If higher education is where you want to go, TAFE NSW can help you get there.

How can TAFE lead to university?

You may be surprised to hear that there are lots of possible study routes that can take you from a TAFE NSW course to a university degree.

TAFE has partnerships with universities across the state and beyond. This means that you can get yourself a graduate qualification from your local TAFE campus.

Case in point - the Certificate IV in Tertiary Preparation (TPC). This will give you a Tertiary Entrance Score which can then help you enrol at university. If you've got a TPC under your belt, you're guaranteed entry to a whole range of degrees from some universities such as Western Sydney and Charles Sturt.

And if you complete a TAFE Statement in HSC Studies, you'll be given an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). This means you'll then qualify for entry into most undergraduate university courses throughout Australia.

Diploma to Degree programs

Currently TAFE NSW offers Diploma to Degree programs with some "partner" universities. This means it's possible to enrol in a TAFE NSW Diploma or Advanced Diploma as well as a related university Degree course at the same time. Check with your local TAFE NSW Campus for more details.

Get credit for your TAFE NSW qualification

A credit transfer is when a portion of your TAFE NSW studies counts towards a uni course, potentially knocking a year or more off your future uni studies. More than 100 TAFE NSW courses now have credit transfer arrangements in place for 700 courses in many major Australian universities. This puts these students ahead of the eight ball when it comes to enrolling for a university course. Visit TAFE NSW credit transfers for more information on how this all works.

Types of credit transfers

There are three main types of credit transfers that you can get through your TAFE studies;

• Block credit: this is when your entire TAFE NSW qualification gives you credit for a whole year of a university qualification.

• Specified credit: this is when specified units of a TAFE NSW qualification give you credit for particular parts of a university qualification.

• Unspecified credit: this is when part of the first year of a TAFE NSW qualification (or sometimes the whole year), gives you credit towards some electives of a university qualification.

Even if there's no formal credit transfer agreement in place for your TAFE NSW course and the university you wish to enrol with, you're still free to approach the university yourself and negotiate your own credit arrangement.