Information for Students

What is credit transfer?

The granting of exemption or credit by acumen education to students for units of competency completed under accredited training. This unit must match the units that you are applying for credit.
If you have studied and successful completed a unit of competency that is a part of the current qualification that they are enrolled in can apply for a credit transfer. The unit you have studies should exactly match the unit you are applying for a credit transfer. An application to obtain a credit transfer bust be made to acumen education to get the course credit. The application should be accompanied by the relevant supporting documents.
All documentary evidence of training, including Certificates/Diplomas, Statement of Results and Statement of Attainment provided must be original, or certified documents and must be signed and sealed by the issuing Australian RTO.
Once the Credit transfer application is submitted and received by Acumen the application will be checked and verified to ensure that all details of the applicant, course and units of competency, evidence are correct. Acumen will endeavour to inform you of the outcome within ten (10) working days of receiving the application.

You can download the application for Credit Transfer form.

What is Recognition of prior learning or RPL?

The acknowledgment of skills and knowledge that have been gained through training, work, or life experiences into formal competencies. The assessment of RPL is made from the evidence provided against the units of competency (elements and performance criteria) as described in the relevant endorsed Training Package. To support this type of application evidence of where and how the skills were obtained are required. I.e. A certificate where the codes do not match but are of similar skills and knowledge would require an ability to assess the learning the outcomes against the learning outcomes of the current course.

Why apply for RPL?

• gain credit for study you have previously completed
• reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a qualification
• have one or more units of competence entered on your student record immediately and use that in your workplace
• have formal acknowledgement of the knowledge and skills you have gained through previous work experience

For More information, please look at acumen education RPL Policy

When a student of acumen education has been identified to be at a risk of poor academic course progress due to in adequate English language proficiency help will be provided to the student for them to improve their English language skills.

Assessment Submission

How to submit your Assessment?
All hardcopy submissions need to be done at the student support desk that is located on each campus. Please make sure you date and sign at all places specified before submitting the assessment and make sure the cover sheet is filled in its entirety.

Feedback mechanisms
Acumen education through our trainers, assessors and student support offices will provide you with feedback on your work throughout your studies in several different ways. Trainers will provide you with feedback to assist in improving your performance while you study.
You should expect to receive progressive results and feedback within 10 working days of your assessment due date and submission. If you feel that you have not received sufficient feedback, please feel free to ask you trainer for feedback on your work or about your performance in general.
In any course, formal and informal feedback is provided in multiple ways. Think about how you might apply assessment feedback to further develop your skills and knowledge.

Update your personal details

International students are required under their student visa to notify acumen education of any change of address within 7 days of arriving in Australia or within 7 days of any change of address.

Please ensure that you also provide us with your current postal address as well as your phone contact details and personal email address.Acumen education is required under legislation to confirm your contact details at least once every six months. Acumen education will contact you via email to conform your address in the months of June and December to ensure your details are current with acumen education.

If the contact details in the email are correct, you do not need to do anything. If the contact details in the email are incorrect, you must update acumen education with your most current details. Failure to do so will mean that you are in breach of a mandatory visa condition. This can result in visa cancellation.

Student Privacy

The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 requires acumen education to collect and disclose personal information for a number of purposes including the allocation of a Victorian Student Number (VSN) and updating personal information on the Victorian Student Register.

Acumen education is required to provide the Victorian Government, through the DET, with student and training activity data, which may include information provided during enrolment and unique identifiers such as the VSN and the Commonwealth’s Unique Student Identifier (USI).

Information is required to be provided in accordance with Victorian Government guidelines. The Department may use this information for a range of Vocational Education and Training (VET) purposes including administration, monitoring and planning. A student’s USI may be used for specific VET purposes including the verification of student data provided by acumen education, the administration and audit of VET providers and programs; education related policy and research purposes.

For these and other lawful purposes, the Department may also disclose information to its consultants, advisers, other government agencies, professional bodies and/or other organisations. As an acumen education student, you acknowledge that you have been advised by the training organisation that you may be contacted and requested to participate in a National Centre for Vocational Education Research survey or a Department endorsed project or audit or review.

For further information about the way the Department collects and handles personal information, including access, correction and complaints go to the Victorian Government’s Information privacy policy webpage. For further information about Unique Student Identifiers, including access, correction and complaints, go to the Australian Government’s USI webpage.

