SAO Semester Dates

Census dates apply to all SAO students, including those enrolled via Swinburne University or Open Universities Australia (OUA). The census date is when your enrolment requirements must be finalised. Swinburne University is required to report student liability information to the Australian Government's Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) by the specific census date. The census date is the last day for withdrawing from a unit or course without a financial penalty. In the past, it has fallen at around the end of Week 3.

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The Week 1 (rather than the initial Week 0) "Study Period" start dates can be seen on the University webpages:
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/study/course/Master-of-Science-(Astronomy)-MA-SASTRO/local.
Enrolled students should log into Canvas during Week 0, i.e., the week before the advertised Study Period start dates.

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Now, and post-2022, you can find the Swinburne University academic calendar here. SAO is run through Hawthorn Online (HOL) and Open Universities Australia (OUA), so be sure to check the Study Period (SP) dates for this part of the Higher Education (HE) calender. SAO follows the OUA/HOL study periods, denoted Study Period 1 (SP1) and Study Period 3 (SP3) for Semester 1 and Semester 2, respectively, and does not have a mid-semester break.

SAO typically runs 13-week semesters — plus an introductory "Week 0" before Week 1 and not shown in the calendar — for students to explore their online classrooms and meet classmates and instructors. Major Project Units extend into the grading/marking Week 13 of the Semester, while the other Units stop at Week 12.