Offers for places in The University of Queensland's state-of-the-art Bachelor of Electronic Commerce now make up almost one-quarter of offers for the entire Bachelor of Commerce program.
Program director for Electronic Commerce, Dr Peter Green attributed the success and popularity of the course to the fact that a knowledge of the area was now required by business and represented the next generation in how business would be conducted generally.
"This is a degree that teaches people how to use the technology rather than how to create it. We have subjects such as analysis and design of application software for an e-commerce environment. But that is different from the design and development of data communications protocols. Furthermore, there are subjects on the law of electronic commerce and marketing on the commercial internet," Dr Green said.
"Offers made for the Bachelor of Electronic Commerce to Year 12 students now make up more than a third of offers made for the Bachelor of Commerce to Year 12 students.
"The excellent result in offers and first preferences for IT courses and the Bachelor of Electronic Commerce in particular was testimony to the programs' already excellent reputations."
The University of Queensland moved to fill an apparent vacuum in training students in the area of e-commerce by offering Australia's first Bachelor of Electronic Commerce at its new Ipswich campus two years ago.
The Bachelor of Electronic Commerce degree came out of a request from the University several years ago for the running of some innovative programs at the new Ipswich campus.
University Manager, Admissions, Claron Driscoll said greater demand for the University's IT courses was represented in the fact that it had been able to make far more offers in the major round this year as compared to last year.
"The University has made 114 offers for the Bachelor of Electronic Commerce this year as compared to 75 at the same time last year; 202 for the Bachelor of Information Technology compared to 176 last year; and 65 for the Bachelor of Information Environments compared to 56 last year," she said.
"First preferences for the Bachelor of Electronic Commerce have skyrocketed from 53 as at December last year to 104 as at January 22 this year and we are only in the early stages of 2001."
Ms Driscoll said January 29 was the closing date for people wishing to change their preferences through the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) for consideration in the February 7 offer round.
She said the University expected to have about 8000 places available for entry-level to the University's St Lucia, Ipswich and Gatton campuses this year.
First semester begins March 5 at UQ, and second semester on July 30. First semester UQ orientation activities start Tuesday, February 27, with a full Orientation program on the web at www.uq.edu.au/o-week.
Other popular University of Queensland programs with applicants for the first QTAC round of January 18 have included animal studies, business (management), behavioural studies, engineering, physiotherapy and veterinary science.
Applications will close at the end of May for mid-year entry via QTAC to University of Queensland courses. Applications for mid-year entry will open from late April.
Ms Driscoll said people who were not offered a place in their ideal programs should not panic as there were a number of alternative pathways for improving their chance to enter their desired program at a later date.
More information is available by visiting www.studyatuq.net, contacting UQ Admissions (telephone 07 3365 2203) or e-mailing: AdmissionsEnquiries@admin.uq.edu.au.
For more information, contact Claron Driscoll (telephone 07 3365 1979) or Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2339).
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