Timely Enrolment: BCA courses are delivered by distance across 6 universites. This can add to the standard time lines for enrolment processeing at universites. We recommend that you refer to university calendars and enrol in good time before the start of semester.

Study Resources: It is important to buy study resources as soon as possible. As most students will be buying textbooks and software remotely from suppliers or home universities, there are likely to be delays while licences are arranged (for some software) and materials are posted or shipped. Students should have been given access to online unit sites (in Canvas) by the start of semester, where they will find study materials to read online or download. As a courtesy, hard copy materials may also sent by post. Enrolment windows at universities mean that coordinators are unable to guarantee delivery before study commences.

Contact Details: The BCA Office has no direct link to student records at each university. Once we have received BCA Forms (from newly enrolled students) or official class lists (for all currently enrolled students) from postgraduate offices at home universities, information that you register at your home university will not filter through to the BCA Office on an ongoing basis. You will need to send an email to unit coordinators and the BCA Office, telling them about any changes to your enrolment or contact details. It is particularly important that we have immediate access to the email address that you regularly use (not necessarily your university-provided student email) and current postal address.

Census Dates: As a general rule, the census is the cut off date for withdrawal from units of study without financial penalty, however, policy for this differs across universities and students should make enquiries at their home university. If students wish to withdraw from units, or take leave of absence or withdraw from studies, they should do this at their home university.

Epidemiology Delivery: Depending on their home university, students may have a choice of options for studying EPI in one or both semesters. Program Coordinators at each consortium university can advise about Epidemiology choices. If a local study option is not offered at a home university (either face-to-face or by distance), students will be doing (Introduction to) Epidemiology delivered by distance by the University of Queensland. This is the only instance in the BCA curriculum where a choice for study options may exist. All other BCA units are delivered by distance by one university only in any semester.       

Read more about EPI options across the BCA universities here.

Download BCA Program Outline 2020. Details include entry requirements, course objectives and unit of study outlines. See the curriculum table on page 5 for unit listing, semester availability, and prerequisites for units of study. See page 6 for examples of how you might structure your studies.

Download BCA Program Outline 2021.

Study Guides for units of study delivered in the forthcoming/current semester will be posted here, as they become available.

Study Guides for Semester 1, 2021

PSI 1-2021

Study Guides for Semester 1, 2020

DMC 1-2020, PDT 1-2020, MBB 1-2020, LMR 1-2020, PSI 1-2020, CLB 1-2020, SVA 1-2020, HIS 1-2020, LCD 1-2020

Study Guides for Semester 2, 2020

PSI 2-2020, DMC 2-2020, LMR 2-2020, MBB 2-2020, PDT 2-2020, CSI 2-2020, MLB 2-2020, DES 2-2020, CDA 2-2020, BAY 2-2020

NB: EPI Guides will be distributed by the relevant university.

Current details for all compulsory textbooks and statistical software, including purchasing details. Download Textbook & Software Guide 2020 

Download Textbook & Software Guide 2021.

Getting Started in Canvas

Download BCA Getting Started in Canvas guide.

BCA Assessment Guide

Procedures for writing and submitting assessment items. Download BCA Assessment Guide  

BCA Unit of Study codes

Download the list of BCA Unit of Study codes.

Home University Libraries – Textbook and Journal Access

Posting copyright material (such as journal articles) online is prohibited by universities. This includes BCA eLearning sites.These references must be accessed through university libraries. Select the link for your home university to search for availablity of journals and textbooks. The University of Sydney Library Macquarie University Library Monash University Library The University of Melbourne Library Adelaide University Library The University of Queensland Library  

How to use the Equation Editor

Useful video for creating statistical equations: created for the BCA unit, Probability and Distribution Theory, but it has general use across BCA units. Warning: There is a known issue in Equation Editor that corrupts equations when auto save is activated in Word documents, and converts them to non-editable pictures. There are a couple of workarounds for this:

• When using the Equation Editor, you should consider disabling the auto-save function. Note that, If you do disable auto-save, you should manually save your work regularly, to avoid losing it in the event of a crash or other unexpected closing of Word or Windows (eg to perform updates).

• Students have told us that the ‘Mathtype’ plugin for MS Word is easy to use, produces nice looking equations and doesn’t have the noted bug. A 30-day trial version is available for free download, after which it runs in “lite” mode, which appears to be perfectly adequate.

View the Equation Editor video  

Guidelines for Academic Referencing

Download BCA Referencing Style Guide  

Guidelines for Reporting Statistical Results

Download BCA Guide for Reporting Statistical Results PDF Download SAMPLE Guidelines – Statistical Reporting for Articles Published in Clinical Journals  

Learning R

Have you done DMC using SAS and you would also like to learn R? Contact BCA Office to obtain useful learning resources.

The BCA values student feedback and considers all issues raised by students seriously in order to continuously improve the program. Please contact the BCA student representative at bcastudentrep@gmail.com if you would like to share any comments or suggestions about the program or any of its units of study.

The current Student Representative is Nikki Fozzard.

Download WPP Guidelines. Note: Adequate supervisory arrangements must be in place before students commence this unit. Students wishing to enrol in WPP must discuss options with the BCA program coordinator at their home university.

Search for previous BCA WPP projects from the Sydney University eScholarships repository.

*Title differs across universities. Called the Biostatistics Research Project at The University of Adelaide, Macquarie University and The University of Sydney; the Biostatistics Practical Project at Monash University; and Special Topic/Thesis in Biostatistics at The University of Queensland. The unit code WPP is used in BCA documentation (WPP is a legacy acronym for Workplace Project Portfolio; the original name of the unit). As is the case for all BCA units, the university unit/course/subject code will be used at respective universities.

View the SSAI code of conduct

Fee Help

An income-contingent loans scheme is available to all local fee paying postgraduate coursework students. For details see the Australian Government FEE-HELP

Statistical Job Announcements

Job Announcements in Australia and New Zealand. This site contains an extensive list of job opportunities in the statistical community, sourced from the anzstats mailing group, press, and other sources. It is updated on a regular basis. The site is sponsored by the Statistical Society of Australia. The newsletter of the Australian Epidemiological Association (AEA), the AEA Bulletin, is emailed to members on a regular basis. It is a good resource for job opportunities and upcoming events. Find more information about subscribing here.

Professional Development Programs

Go to the Events and Education links at these sites: Statistical Society of Australia NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre 

Introductory analysis of linked data, The University of Sydney

These courses are not an entry requirement for enrolment in the BCA program. However, you may find them useful as both packages are used in BCA units of study. SAS courses Stata courses

Related Associations and Societies

Australian Epidemiological Association (AEA)

Statistical Society of Australia (SSA)