Defining levels of tertiary study 010-07010050

A postgraduate bachelor’s degree is a course that requires the student to have already completed an undergraduate qualification (bachelor’s degree) to gain entry to the course. These courses are usually referred to as graduate entry bachelor’s degrees.

A considerable number of universities list their postgraduate (graduate entry) bachelor’s degree with undergraduate courses in their course handbooks or classify them as undergraduate study. This does not mean that the courses are not postgraduate or bachelor’s degrees.

To determine if a postgraduate bachelor’s degree really is a Tertiary Level A course consider the following:

Does the bachelor's degree require a customer to have completed an undergraduate course to gain entry? If this is the case the bachelor's degree will be considered a postgraduate bachelor's degree.

Is there an undergraduate course at the university with a similar name and the same outcome (that is, at the end of either course the student would have the same effective qualification, for example, teacher, lawyer, etc.)?

In limited situations, the same course can be considered a Level A course for one student, and Level B for another. This is because some universities offer courses which are postgraduate to students who may have completed a Vocational Diploma or achieved a certain ATAR in secondary school. For example:

A student has just finished year 12 and achieved an ATAR of 92 and they intend to enrol in a Bachelor of Laws at the University of New England, which is available as a 3- or 4-year course. To be eligible to enrol in the 3-year course, a student must have completed another undergraduate degree, or achieved an ATAR above 90. As this student will be able to enrol in the 3-year version of the course based on their ATAR, and because they have not completed another undergraduate degree, the course would be considered a Level B course.

If the student had enrolled in the course on the basis that they have completed an undergraduate degree, the course would be considered postgraduate and therefore, a Level A course.

If there are two similar courses, are the course structures identical (or with only cosmetic changes)?

If the postgraduate course has no corresponding undergraduate course, then it is taken as a Tertiary Level A course for assessment purposes.

If there is a corresponding undergraduate course and the two courses are identical then the postgraduate course should be taken to be a Level B course. More commonly, however, the postgraduate course (while sharing some subjects from the undergraduate course) will be significantly shorter. This would then be a Tertiary Level A course.

If doubt exists over the level of a postgraduate bachelor degree then use local procedures to check this Resources page in Approved courses of study for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) .

Youth Allowance or Austudy is available to students undertaking certain Masters by coursework programmes. Eligible programmes must appear as an approved course of study as set out in the Ministerial Determination of Education provider and Courses. These courses will be known as 'Level M' or 'Tertiary Group M'.