Academic Integrity

Acumen Education is dedicated to upholding academic integrity through the protection of high standards and honesty in its academic operations. Acumen treasures its reputation and that of its students, therefore maintaining academic integrity is its priority.
Academic integrity and honesty are fundamental for Acumen to achieve its mission and to maintain its academic standards as well as the reputation of its students. Acumen is dedicated to the maintaining high standards of academic integrity.
Academic Integrity is the ethical foundation upon which academic work is produced. It is made up of important values that outline the work of Acumen in research, teaching and learning. They include:
• Fairness through genuine assessment, prospects and clear standards that are applied regularly.
• Respect for the hands-on nature of learning and the perspective, ideas and work of others
• Honesty, which involves recognizing the work and ideas of others
• Responsibility: the notion that every individual at Acumen has a duty to uphold academic integrity.

Plagiarism

The following are examples of plagiarism:
• Word to word copying of words, sentences or paragraphs devoid of acknowledgement or inadequate, insufficient or improper acknowledgment
• Downloaded or purchased of essays from the internet submitted for assessment
• Handing in another person’s work, ideas research data and results as your own personal work
Plagiarism is differentiated from incomplete efforts to acknowledge the work, words, ideas of another person, for instance when a student attempts to reference their work but lacks adequate referencing skills.

Appropriate Acknowledgment

At any time when another person’s ideas are presented in an assignment it should be acknowledged
It is mandatory and important that attribution is applied to all uses of other peoples’ work, whether it was used as a direct quote, paraphrase of key ideas, data or findings to constitute an argument or integration of themes into one’s own work or final product.

Communication and feedback

Know and identify the prime channels acumen education uses to communicate with you and how you can respond back to acumen education.

How Acumen education communicates with you.
The primary channels Acumen education uses to communicate with you are:
• Announcements on acumen.edu.au
• your email ,
• your registered postal address.
• Your student support officer might call you to discuss your course progress or similar issues

Ways to communicate with Acumen education.
Choose the right channel depending on the nature of your communication.

Academic and general feedback

During the year, feedback on acumen educations courses and your student experience will be actively sought via student surveys.

Complaints

Acumen education aims to provide a positive experience for all students and is committed to resolving student complaints. Please speak to your student support officer provide your feedback on any issue. If it is not resolved at that instance you can escalate it to speak to the admin manager or can lodge a written complaint using the complaint and appeals form at the helpdesk.

Academic Enquiry

When you have an academic enquiry please speak to your trainer in the class or after the class. You can even speak to the student support officer to book a time slot with your trainer based on the availability of the trainer to make your enquiry.

Student Responsibilities

1. Students must provide true and correct information in the Application. Any false or misleading information provided may lead to the cancellation of their enrolment at any time. Acumen will notify Australian Government Department of Home affairs through PRISMS of the change of his/her enrolment which may result in cancellation of the student’s visa.

2. The information collected during the student enrolment is intended to meet acumen’s obligations under the ESOS Act and the National Code 2018 to ensure student compliance with conditions of their visas and their obligations under Australian immigration laws generally. The authority to collect this information is contained in the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, the Education Services for Overseas Students Regulations 2001 and the National Code of Practice for Registration Authorities and Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018. Information collected about the student on this form and during their enrolment can be provided, in certain circumstances, to the Australian Government and designated authorities and, if relevant, to the Tuition Assurance Scheme and the ESOS Assurance Fund Manager. In other instances, information collected on this form or during their enrolment can be disclosed without the students consent where authorized or required by law.

3. Student’s personal information relevant to their application, visa documentation and initial Course enrolment will be released to acumen’s overseas representatives whom he/she has authorized to act on their behalf and to acumen’s preferred OSHC provider.

4. Student must exercise their independent judgment while enrolling for the course. They must thoroughly read and understand the description of the course, teaching and assessment methods, facilities, classroom equipment and learning resources as mentioned on the acumen website. Acumen does not warrant that enrolment in or completion of the course by the student will enable them to obtain any particular employment or to remain in Australia upon completion of the Course.

5. Students must fulfill or demonstrate the prerequisite requirements for a course where applicable. They must also understand that the training packages signed by the student do not override the requirements of prerequisites for a particular course. Please visit www.acumen.edu.au for more details on prerequisites.

