Firstly there's a there's a question here from Kaz who's asking whether you need a Bachelor
in naturopathy or science to enrol into the postgrad. I might throw that one to you Matthew.
For postgraduate qualifications the entry requirement into all three programs is a
Bachelor but of course there is some opportunities there to have a discussion with us around whether
you can bring in other qualifications also experience that might equate to a Bachelor.
So just for the grad cert and Master of advanced nat med the requirement at this stage is a
Bachelor or equivalent in a related field, for those looking at a grad certain organic
food and nutrition it's a Bachelor in any field. There’s another question from Tan who's asking how
the master is different from the Bachelor in naturopathy in terms of you know what
extra ground does it does it cover beyond what you might do in a Bachelor degree?
Sure so I guess the primary objective of the Bachelor degree is to prepare someone for clinical
practice as a naturopath and primarily for clinical practice as a solo practitioner. The idea
of the Masters is to really push those boundaries both in terms of managing more complex cases but
also working outside of that practice area in terms of thinking how can I work within and
understand other members of the healthcare team, where else are my skills potentially transferable
to so thinking about my role in public health, in community health and other aspects like that.
I guess the key point of a Masters is not just the necessary the increased complexity
but also about it's about providing much more high level analytical skills to be much more critical
not just about you know yourself and your practice and your profession but also about where you what
your contribution is to the field as well. So this is where you start getting those
much more advanced skills in areas like clinical reasoning, critical thinking, information literacy
and research literacy and of course evidence-based practice. Are there any rumblings you know will
there be an undergraduate degree in naturopathy offered in the future at Southern Cross?
That question might have come up Definitely absolutely we’re in
discussions around that idea and in the process of planning that as a proposal for moving
forward so yes definitely watch this space yeah Is a research component to the Masters program?
Definitely so we have both a coursework component also a project component. The
idea of the coursework component is not just about providing just the generic
research training you often see in many programs but actually having training that's applicable
to clinical practice so we have a unit called practice-based health research - it's about
research methods that you can potentially use and apply immediately in a practice environment
and then those skills you can essentially develop further in terms of our project work
and that's a two unit program where you essentially learn
the skills of research right from developing a question right through to developing a proposal,
conducting the study whether it might be a survey or a systematic review
and then implementing that and then that kind of ties very nicely with an evidence-based
practice unit around translating those findings into interaction practice.
This might be a question for Romi but the question is wondering whether you have to be
an SCU student to take part in the in the summer school that you'd mentioned?
That's actually a good question so in the long term we are thinking about
opening that possibility up for students of other universities but for the first round this year
we are just looking at SCU undergraduate students Someone has asked regarding the entry requirements
for the graduate certificate , he has a Bachelor in health science “I'm majoring in food science in
nutrition” would something like that be considered for entry into the graduate certificate Matthew?
I just want to clarify is that the grad certificate in organic food and nutrition or
the grad cert in naturopathic medicine? So the advanced nat med is as the name suggests
about advancing that medical practice so there's some assumption there that you've got already
those prerequisite skills in natural practice and this is about extending those skills beyond that
so I guess it's about the pathway into the grad cert and master of advanced nat med is to have
that Bachelor of health science or in naturopathy to allow you to extend that knowledge and skills.
Elsie is also asking about entry into the masters with eight years of clinical experience
as a naturopath and has an advanced diploma would that be something that that could be considered ?
Well I guess for those people that don't if you necessarily meet the I guess the written standard
for the Bachelor of Health Science and naturopathy that's we have to manage by case-by-case scenario
so we have to actually speak with you directly look at your transcript and your experience
and then work out a solution for you there Definitely so the big thing with that is get
your get your application in and then we can work with you uniquely between our admissions team and
our academic team on assessing your background for entry into our programs
and I'd like to echo that same for research so you may have a cv that's not typical for research just
feel free to contact us and we'll work it out. Linda has a question regarding the
grad cert of organic food and nutrition, she's wondering about the kind of the background of
some of the lecturers in the course whether or not the course has any alignment with permaculture and
also asking about how much whether the sort of practical experience integrated as well
There's a few aspects there so I guess for the question though because the program is
heavily aligned with regenerative agriculture and organic food systems around that space but
certainly for the four units each of the unit developers and subsequent unit assessors from
that are were experts in the field so a dirt to dinner unit is an expert in soil science, a food
is medicine unit is an expert in nutrition and organic food the expert in the program in organic
food systems has a long history of expertise in that particular area and the farm gate to plate
is both a leader in an organic food regulation but also actually practicing farmer and butcher.
Yeah and a question from Melissa perhaps for Romi regarding you know
she's asking if you wish to do a clinical trial as a part of your postgraduate research are there
contacts within Southern Cross that could assist with locating potential trial candidates support
around that - I hope I get that question right! So to me it looks like you're looking for
participants for your clinical trial well we recruit them through social media through
press releases so there's really no problem on recruiting potential trial candidates we work very
closely with our marketing and communications offices so we'll do everything that we can
to ensure that you'll get your participants if you run a clinical trial as part of your degree.
