to study a reduced load, you must enrol in a full-time study load, which is four (4) units in a semester.
Have your course planner handy so you know what units to enrol into, and in what sequence.
It is important you follow the same sequence as your course planner, as enrolling in a different order could affect what units you can enrol into in future teaching periods. It could also mean it takes you longer to complete your degree, which could affect your student visa.
Use our timetable planner tool to check for any units that may clash.
If you're a bachelor degree student, you must nominate a major when you enrol. A major is an area you specialise in and can be called a 'first major'. It is a set of eight units within the same study area or topic, spaced throughout your course. Don't worry, you can change this later on.
Accepting Swinburne's terms and conditions:
Before you enrol, you need to set up your password here. Your username is your student ID as it appears in your offer letter.
Log in to ‘My Enrolment’. Your username is your student ID. Forgot your password? You can reset your password here.
Go to the ‘My Enrolment’ tab. Select the course you wish to enrol in and accept our terms and conditions by selecting ‘Read and Accept’.
If you’re asked for further details (e.g. your parent/guardian details), select ‘Provide’, then enter your details and select ‘Update’.
Refer to your course planner to check what units to enrol into and how many units you should be enrolling in, and when.
In the grey-coloured search box, select the year you are enrolling in, study period and location as shown on your course planner.
Select the units you want to enrol in on the ‘Select a Study Plan’ screen, then choose the teaching period from the drop-down menu.
Note: If there’s only one teaching period available, it will be automatically selected for you.
You may have the option of enrolling in units that are delivered online or delivered in multimodal format (which is a combination of online delivery and in classroom on-campus delivery) or scheduled outside of semesters in our summer and winter terms.
International students on a student visa can only complete a maximum of 25% of their total units online.Select the ‘Enrol’ checkbox on the right-hand side for each unit you're enrolling in. Then select ‘Enrol’ at the bottom of the screen.
Select ‘Confirm Enrolment’ to finalise enrolment.
Find out about your course structure and choosing units.
For more information about enrolling you can also read our help guide My Enrolment: How to enrol into units [PDF 317KB].
Note: timetable opens at 10am on Tuesday 22 November 2022. We encourage you to log back into your eStudent on or after this date to register into your classes and view your timetable.
You’re almost fully enrolled. All you need to do now is register into the classes for your chosen units:
Select the ‘Class Timetable’ tab.
Choose the ‘Register into clash-free classes’ button on the right of screen. If you want to change the timetable that has been automatically populated, you can change it using the options on the screen.
To learn more about registering into classes, see setting up your class timetable.
Once you have completed class registration, congratulations — you’re enrolled at Swinburne! Time to start planning your journey to Australia!
You’ll need to apply for a student visa to study in Australia, but you can’t do this until you have:
accepted your offer and paid your fees
received your Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) from Swinburne.
Swinburne will issue a Confirmation of Enrolment within one week of receiving a deposit on your fees and insurance.
You will need the following documents with you when you arrive in Australia:
your passport
your Confirmation of Enrolment from Swinburne
a certified copy of the photo and visa pages of your passport
originals or certified copies of academic transcripts from any previous courses if you have applied for academic credit
a copy of any course syllabus from previous completed studies.
After you've gathered your documents and organised accommodation, sign up for your orientation session.
Orientation is the best way to make new friends, meet new people and explore everything we have to offer. It's also a great way to learn how to get the most from your time here at Swinburne.
Need help with the enrolment process?
If you need help with the enrolment process, need technical support or are looking for more specialised advice as an international student, the enrolment team is here to help.