Faculty of Engineering : Guide to courses

8. General first year

Table of Contents

 8. General first year

Each first year of the single BE and BGeom courses, and most of those for combined degrees consist of 8 subjects with each carrying 12.5 points. A full load is 4 subjects and 50 points each semester.

Courses in engineering disciplines are made up of 'compulsory core' subjects complemented with elective or optional subjects. To a large degree, the subjects making up the later years of the courses are part of the compulsory core and therefore prescribed.

In first year, however, while a significant amount of core material must be taken, there is some flexibility in choosing subjects as a number of electives are allowed. Some of the core material is common to all engineering streams. Thus students who are unsure of which stream of engineering to take may use the elective component in semester 1 to choose core material which will allow them to enter a number of streams in semester 2. Full detail is included in material available at enrolment.

All first year engineering courses require students to take 25 points of mathematics. There are two streams available. The standard stream is the combination 620-141 Mathematics A and 620-143 Applied Mathematics while 620-121 Mathematics A (Advanced) and 620-123 Applied Mathematics (Advanced) make up an advanced stream. Both streams satisfy prerequisites for the further mathematics required in second year. Students taking the advanced mathematics in first year may take further advanced mathematics in second year. Dr F. Barrington, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics' Director of First-year Studies, will advise incoming students as to which stream should be selected.

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics, have established a First-year Learning Centre through which teaching and administration of its first-year subjects is coordinated. This centre is located on the ground floor of the Richard Berry Building. Near this centre students will find notice-boards relevant to first year, boxes for the submission of assignments, and the room from which printed material is usually distributed. Within the centre are the office of the Mathematics and Statistics Department's Director of First-year Studies (Dr Barrington), offices of tutors in Mathematics and Statistics, tutorial rooms, a student waiting area, and a consultation room.

Status:                   Official 1999
Last Modified:            Tuesday October 20 11:49
SGML to HTML Conversion:  Information Technology Services
Authorised by:            Academic Registrar
Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au