Getting to Know UNSW

The first step to starting your uni adventure is knowing what you're getting yourself into! Start here to find out the essentials of studying at UNSW, including how to enrol in courses, where to go to get your ID, and how to access your lectures and course-work even from home.

🏛 Moodle, WebCMS and myUNSW

The first step to starting your uni adventure is knowing what you're getting yourself into! Start here to find out the essentials of studying at UNSW, including how to enrol in courses, where to go to get your ID, and how to access your lectures and course-work even from home.

Moodle allows you to handle the academic side of your studies. You'll be able to access lecture recordings, announcements, your course forum and any course materials from here.

For most Computer Science courses that you'll take, you'll use WebCMS instead for course materials and announcements (which can be accessed through Moodle). You'll gain access to the relevant Moodle and WebCMS pages after enrolling in your courses (usually around O-Week). Every course will handle online lectures, tutorials and assessments slightly differently, so pay close attention to the announcements from your lecturers!

myUNSW is how you access and change any information on the administrative side of your studies. The main things you'd do on myUNSW will be managing your fees and payments, concession cards, checking out your academic transcript, and updating your class timetable and enrolment.

🪪 zID Management

Your zID is your student ID, and it’s used for almost everything at UNSW - make sure you memorise yours!

If you haven't been issued a zID yet, complete this form. UNSW policy requires you to update your password every 12 months, and there are restrictions in place to make sure you don't swap between the same two passwords. If you want to change your password, or have forgotten it, go to Forgot your password service within UNSW Identity Manager. All relevant information can be found here.

UNSW also requires 2-step authentication for your zID accounts, so make sure you enable this when you login in - find out how here.

💌 zMail

Being updated with your uni email is essential for your time at UNSW. You'll be getting course and faculty announcements, and updates on forum threads. Check this email regularly so you don't miss any important information!

The easiest way to ensure that you don't miss an email is to set up forwarding to your personal email. You can also use an email app such as Spark, which lets you access all your email accounts from one place.

💚 Arc

You will probably see the name Arc floating around a lot during O-Week and might be wondering what it actually is. Essentially, Arc is UNSW’s student organisation and they run pretty much all major events outside the classroom from Clubs to Sports. All societies are under Arc, so if you are keen to start your own society, find 5 friends and head over to Arc Office. If we have one piece of advice, it’s to JOIN ARC - it’s free and gives you access to a load of discounts on and off campus! Arc also provides awesome volunteering opportunities, social events and up-skilling workshops - so stay in the loop by subscribing to their emails or socials.

To join during O-Week, go to the Arc Stalls scattered around campus, where volunteers will help you get set up. Otherwise, you can visit the Arc Office which is located just to the left of the Basser Steps. If you're not on campus, you can still join by filling out the form online!

👩‍🎓The Nucleus: Student Hub

The UNSW Nucleus Student Hub is located on the Ground Floor of the Main Library, and they provide administrative support to students. Although many of the services that Nucleus provides can be completed online, students may be required to go to the Hub in person to process other requests. This will include getting a fast service academic transcript, receiving your ID card, or getting your calculator approved by UNSW.

📅 Academic Calendar

Do you know when the uni terms are? Or more importantly, do you know when your holidays are?

At UNSW, we get three 11-week terms (aka trimesters) each year. Week 6 of each of these terms is flexibility week, which is a break week where there will be no content taught and nothing due! We also have Stress-Less Week in week 8 with stalls around to relieve some stress before exams. Each term is followed by a one-week study period, and then two weeks in which your exams will be held. After this, you'll have a well-deserved two weeks of break, before the next term starts. There are also specific dates for when you can enrol in new courses (end of Week 1) and drop courses you don’t want (Census Date: end of Week 4).

The UNSW Academic Calendar has all the exact dates for the year, so be sure to check it out to plan your holidays around them!

👩‍🏫 Choosing Classes

Choosing classes at uni is a whole adventure in itself. You can literally take almost any course that UNSW offers - but how do you know if those courses will actually count towards your degree?

The first step is to get familiar with your degree requirements in the UNSW Handbook. This will tell you all the courses you need to take to complete your degree, as well as every single course offered at UNSW. There's quite an overwhelming amount of information in the Handbook though, so we've also published a handy Enrolment Guide that lays it all out for students studying a degree in CSE! Read the guide to understand what all the key terms mean, the courses you should be doing in First Year, and a rundown on the enrolment process.

Choose your next destination below:

Or click here for a list of articles!