Student enrolment

Student personal details

Students must complete and submit the relevant Student personal details and declarations form to their home school for each academic year they enrol. The accuracy of student details should be audited against information provided on a student’s form. Students must use their legally registered names when enrolling in a senior secondary course. To verify the legal identity of the student, schools should request the student’s birth certificate or change of name document, both of which are issued only by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, to ensure the accuracy of student names and birthdates.

If a student’s enrolment changes, the school must ensure that VCE eligibility reports are run regularly. In this way schools can proactively identify issues with student enrolment and identify whether the student is able to complete their senior secondary course. If errors are reported or identified, they must be resolved and the eligibility report run again.

Fee-paying international students

An overseas student wanting to undertake the VCE (including the VCE VM) or IB must indicate if they are a fee-paying international student when completing their form.

General declaration

All students must sign an agreement to abide by the rules and instructions relating to external assessments (including the VCE and the GAT) and any rules for school-based assessment (including school rules).

Consent for disclosure of personal information to other organisations

Students must give permission for their data to be forwarded to newspapers and other government bodies for the calculation of awards and prizes, and for the Department of Education On Track survey. This must be done for each academic year of enrolment.

Permission for use of student work

Students are asked to grant copyright permission for the use of their work in publications and productions approved by the VCAA.

If the personal information requested is not provided and/or if Section A, the General declaration, is not signed, the student may not be accepted for enrolment in the VCE.

Students with past results

A ‘past result’ is any result in Matriculation, HSC, TOP, T12, STC, VCE or VCAL in a previous year. This is unless the result was achieved in the year immediately before the current academic year and the student is continuing at the same home school.

Students with past results will need to provide sufficient personal details to enable their records to be matched to database records. The VCAA database matches a student’s records based on their student number or on their date of birth, first name, family name and gender. Students who have past results and who know their student number should indicate this on their form.

If a student’s records are not matched, the student may not be awarded the certificate in which they are currently enrolled. Home schools can view all past results for VCE or VCAL achieved by students, including results from their previous school.

Enrolment restrictions

The only VCE studies with enrolment restrictions are EAL, Second Languages, Chinese Language, Culture and Society, and all VCE VM studies. There are no restrictions within a study on the number or combinations of units that students may undertake or for which credit may be gained towards satisfactorily completing the VCE, except for units deemed to be equivalent.

Studies with more than 4 units

Some VCE studies consist of more than 4 units:

History
Applied Computing
Australian and Global Politics
Mathematics
Music.

There are no restrictions within these studies on the number or combinations of units that students may undertake or for which credit may be gained towards satisfactorily completing the VCE except for units deemed to be equivalent. For example, in Applied Computing, students may obtain credit for Units 3 and 4 Data Analytics or for Units 3 and 4 Software Development but not both.

Students seeking English as an Additional Language status

Students who are unfamiliar with the English language because they are from non-English-speaking backgrounds or who are deaf or hard of hearing may also have access to EAL status. Students applying for EAL status should indicate this on their VCAA Student personal details and declarations form. Identifying a student as having EAL status does not automatically enrol the student in EAL.

There are 2 VCE EAL studies available for enrolment:

Bridging EAL (Units 1 and 2)
EAL (Units 1–4).

EAL has specific eligibility requirements for enrolment in Units 3 and 4 and students must submit an application in order to be approved to enrol. Students planning to enrol in Units 1 and 2 EAL or Bridging EAL or both, and who are considering further study of Units 3 and 4 EAL, are advised to discuss the eligibility requirements with their VCE coordinator before finalising their VCE program.

EAL requirements

Study	Study code	Units 1 and 2 requirements	Units 3 and 4 requirements
Bridging EAL	EN11	Application is not required for enrolment in Units 1 and 2	No Unit 3–4 sequence available for enrolment, however, an application is requirement for enrolment in Units 3 and 4 EAL (see below)
EAL	EN09	Application is not required for enrolment in Units 1 and 2	Application is required for enrolment in Units 3 and 4*

*See the eligibility requirements in Students seeking English as an Additional Language status.

Students from a non-English-speaking background

To apply for EAL status at Units 3 and 4, each student is required to submit an Application for enrolment in English as an Additional Language Units 3 and 4 form to the school. This is designed to help schools evaluate a student’s EAL status. Schools should maintain a record of all completed applications. The student is responsible for providing supporting documentation. Schools should not enrol a student in EAL unless they have received all documentation verifying that the student meets the EAL eligibility criteria. Schools are required to commence the process to determine Units 3 and 4 EAL eligibility before the student commences their VCE program to allow time to collect and assess the supporting documentation. Students from non-English-speaking backgrounds who are ineligible to enrol in Units 3 and 4 EAL are still able to undertake Units 1 and 2 of EAL or Bridging EAL or both as part of their VCE program if the school considers that this would benefit their learning.