And another question from Rhonda how is it best to kind of start that process of wanting to discuss
the masters or PhD if they wanted to talk to someone about one of the programs?
The best is just to contact us, contact us through NCNM research
so just google NCNM go to the research side of our web page there's an email address just write
us an email and then we'll just have a chat and discuss what's the best option for you.
All right thank you I mean now we got we've got a few more coming in.
All right there's a question from Annabelle regarding whether there's
any particular scholarships open for the masters of and naturopathic medicine?
We do have general scholarships available but do we have anything specifically for naturopaths?
That's a great question but it's unfortunate as a centre we don't have scholarships for
our programs but like there are prescriptions available through
SCU yeah so certainly head online to our website and Codi will place that link in in the chat for
you where you can go and have a bit of a look at the diverse range of scholarships available.
Nothing specifically for the for the masters however a wide range of different
scholarships is available and we just have one application process as well so you can get that in
as part of your application and our scholarships team will work with you from there.
Now Lara has a question for you Romi who's asking wanting to clarify regarding entry into the PhD
do they need to have completed an honours/masters and graduate courses or can you apply with simply
an Honours program you know in a Bachelor of Health Science?
Good question oh sorry I'm on sorry I thought I was muted
there are different pathways so usually for a PhD you need to have like a Bachelor with first
class Honours or a second class first division but like if you don't have that if you have a
different Bachelor without first class and second class you can just choose to start
with the master first and then upgrade that to a PhD later but it really depends. You may have
had some research experience already you may have some publications or been involved in
research projects and that might actually give you the credit to get a direct entry into the PhD.
I think best is really to contact us and discuss your case individually.
Thank you yeah certainly you know I think with all of this we will answer your questions this
evening but to go into more depth and to start that process of working with us one-on-one to
find you know find that study pathway for you definitely get in contact with us and we can
work with you from there. Samantha has asked a question about
the food nutrition field wondering whether there are any plans for a Masters level qualification
in that field? Great question lots of prophets I think in the audience we definitely are
having conversations with regenerative agriculture around the idea potentially
having extended programs looking at the grad cert as a pathway into the masters
and potentially organic through science as well.
And quite a bit of a bit of interest in the chat in a Bachelors degree programs
as well which is really great really exciting Melanie has an advanced diploma of naturopathy
and is in the process of completing a Bachelor of health science
and I believe in complementary medicine but it's not yet finished you know we may have rushed
on this before but will there be any pathways available for those without a without a degree
Yeah I think again it's kind of a case-by-case basis but I guess the thing is you still have the
central component is the naturopathic background and then how we can I guess work out what's an
equivalent to a Bachelor with guessing your qualification and your experience or track record.
So a couple more questions in there as well around here people who have completed a nursing degree or
other sort of various areas like that you know as Matthew's saying looking for that direct
experience in there in that sort of area but certainly reach out to us and we can discuss
discuss the specifics with you as well. Melinda is now asking just wondering about
how practical the organic food nutrition course is - I think whether it's really
she's wondering whether it's a very theoretical course or there are some practical elements?
Another great question so yeah what we've kind of kept in mind is the idea that we want to keep
the program online so allows people access across Australia and the flexibility as well but the idea
that potentially it's not too theoretical that it has no actual it's not authentic or applicable to
the real world setting so what we've actually worked very closely with our centre of teaching
and learning is to make sure all the activities we put in place, the content we put in place
and the assessments actually have application and translatable to practice.
We have a lot of technology in place where you actually are almost working on organic farms
virtually and interacting with that in terms of let's have a look at the soil and unpack
the soil and actually see what's actually in there so you actually have an option to
actually apply that in a virtual setting as closely approximating real life as possible.
And Kaz has come in with a question wondering whether the teaching within within the centre
is based around a particular philosophy - she's aware of many different many schools of thought.
Yeah definitely another good question so certainly we spent a lot of time this year thinking about
the pedagogy of our programs and of course like you said there are there are many different
pedagogies to to draw from and I don't think any single one addresses all the needs of I guess the
profession moving forward. So we've actually drawn from quite a few different pedagogical frameworks,
one of the strongest is probably case-based learning and where there's actually authenticity
and translatability to clinical practice within that so that's embedded within
all of our units and programs. On top of that we also have
underpinning inquiry-based learning to show that the content you have again is actually authentic.
You actually I think right from the ground zero you actually start thinking about the
content and the content actually has a purpose rather than just getting through
this exercise finishing the assessment and then having nothing at the end of that.
Other components within that is interprofessional learning so understanding a bit more about other
players in the healthcare team, understanding their roles and perspectives and how we sit as
a profession against those professions and of course one of my areas of particular passion
- evidence-based practice and that's a strong philosophy underpinning all of our programs.
Thank you Matthew and thank you as well for sharing some of your insights around the program.
A last question from Chloe about whether HECS-HELP is available for the course?
FEE-HELP is available for the the grad certs and the masters programs
so certainly there is that option there it's a
similar government loan program for post graduate study so there is that that option.