6. Student must ensure sufficient funds to finance all their fees and living expenses for the duration of the Course. The tuition fee does not cover the costs of books, materials, field trips or living expenses unless otherwise specified. Other costs may be incurred include living costs AU$ 20,290 per year (approx.). https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/

7. The Student will be provided complete information on the local environment in which they will be studying, including location of teaching site, accommodation and living costs.

8. The Student will be responsible for all education and other living expenses of any person who accompanies them to Australia. All school aged dependents accompanying him/her to Australia must attend school and are required to pay full fees whether they are enrolled in a government or non-government school.

9. Student is not eligible, without acumen’s approval, to transfer to another registered provider until he/she have completed six months of the principle Course of study or without getting a release from all courses from their previous institute.

10. The continuation of the student’s Course is dependent on compliance with his/her student visa conditions which include satisfactory academic progress and attendance and payment of required tuition fees before the commencement of each teaching period.

11. While the student is enrolled at acumen, he/she must notify acumen at least 7 days before they change their address, Phone Number, Email Address and fax number. Failure to do this may result in not receiving important information effecting their enrolment, Course or visa.

12. Statement of Attainment or Certificate of completion may not be issued to students who are in breach of any part of the Student Responsibilities .

13. Student must ensure to attend all classes, Course related information sessions, supervised study sessions and assessment sessions and undertake all assessments during a Course and attend the orientation and enrolment session at acumen preceding the start date of the Course as identified above.

14. Student must seek assistance from acumen’s teachers, counselors and other support staff as soon as they experience difficulties with any aspects of their Course. They must ensure to attend Support and/or Counseling Sessions at acumen if advised to do so.

15. Student must pay all associated visa costs, in case any compassionate and compelling circumstances require them to extend the duration of their Course.

16. In case of any dissatisfaction about the services, student must contact the Student Support Officer for help. The student support team will do everything to sort the concern. They will be able to guide the student to the next level in case he/she is unhappy with the outcome. acumen institute’s complaints and appeals policy is available on the website at www.acumen.edu.au. Additionally if the student is still dissatisfied with the internal options, they may wish to make an external complaint with the Victoria Ombudsman. www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au

17. Students must understand that, “The right to make complaints and seek appeals of decisions and action under various processes, does not affect the rights of the student to take action under the Australian Consumer Law if the Australian Consumer Law applies”

18. Student’s enrolment will not be cancelled, suspended or deferred during a complaints and appeals process.

19. English Language Proficiency: Student must demonstrate an adequate level of proficiency in English Language to the level acceptable to Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. Department of home affairs has various portfolio’s like Australia’s federal law enforcement, national and transport security, criminal justice, emergency management, multicultural affairs and immigration and border-related functions and agencies, working together to keep Australia safe.

20. Prior to a student enrolling, fees may be altered without notice. Once a student has completed enrolment, fees will not be subject to change for the normal duration of the course. If a course length is extended by the student, then any fee increases will be required to be paid for the extended component of the course.

21. Student may initiate a request to defer commencement of studies or suspend their studies on the grounds of compassionate or compelling circumstances. Students wishing to defer the commencement of studies or suspend their studies must apply to do so in writing to acumen. acumen may decide to suspend or cancel a student’s enrolment on his/her own initiative as a response to misbehavior by the student. Deferral of commencement, suspension of enrolment and cancellation of enrolment has to be reported to Australian Government Department of Home Affairs and may affect the status of a student visa.

22. Students are entitled, at no additional cost, to a formal Statement of Attainment on withdrawal, cancellation or transfer, prior to completing the qualification, provided the student has paid in full for the tuition related to the units of competency to be shown on the Statement of Attainment.
Acumen Education will:
• Retain a register of all AQF qualifications it is authorized to issue
• Retain records of AQF certification documentation issued, for a period of 30 years and the same is accessible to the student in case it is lost, destroyed or damaged

23. Student must ensure that all the fees and charges required must be paid in full prior to course commencement unless a “payment plan” is arranged with acumen. Student tuition fees are safeguarded through membership of a Tuition Assurance Scheme and the ESOS Assurance Fund in accordance with the ESOS Legislation and fees paid in advance are paid into a trust account.