Students applying to seek EAL status must meet one of the 3 criteria:

Criterion no.	Criterion
1	A student: will not have resided in Australia or another predominantly English-speaking country for a total period of more than 7 years before 1 January in the year the student will be undertaking Units 3 and 4 EAL* and has not enrolled in schools where English has been the student’s major language of instruction for a total period of 7 years or more over the period of their education^
2	A student is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person whose first language is not English
3	A student is deaf or hard of hearing and meets the eligibility requirements

* The period of 7 years is to be calculated cumulatively. The calculation of time spent in Australia is made from the initial date of arrival as a resident of Australia plus any previous periods of time spent living in Australia or any predominantly English-speaking country. Time spent out of Australia during school holidays must be included in the accumulation towards the 7 years because there would have been no disruption to education during these periods.
^ Schools must sight the student’s overseas school reports to confirm that the language of instruction was not English during this period.

Special circumstances for EAL status

There are special circumstances that may be considered by the VCAA in determining a student’s eligibility for EAL status, including:

minimal or no primary school education
material interruptions to schooling during primary years, particularly if there were changes to the language of instruction
material interruptions to schooling after arrival in Australia.

Circumstances not considered for EAL status

The following are not grounds for a special application for EAL status:

the language spoken in the student’s home
the standard of the student’s spoken and written English
the failure of the student’s school to provide EAL assistance to the student.

Determinations about EAL status

If a student clearly meets the criteria, the principal has the authority to approve acceptance of the application. Such applications should be retained on the school file and not sent to the VCAA. The VCAA may request copies of applications to confirm eligibility as part of an audit process.

If a determination is not clear, the principal may apply to the VCAA for a determination using the Application for enrolment in English as an Additional Language Units 3 and 4 form. The completed application form, together with all supporting documentation, should be forwarded to the Student Records and Results unit as soon as possible (which should be in the year before undertaking Units 3 and 4 EAL).

Students who have resided and studied in Singapore or India

VASS disables EAL approval for students whose country of origin is Singapore or India, even though the student may have resided in Australia for less than 7 years. A message on VASS will appear, stating ‘EAL eligibility for this country of origin can only be approved by the VCAA’. The school must forward the application to the VCAA for a thorough assessment. These applications need to include supporting school documentation and passport stamp or international movement records or both to determine whether the student is eligible for EAL status. If the VCAA approves the application, it will be entered on VASS and the school will be able to enrol the student in EAL. This application and supporting documentation should be forwarded to the Student Records and Results unit as soon as possible (which should be in the year before undertaking Units 3 and 4 EAL).

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing

Students seeking EAL status on the grounds of being deaf or hard of hearing must produce evidence of a hearing test administered by the Australian Government Hearing Services Program or an equivalent body no more than 2 calendar years before the year of enrolment in a Unit 3–4 sequence. The audiogram and accompanying report submitted must show that the student has a hearing loss of 60 decibels or greater in their better ear. Other aspects of hearing loss, such as issues relating to sound frequencies, should be noted in the report. The report should be written in an accessible language, with the implications of the audiogram results clearly explained.

The Visiting Teacher Service must also ascertain a student’s EAL status and eligibility for assistance based on the grounds of being deaf or hard of hearing or being enrolled in a school for the deaf or hard of hearing or a recognised unit or facility for the deaf or hard of hearing attached to a registered school.

Schools can decide about the eligibility of a deaf or hard of hearing student for EAL status based on these criteria. Advice can also be sought from the Student Records and Results unit.

If the principal has approved the student’s application, their status can be entered on VASS. If the principal is uncertain about a student’s eligibility, they should apply to the VCAA using the Application for enrolment in English as an Additional Language Units 3 and 4 form. All evidence as described in the eligibility criteria must be supplied with the application.

To satisfy the requirements of English or EAL, students who are deaf or hard of hearing may undertake an alternative assessment task to the one specified in the English or EAL study design. For students who are deaf or hard of hearing and who have a limited capacity for oral communication, an alternative may be a data presentation (for example, using Microsoft PowerPoint) or a presentation using Auslan, translated into speech by an interpreter.

School-based arrangements for EAL

Studies have been designed so teachers can develop courses appropriate to the needs of their students. The flexibility in the study design should be applied when considering a student’s comparative unfamiliarity with the English language.

