La Trobe University of Australia has said it has distributed AUD 12 million (Rs 60 crore) to support its students during the Covid-19 emergency. This is in addition to the university’s normal scholarships and support. “TO ensure students have the maximum opportunity to start their studies in 2020, we also introduced more flexible online study options for prospective students and created additional start dates,” La Trobe said in a statement.
La Trobe was amongst first Australian universities to ‘pause’ teaching activities to ensure right decisions were made on how to deliver quality education. The first step was to ‘migrate’ courses and student services online. Then it introduced ‘terms’ alongside ‘semesters’. Each term is six weeks long, which provides three possible start dates for students in the second half of 2020. La Trobe said this means students can start their studies doing two subjects in a six-week term. Courses in Business, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Public Health and Biotechnology will be offered online in ‘terms’ this year.
La Trobe also started new suite of scholarships and expanded eligibility criteria for existing scholarships. These cover up to 30% of the tuition fee of a programme.