Access Melbourne eligibility

To be eligible for Access Melbourne you need to meet all of the general eligibility requirements, and at least one of the Access Melbourne categories below.

Use the Access Melbourne calculator

General eligibility requirements

Be an Australian or New Zealand citizen, or Australian permanent resident or hold a permanent humanitarian visa (Temporary, Bridging or Safe Haven Enterprise)
Have not received results from undergraduate studies (excludes high school extension studies, or single subjects completed outside of an official degree program. Does not apply to mature age entry pathway applicants and/or applicants eligible for the recognition as an Indigenous Australian category)
Demonstrated the capacity to successfully undertake the course of your choice
Applied for a University of Melbourne undergraduate course through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC).

There are nine Access Melbourne categories under which you can receive consideration as part of your application for undergraduate study.

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 your disadvantaged financial background has affected you, or
You reside in a low socioeconomic area according to government definition.

To apply for this Access Melbourne category, submit a Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS) application via the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) under SEAS Category 2: Disadvantaged financial background (or under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location if you reside in a low socioeconomic area* and have no other financial circumstances to declare). You will be scored based on the evidence you provide, as well as the impact the circumstances have had on your education.

If you are eligible for this category, you may be able to receive a guaranteed place.

* 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 . Note that you will need to submit a SEAS application under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location 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 meet all of the below criteria:

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 (SEAS) calculator to check your address and see if your school qualifies. To apply for this Access Melbourne category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

^* Checking the rurality rating of your residential address:

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
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.
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 category, you may be able to receive a guaranteed place.

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 category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

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

If you are eligible for this category, you may be able to receive a guaranteed place.

Further information for Indigenous students

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 category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

Note: Please note that our classification varies slightly from VTAC’s published definition of the SEAS First in family to attend university category, as listed in the 2024 SEAS application form (under Category 1, sub-category 1.1): “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 2024 SEAS 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 2023 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 category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

You are eligible for Access Melbourne consideration if:

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

Difficult circumstances can include, but are not limited to;

experiencing out of home care
arriving in Australia as a refugee
long-term serious illness of a family member
natural disasters
an unsafe or unstable home environment.

To apply for this Access Melbourne category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 4: Difficult 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 category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 3: Disability or medical conditions. 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 2018.

To apply for this Access Melbourne category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

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

You are 23 years of age or older on 29 September 2023 (for Semester 1, 2024 entry) or 10 June 2024 (for Semester 2, 2024 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 category, submit a SEAS application via VTAC under SEAS Category 1: Personal information and location.

Academic eligibility criteria

All Access Melbourne applicants who meet our non-school leaver criteria entry pathway 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:
- Special 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, the University's Chancellor's Scholars programs, or our Graduate Degree Packages.

Further information for mature age students