Enrolment in Second Language studies

Specific eligibility requirements apply for Second Language studies in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. These studies are designed to cater for students who have learnt all they know of the language in an Australian school or similar environment.

The VCAA must approve all enrolments in Units 3 and 4 of a Second Language study. The VCAA does not need to approve enrolment in Second Language Units 1 and 2 studies.

The home school is responsible for submitting the VCE Second Language studies Units 3 and 4 application form, which should be submitted with the relevant supporting documentation in the academic year prior to the year of enrolment. It is important that schools meet the VCAA deadline, so students are aware of their Second Language status at the beginning of the academic year in which they are enrolled and can be enrolled in the correct study. If this is not possible, schools must enrol students into a First Language class until approval is granted. If the school does not offer the relevant First Language study, the student should be enrolled in a First Language study offered by an accredited provider of VCE First Languages.

The student must provide sufficient evidence to support their application. The home school principal or their delegate must then make an initial assessment using criteria and advice provided by the VCAA and complete the principal’s declaration section of the relevant VASS forms. All accompanying documentation must be in English or have been translated into English by a recognised translation authority.

The student is responsible for providing supporting documentation. The VCAA may not permit enrolment if the study forms or supporting documentation are deemed incomplete or insufficient.

Eligibility for Second Language studies

The criterion for eligibility for enrolment in a Second Language study is the number of years the student has been educated in a school where the specific language is the medium of instruction outlined in the following table. Students who have learnt all they know of the language in an Australian school are eligible for Second Language enrolment.

Chinese Second Language

A student is not eligible for Chinese Second Language if they have either:

completed one year (12 months) or more of education in a school where Chinese is the medium of instruction, or
resided for 3 years (36 months) or more of residence in any of the VCAA-nominated countries or regions (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau).

Chinese Second Language Advanced

A student is eligible for Chinese Second Language Advanced if:

they have completed no more than 7 years of education in a school where Chinese is the medium of instruction
the highest level of education they have attained in a school where Chinese is the medium of instruction is no greater than the equivalent of Year 7 in a Victorian school.

As the formal education commencement age for a Victorian student is 5 years of age, all applicants will be deemed to have commenced formal education by the end of their fifth year of age, regardless of the setting.

Indonesian Second Language

A student is eligible for Indonesian Second Language if they have completed no more than 7 years of education in a school where Indonesian or Malay is the medium of instruction.

Japanese Second Language

A student is eligible for Japanese Second Language if they have completed no more than 7 years of education in a school where Japanese is the medium of instruction.

Korean Second Language

A student is eligible for Korean Second Language if they have completed no more than 7 years of education in a school where Korean is the medium of instruction.

Vietnamese Second Language

A student is eligible for Vietnamese Second Language if they have completed no more than 7 years of education in a school where Vietnamese is the medium of instruction.

Enrolment in Second Language studies (Units 3 and 4 only)

To provide a complete application for enrolment in a Units 3 and 4 Second Language study, students must:

complete the relevant VCE Second Language studies Units 3 and 4 application form, giving details of their language background
ensure all requested information is provided and that the ‘Certification by student and parent or guardian’ section has been completed
provide the school with relevant supporting documents in English (or translated into English by a recognised translation authority) to support their application.

Students are responsible for providing supporting documentation, which can be obtained by contacting the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) on 1300 557 470. The VCAA will not permit students to enrol in the study if the application form or supporting documentation is incomplete or deemed insufficient to allow eligibility to be determined. The VCAA may also require the following information as supporting documentation:

students who have Australian citizenship must provide a copy of their birth certificate or passport showing their date of arrival in Australia and country of residence
students who have attended school overseas must provide reports from the school showing languages studied and years of attendance
students who have had non-attendance at school in any year or part year from the age of 6 must provide official relevant documentation. Acceptable documentation may be an official letter from the school in the country concerned, a report from a medical officer in that country, or a statement from the education authority in that country
students who have lived overseas must provide passport entry and exit dates detailing international movement. Students who have misplaced their passports may obtain this information from the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs
the principal or their delegate of the home school must make an initial assessment using criteria and advice provided by the VCAA and complete the principal’s declaration section of the application form.

The home school must:

certify that the information provided in the form and supporting documentation is true and correct before submitting it to the VCAA
inform the student and their assessing school if the student is deemed to be ineligible. The application forms of these students should be forwarded to the VCAA only if endorsement of the school’s recommendation is required
forward application forms and a copy of the relevant supporting documentation to the Student Records and Results unit
alert the assessing school of the VCAA’s decision concerning a student’s eligibility (by forwarding a Student full details report).

