• Section 1 - Background and Purpose
• Section 2 - Scope
• Section 3 - Policy Statement
• Section 4 - Procedure
• Section 5 - Definitions
• Section 6 - Stakeholders

Section 1 - Background and Purpose

(1) To support undergraduate students’ academic and social transition to the University.

Section 2 - Scope

(2) Applies to:

1. All campuses of La Trobe University;
2. All academic courses and programs in which students are commencing at La Trobe University;
3. All staff who have contact with commencing students.

Section 3 - Policy Statement

(3) The University will conduct student orientation programs that are designed to support all undergraduate students’ successful transition to the academic, social and administrative aspects of the University. Orientation outcomes will be consistent across all campuses.

(4) Orientation supports students’ seamless entry to the University, and will:

1. assist students to engage with the University and the learning process;
2. be consistent with principles of academic integrity;
3. promote responsible behaviour in a safe community setting;
4. allow students to exercise appropriate freedoms as set out in the Charter of Student Rights and Responsibilities;
5. introduce students to a learning community based on the critical values of diversity, pluralism, inclusiveness, community and global citizenship;
6. introduce students to the idea that they can and must actively participate in their own growth and development;
7. identify the ways in which the University will support students’ growth and development.

(5) Orientation will be a whole of University timetabled activity, and will be included in the academic calendar as the official start of the academic year for undergraduate students commencing studies for the first time at La Trobe in either first or second semester. Colleges will be expected to provide an orientation program to meet the needs of their students, which students will be expected to attend.

Section 4 - Procedure

(6) Refer to the:

1. Orientation Procedures
2. Orientation committee structure
3. Enrolment Procedures
4. Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures

Section 5 - Definitions

(7) For the purpose of this Policy:

1. Orientation: A series of academic and social activities that occur in the week prior to commencement of classes of each semester. Designed to facilitate student’s engagement with their courses, their peers and their learning communities.
2. Transition: in the first stage and here refers to a student’s transition into the university. It is an ongoing process of integration and engagement with university life both academic and social and the identification that at different times in this process students’ will/may require specific support and knowledge.
3. Commencing student: In this document a commencing student refers to any undergraduate student coming to La Trobe University for the first time, including a student entering into a ‘second year’.

Section 6 - Stakeholders