St George's Careers Compass

Curtin University

In 2025 over 50% of West Australian school leavers choose Curtin as their first university preference Curtin now has over 60,000 students. It has campuses in Bentley, as well as in the city, and in Kalgoorlie.

Inside Curtin: Courses, Campus Life, and Opportunities

The Kalgoorlie campus is the traditional home of skills development for the mining and resources industries. It opened at the peak of the gold rush in 1902 and is now a world leader in earth sciences, and mining and mineral engineering. Curtin also has campuses in Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, and Mauritius.

Non ATAR Pathways

 

Curtin encourages school students to apply directly through TISC. 91% of school leavers who apply through TISC use their ATAR score and 9% use alternatives like UniReady or portfolio entry.

 

Some interesting statistics about School Leavers:

  • Over 70% of WA students leave Year 12 without an ATAR score.
  • 30% of school leavers enter university through non-ATAR pathways.
  • Academic Status of Undergraduates who applied through TISC showed:
    • ATAR Students with 82% good standing
    • UniReady students had 94% good standing OR CONDITIONAL STATUS leaving 6% who terminated their studies.

Admission requirements for 2026 are the same as 2025:

  • General English with a “B” Grade, will meet Curtin’s English Competency requirement.
  • There are many ways of meeting the English Competency requirement has checked and there is
  • Early applications open on 3 June through TISC based on predicted ATARs in Year 11. Offers for 2026 will not be made until 1 September.
  • TISC Applications close on 30 September for most courses.
  • If you want to defer an early offer, wait for confirmation that you have been given a place, then defer.
  • Early offers are not available for:
    • UniReady
    • Competitive courses
    • Portfolio entry

For comparison, here are the English entry requirements for all WA universities:

Remember, each university may have specific course requirements, so make sure you check this in their new course guides.

Portfolio Entry

If you would like to be considered for portfolio entry, please tick that box on the TISC application form, even if you are applying via ATAR.

 

Curtin University as advised that 29 November is the final date for portfolio submissions, so you do not have to submit them in June!

Portfolio entry requires:

  • WACE
  • B in General English or a C in ATAR Literature or English as an Additional language or Dialect
  • Demonstrated academic preparedness.
  • Satisfaction of any course prerequisites.

Applying via a portfolio submission is a lot of work as you need to demonstrate in a variety of ways that you have a fair chance of succeeding at uni. Mrs Tagore can help you with your application.

 

Check how to apply via a portfolio application HERE

 

Health Sciences

Course Switching

Students who fail to gain a place in their first course choice, can course switch in their second year if they meet the prerequisites.

An excellent Grade Point Average in the first year of Exercise and Sport Sciences for example, which has an entry ATAR of 70, could be a pathway into Physiotherapy, which has an entry ATAR of 90.

This would be very difficult to achieve, but it is possible.

 

Nursing (ATAR 70)

  • The is replacing the Bachelor of Nursing at Curtin.
  • There are no prerequisites, but ATAR Human Biology is desirable.
  • The course includes 840 hours of unpaid work placement over the 3 years of the course.

Midwifery (ATAR 80)

  • The is a 3-year course with Human Biology and Maths Applications as being desirable entry subjects.
  • The course has 1250 hours of unpaid work experience (Placements and Continuity of Care Experience) as part of the course requirements.

Paramedicine (ATAR 75)

  • Human Biology and Integrated Sciences as desirable entry requirements.
  • The course includes 550 hours of work placement over the 3 years.

Diploma of Sport

  • The Diploma of Sport has an equivalent ATAR of 84 and is therefore a pathway to Exercise and Sport Science,

Science and Engineering

The Science and Engineering Faculty identified that students who undertake the traditional ATAR Mathematics pathway have a higher weighted average than those who don’t.

 

 

Engineering (ATAR 80)

  • The is a 4-year full time course with Mathematics Methods and either Chemistry or Physics as prerequisites. The first year is a common foundation year and students can specialise from their second year.
  • There are with the new energy and software majors about to be launched.

Computing

There will be three potential specialisations in computing:

  • Cyber security
  • Computer science
  • Software engineering.

Business and Law

Curtin is the largest Business school in WA. It is ranked first in Western Australia by the peak body which ranks business schools around the world. Curtin Business School is also recognised as an elite global business school in Australia through various accreditations.

 

Bachelor of Business (ATAR 75)

  • This is a 3 year degree.

Bachelor of Law (ATAR 90)

  • Curtin Law School is the #1 Law School in Western Australia.
  • The  is a 3 year degree. This is a foundation degree which gives sound legal advice. You can choose from optional units that focus on topics such as forensic advocacy, employment law, environmental law and policy, law and technology human rights law and native title law and policy.
  • You will need to do an additional degree in order to practice law.

Bachelor of Innovation (ATAR 70)

Students enrolling in the can select units from across science or humanities.

 

You can find out more about the different schools in humanities below:

Student Profile - Application Pathways to Curtin University

 

To view this student profile table, go HERE