Schools should contact the Student Records and Results unit for advice about:

student transfers
students arriving from overseas at the commencement of the academic year
criteria for eligibility
enrolment procedures.

Exceptional circumstances

If a principal considers that a student who does not clearly satisfy the criteria for enrolment in a Units 3 and 4 Second Language should be allowed to enrol in the study due to exceptional circumstances, they should send an application detailing the circumstances (supported by appropriate documentation) to the Student Records and Results unit for consideration.

Difficulty in obtaining documents to explain non-attendance at school is not an exceptional circumstance. Appropriate documentation must be provided.

Approval for Second Language status will not be granted because of a student’s standard of writing, speaking or listening in the language.

Chinese studies enrolment

There are 4 Chinese studies available for enrolment, and 3 of these studies have specific eligibility requirements requiring the student to apply to complete the study.

Students planning to enrol in Units 1 and 2 Chinese Second Language, Chinese Second Language Advanced, or Chinese Language, Culture and Society and who are also considering further studies at Units 3 and 4 level are advised to discuss the eligibility requirements with their VCE coordinator before finalising their Unit 1 and 2 studies.

Chinese studies enrolment requirements

VCE study	Study code	Units 1 and 2 enrolment requirements	Units 3 and 4 enrolment requirements
Chinese First Language	LO04	Application not required	Application not required
Chinese Second Language Advanced	LO48	Application not required	Application required
Chinese Second Language	LO39	Application not required	Application required
Chinese Language, Culture and Society	LO57	Application not required	Application required

Enrolment in Chinese Language, Culture and Society

A student is not eligible for VCE Chinese Language, Culture and Society if they have either:

undertaken 6 months or more education in a school where Chinese is the medium of instruction
resided for 24 months or more in any VCAA-nominated countries or regions (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau).

Enrolment in Modern Languages

Enrolment in VCE Modern Languages Units 3 and 4 studies does not need to be approved by the VCAA. However, students are required to declare their status as either a First Language Learner or a Second Language Learner.

A student will be considered a Second Language Learner if they have completed all their schooling in Australia or have accumulated less than 7 years of education in a school where the language they are enrolling in was the main language of instruction.

First and Second Language Learners undertake the same curriculum and examinations. However, the VCAA uses the 2 language learner categories in the study score calculation process for VCE Modern Languages.

For each applicable study, study scores will be calculated based on Second Language Learners. The outcomes from these calculations will then be applied to all students. This process maintains the rank order of all students within the study while making sure the study scores of Second Language Learners are not affected by First Language Learners.

This applies to students enrolling in: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Bosnian, Chin Hakha, Croatian, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Karen, Khmer, Macedonian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish and Yiddish.

Students must complete the Declaration for enrolment in VCE Modern Languages Units 3 and 4 form and submit it to their home school. Students should submit declaration forms to their home school with the relevant supporting documentation for the principal’s certification before they are enrolled in the language study.

The home school is responsible for recording each student’s status on VASS as either a First or Second Language Learner in the language of study. Language learner statuses are required to be entered on VASS before the enrolment deadline for VCE Unit 3–4 sequences.

Enrolment in VCE VM studies

Students may only enrol in VCE VM Literacy and VCE VM Numeracy studies if they are completing a program that meets the specific program requirements for award of the VCE VM.

All VCE students are eligible to enrol in VCE VM Work Related Skills and Personal Development Skills.

Schools are expected to run a VCE VM student eligibility report in VASS for all VCE VM students to make sure their program will allow completion of the VCE and the VCE VM program (see the Minimum requirements section). If a student meets the requirements for satisfactorily completing the VCE, but not the requirements for the award of the Vocational Major appellation, the student will be awarded the VCE without an appellation. Schools should contact the Student Records and Results unit regarding any concerns about the report.

Schools should also contact the Student Records and Results unit for advice about:

VCE VM student transfers
VCE VM students arriving from overseas at the commencement of the academic year
criteria for eligibility
enrolment procedures.

Enrolment in VET

Students should only be enrolled in the UoCs they expect to complete in the current academic year, rather than the complete course. If a student does not complete a UoC and wants to complete it in the following academic year, they must be re-enrolled in the following year.

There may be restrictions on the VET training that students can undertake due to industrial arrangements, the nature of the industry from which training is derived, or regulatory requirements. If a student does not have a valid, current training plan, they cannot enrol into a course designated as an apprenticeship. The VCAA requires all schools wanting to enrol students into Certificate IV or Diploma courses to complete an Application for higher level qualifications form. The decision about the content of the training program will be made by the school in consultation with the RTO.

