Access Melbourne

To be eligible for Access Melbourne you need to meet all of the following general eligibility requirements:

• Be an Australian or New Zealand citizen, or Australian permanent resident or hold a permanent humanitarian visa
• Have not received results from prior undergraduate study (high school extension subjects, or single subjects completed outside of an official degree are not considered prior studies). Please note, mature age applicants and/or applicants eligible for recognition as an Indigenous Australian, with incomplete or complete tertiary study, are eligible for Access Melbourne
• Demonstrated the capacity to successfully undertake the course, such as meeting ATAR or subject prerequisite requirements
• Applied for a University of Melbourne undergraduate course through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC).

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet one of the below criteria:

• You or your parent/guardian are in receipt of a means tested Commonwealth income support payment (such as Austudy, ABSTUDY, Youth Allowance, etc), or
• Your parent/guardian is in receipt of Family Tax Benefit A or B, or
• You're able to demonstrate how financial hardship has affected you or your studies, or
• You reside in a low socioeconomic area according to government definition.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location (if you reside in a low socioeconomic area* and have no other financial circumstances to declare) and/or financial hardship categories are updated and correct in your  equity scheme and scholarship application in your  VTAC profile. You will be scored based on the evidence you provide, as well as the impact the circumstances have had on your education.

Visit the VTAC website for details on suppling evidence.

If you're eligible for this Access Melbourne circumstance, you may qualify for Access Melbourne Guaranteed ATARs.

* Your home address may be in a low socioeconomic area, as classified by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the 2021 Census data. You can check if your home (residential) address is in a low socioeconomic area in our Access Melbourne calculator. Please note that you'll need to submit an equity scheme application for us to receive ABS details about your address. Your home address cannot be classified as low socioeconomic if you do not reside within Australia.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet all of the criteria below:

• Your residential address is located within a Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1)*, an area that is not defined as a major city by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), and
• You attend secondary school in a regional or remote area.

You can use the Access Melbourne calculator to check your address and see if your school qualifies. To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme and scholarship application in VTAC.

^* Checking the rurality rating of your residential address:

1. First confirm the Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) code of your residential address here use the 'Address search’, and ensure that the selected 'Census year' is 2021
2. Once you have the SA1 code for your residential address (the SA1 code will be an 11-digit number), you will be able to use this code to search for the correlating Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)rurality rating on the Remoteness areas spreadsheet.
3. If the ASGS rurality rating of your residence is NOT classified to 'Major Cities of Australia', then your residential address is eligible for consideration under this Access Melbourne category. Note that the address of your secondary school must also be in a regional or remote area if you are a current Year 12 student.

If you are eligible for this Access Melbourne circumstance, you may qualify for Access Melbourne Guaranteed ATARs.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet the below criteria:

• You're of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, and
• You identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person and are accepted as such by the community in which you have been living or are associated with.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme and scholarship application in VTAC.

Murrup Barak will be in touch with applicants to help them submit a confirmation of identity document.

If you are eligible for this Access Melbourne circumstance, you will qualify for Access Melbourne Guaranteed ATARs for Indigenous Australians.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if:

• Your parents or guardian  did not attend university and your generation is the first to do so. This category applies to you even if your siblings attended university, provided your parents or guardian did not complete university education.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme application in VTAC.

Note: Please note that our classification varies slightly from VTAC’s published definition of the First in family to attend university category, as listed in the equity scheme application form: “Are you or will you be the first person in your immediate family to attend university? (immediate family includes parents, brothers and sisters).” We recommend that you complete your equity scheme and scholarship application form as carefully and accurately as possible, selecting all categories and sub-categories that are relevant to your circumstances.

If you feel that you are eligible for consideration under the University of Melbourne’s First in family category, but your family circumstances don't meet the VTAC definition of the First in family to attend university category (in that someone in your generation within your immediate family – ie, your brother or sister – has attended university), you are welcome to let us know about this via the ‘General Statement’ section of the VTAC Personal statement.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet the below criteria:

• You are completing Year 12 in 2024 at a Victorian secondary school defined by the University of Melbourne as under-represented in the tertiary (higher education) sector and at the University of Melbourne.

Check if your school is on the list of under-represented schools for 2024 here.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme application in VTAC.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if:

• You’ve been prevented from reaching your full educational potential because of family or other difficult life circumstances.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, submit an equity scheme application via VTAC under the category of difficult family and life circumstances. You will be scored based on the evidence you provide, as well as the impact the circumstances have had on your education.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if:

• You experience a disability, impairment or medical condition that has affected your studies.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, submit an equity scheme application in VTAC under the living with a disability or medical condition category. You will be scored based on the evidence you provide, as well as the impact the circumstances have had on your education.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet all of the below criteria:

• You were born outside Australia in a non-English speaking country, and
• You arrived in Australia after 1 January 2019.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme application via VTAC.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if you meet all of the below criteria:

• You are 23 years of age or older on 30 September 2025 (for Semester 1 2026 entry) or 6 June 2026 (for Semester 2 2026 entry); and
• You have no qualifications from the past seven years that could be used as the basis of your application.

To apply for this Access Melbourne circumstance, ensure your personal information and location is updated and correct in your equity scheme application in VTAC.

Academic eligibility criteria

All Access Melbourne applicants who meet our non-school leaver criteria must also satisfy the academic requirements outlined below:

• Meet the course prerequisites for your preferred course and satisfy any additional application requirements; and
• Demonstrate your likelihood to succeed in tertiary study by achieving competitive results in one of the following:
  • Skills for Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT), strong results must be achieved for the written English and multiple choice sections, or
  • Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), strong results must be achieved across all sections, or
  • Complete 50 points* of single subject Community Access Program (CAP) study in assessed mode, and achieve an overall minimum average of 75%; and
• Meet the University's English language requirements.

*50 points of CAP study will typically require applicants to complete four CAP subjects.

Please note that the Access Melbourne non-school leaver category does not provide applicants with an entry point to the Diploma in General Studies, or our Graduate Degree Packages.

Further information for mature age students