Australian university offers gap year option
The University of Canberra offers a formal gap year program for students.
Australia’s University of Canberra is offering incoming freshman the option of deferring classes to take a gap year as part of a formal program that allows students to earn academic credit by demonstrating that their year off was a learning experience. “The research shows, unequivocally, that students return from a gap year with greater life experience, greater clarity in their thinking and they achieve higher marks once they commence their degree,” Karyn Ward, the co-coordinator the school’s Gap Year Plus program, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Twelve months on the road and they come back as better human beings. Some universities in the US are now making it compulsory.”
To participate in the program, Canberra students have to keep a journal, create a portfolio and write and present a final report on their experience. Karen Osborne, one of the first students to participate in the program, spent part of the year working to save money and part of the year in the Galapagos Islands teaching English to local children. I am more confident in myself and more confident in what I can do. ”I learnt a lot about myself,” she told the newspaper. “I went alone, so it was the first time I had to be independent.”
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