After finalising enrolments, a VCE or VCE VM student eligibility report should be run in VASS.

Schools must comply with the deadlines set out in the Important administrative dates for the following:

finalising UoC enrolments within VCE VET scored Unit 3–4 sequences
finalising UoC enrolments for any students undertaking any certificate type (VE1, VE2 or VE3)
withdrawing students from UoCs from a VCE VET scored Unit 3–4 sequence
finalising assessment plan information for VCE VET scored Unit 3–4 sequences..

Enrolment of International Baccalaureate students

IB students need to be identified as such on VASS and the same attention to detail should be given to collecting and maintaining their personal details as is required for VCE students.

All Australian Year 12 IB students are required to sit the GAT to calculate a notional ATAR. These students should complete the International Baccalaureate (IB) student personal details form. All international Year 12 IB students must be enrolled on VASS by the deadline specified in Important administrative dates so that this information can be forwarded to VTAC. The GAT is optional for international students, at the school’s discretion. However, if a student does not sit the GAT, an ATAR will not be calculated (they will receive a notional ATAR statement).

There is an administrative fee for each IB student sitting the GAT (see Fees and charges on the VCAA website). The VCAA invoices students through their school. Each school is responsible for the collection of VCAA payments from its students. Schools must submit one payment to cover all IB students on the invoice. Where schools have an IB student wanting to undertake a VCE study, the principal must request permission for this enrolment from the VCAA before entering the enrolment on VASS. The school should provide to Student Records and Results a full course outline of the IB program the student is undertaking and identify the VCE study the student wants to undertake. This VCE study must be different from any study being undertaken as part of their IB program.

Enrolment of Year 10 students

Schools are required to identify Year 10 students on VASS regardless of whether they are enrolled in the VCE or IB. The course type for these students will be VCE. If a student is not undertaking the VCE or IB, the school will be required to tick the Personal Details Only (PDO) box on the enrolment screen, identifying the student as PDO. This information is collected for the purposes of the Department of Education’s On Track survey. The Year 10 student personal details form must be completed by such students. The school should retain these forms until the following year.

Atypical enrolment

There are some students who do not start and finish their VCE at the one school or within a continuous timeframe, including those who:

transfer from one school to another within Victoria
transfer from another state or territory system to the VCE
transfer from another country to the VCE
require a break in their VCE studies due to personal circumstances (interrupted studies).

There are some students who combine their VCE studies with a HES at university. The records of all such students need to be appropriately managed.

Students transferring within Victoria

If students transfer from one Victorian school to another, schools use VASS for the transfer procedure. When a student transfers to another school, the school that the student is leaving is required to transfer the student on VASS, so they can be enrolled at the new school. If this is not done, the new school must contact the student’s former school and request the transfer. Students should not be transferred until the new home school is known.

To prevent a second student number being created, a student must not be enrolled at the new school until correct transfer procedures have been completed. Multiple records in the same academic year for the one student may lead to the student not being awarded their VCE.

Students who transfer during the academic year must have results for units or school-based assessment recorded on VASS at the time they transfer.

VCE transfers

If a student transfers:

very early in the academic year and completes all outcomes at the receiving school, the receiving school determines satisfactory completion for both Units 3 and 4
very late in the academic year, having completed all outcomes at the original school but sitting any examinations at the receiving school, the original school determines satisfactory completion of Units 3 and 4
midway through the academic year and completes Unit 3 at the original school, that school determines satisfactory completion of the unit, while the receiving school determines satisfactory completion for Unit 4
part-way through completion of a unit, the original school enters all information on its assessments for any outcomes completed before transferring the student to the receiving school, while the receiving school determines satisfactory completion of the remaining outcomes and the unit.

The scheduling of assessment tasks at the receiving school may mean that a student would not have the opportunity in the normal teaching program to complete their remaining tasks for the unit. The receiving school should provide support for the student to complete any missing tasks, including the necessary teaching and preparation for the task. The scheduling of other tasks for the unit may prevent this, or the student may be disadvantaged by an overload of work in comparison with other students in the class. In such cases, the principal may award an S for the unit on the advice of the teacher of that study if the student has completed sufficient work overall for a decision to be made.

Students transferring from interstate on exchange programs

Students transferring from interstate on exchange programs may have late enrolments approved. Written applications should be made to Student Records and Results.

Students transferring from interstate during Year 11

How schools deal with students who transfer from interstate during Year 11 will depend on the time of year that the student transfers. The following examples describe the varying procedures.