The Bachelor of Counselling provides students with an accredited pathway towards a career as a professional counsellor. Taking a comprehensive and balanced approach to counselling training incorporating theology, psychology, and spirituality, students learn the highest standards of ethics, professionalism and accountability with qualifications that are recognised by the Australian Counselling Association and the Christian Counsellors Association of Australia.

Course Information

Course: Bachelor of Counselling (BCouns)
Accrediting Body: Sydney College of Divinity
Australian Quality Framework Level: AQF 7
School: Stirling School of Community Care

Number of Units: 24 units/ 216 credit points (CP)
Study Mode: Online (with facilitated learning opportunities)
Course Duration: 3 years full-time or up to 9 years part-time

Course Plan

The Bachelor of Counselling has a flexible course plan that is tailored for each student depending on their interests, and the area of counselling they intend on practicing in their career. Goals are discussed during the admission interview, which are translated into a personalised course plan.

These units will generally fit into a structure of:

Units:

/ A major of 6 units (54 credit points) in the sub-discipline of Counselling consisting of three units of counselling practicum and three units of counselling theory
/ An additional sub-major of 4 units (36 credit points) in the sub-discipline of Counselling
/ A sub-major of 4 units (36 credit points) in Pastoral Theology
/ A sub-major of 4 units (36 credit points) in either Biblical Studies or Theology or Christian Life and Ministry
/ 6 elective units (54 credit points) from any available units

Schedules

Unit Descriptions

Course Details

Entry Requirements

Entry Requirements:

An Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 65, or its equivalent (e.g. OP≤16); or
Satisfactorily completed an AQF 5 Diploma of Counselling (or equivalent) from an institution recognised by the Academic Board; or
Mature Age and Special Entry Admission for those who have reached the age of 20.

And

satisfactorily completes a pre-enrolment interview with a relevant course advisor.

English Proficiency:

Applicants whose entry qualifications were obtained in an institution where English is not the language of instruction normally require a minimum IELTS (or equivalent) score of 6.5 in all bands of the test. A student can be admitted provisionally into the BCouns when they have an IELTS result of 6.0 with no score less than 6.0 in all bands of the test.

Course Outcomes

Knowledge
Graduates will have:

- a deep and effective vision of themselves as counsellors.
- thorough theoretical knowledge in the discipline of counselling and its ethical practice.
- an ability to evaluate theoretical perspectives of counselling and associated peer-reviewed literature to select case-appropriate counselling practices.

Skills
Graduates will have:

- specialised counselling skills to work with clients including those with high and complex needs.
- the ability to assess presenting issues and their causes and select from a range of therapeutic practices the appropriate interventions for specific client contexts.
- the ability to communicate effectively in a professional counselling context with both clients and peers.

Applications of Knowledge and Skills
Graduates will have the ability to:

- apply client spirituality into the counselling experience from an ethical perspective with a critical understanding of Christian worldviews.
- apply theological and professional reflection to organisational practice.
- apply innovative professional practice in counselling with diverse people in an unpredictable range of contexts.
- apply specialised skills for clients with relationship issues.

Find expanded acacemic outcomes and regulations in the SCD Handbook.

Exit Points

Credit

Counselling Placement

All counselling courses will require students to undertake several practicum units that will allow them to outwork their practical skills through reflection and placements. These units will require students to organise a placement, take part in individual or group professional supervision, reflect and interact with fellow students, and work towards a minimum number of supervised counselling hours required for industry development and ongoing accreditation. See individual units for requirements.

Spiritual Formation

Spiritual Formation is foundational to who we are. For ACOM, the learning process is not simply intellectual - it is about spiritual transformation. We care about the individual you are becoming and here’s why: we know that healthy, sustainable and effective graduates will be well grounded spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, physically and socially.

Each ACOM course gives students the opportunity to study our Spiritual Formation units either as core or electives. Refer to your course plan to discover how our formation units can be incorporated into your study, or read more about the Spiritual Formation process.

Fees

Students can pay their fees upfront or access the Australian Government’s Fee-HELP system.

Fee-Help is a Commonwealth loan scheme that assists eligible students to defer all or part of their higher education tuition fees. Students wishing to utilise Fee-HELP should apply during admission, or contact registrar@acom.edu.au. To read more about Fee-HELP and check your eligibility go to https://www.studyassist.gov.au/.

2023 Counselling Bachelor Level Fees

Applicable to counselling courses studied at the Australian Quality Framework level 7 (AQF7 Bachelor Level). This includes ACOM courses; Bachelor of Counselling.

All ACOM Counselling awards are built around pairs of “spinal” units which provide the backbone on which the awards are built. The Spinal units are a pair of units which MUST BE TAKEN TOGETHER (normally over a whole year or a number of trimesters).

2023	Price
Standard Unit (9CP)	$2390
Spinal Unit (9CP)	$2790

Spinal Units

The Bachelor of Counselling has three pairs of Spinal Units:
Counselling Theory and Practice I and Counselling Practicum I;
Counselling Theory and Practice II and Counselling Practicum II
Counselling Theory and Practice III and Counselling Practicum III

Pensioners

Students holding a pension card and paying their fees upfront may be eligible for a $200 pension discount per standard 9CP unit at the relevant level of study.

To apply for a pension discount simply contact ACOM and provide a current copy of your pension card. Once your eligibility has been confirmed by staff, register for units making a note of your pension discount.

Key Dates

2023 Key Dates

Note the following definitions:
Census Date: Last date to withdraw from a unit without financial penalty.
Academic Penalty Date: Last date to withdraw from a unit without academic penalty. If a student withdraws from a unit between the Census Date and the Academic Penalty Date, the unit will appear on their transcript with a withdrawn grade.

Check below for the key dates associated with your trimester of study. Note that registering or withdrawing outside of the key dates could incur incidental fees.

2023	Trimester 1	Trimester 2	Trimester 3	Spiritual Formation (Year Long)	Summer 2023-2024
Unit Registration Deadline		30/4/2023	6/8/2023	29/1/2023	5/11/2023
Start Date	20/2/2023	29/5/2023	4/9/2023	20/2/2023	4/12/2023
Census Date	13/3/2023	19/6/2023	25/9/2023	17/4/2023	25/12/2023
Academic Penalty Date	2/4/2023	9/7/2023	15/10/2023	9/7/2023	7/1/2024
End Date	14/5/2023	20/8/2023	26/11/2023	26/11/2023	11/2/2024

Future Pathways

Studying with ACOM

Study Load and Demand Hours

Students can choose to study part-time or full-time. ACOM operates on a trimester basis, with formation and other select units, being taken over the course of the full year. A full-time load is considered six to nine units, which is usually two to three units per trimester, with one year-long unit. A part-time load is usually three to four units per year.

Each 9 credit point unit requires 143 demand hours of study. The demand hours represents the number of hours needed to meet all the requirements of the unit, including reading, researching and writing assignments and essays, and supervised fieldwork (see Student Handbook for hour breakdown).

For each unit we recommend that you allocate approximately 10-12 hours for study per week (with more required during peak assessment periods).

Computer Requirements

The Study Process

Students Apply and are admitted to their course, which are made up of both core and elective units. All new students are required to complete Student Orientation, which involves both signing up for a Student Orientation Session, and taking part in a Student Orientation module through the online learning platform.

All students have access to personalised support through a dedicated Student Engagement Manager (or SEM). Our awesome team of SEMs bring a personal connection and listening ear to students who are spread the length and breadth of the country. SEMs work closely with each student to provide tailored academic and pastoral support, cheering them on every step of their learning journey. Read more about our Personalised Support.

A variety of units will be on offer each trimester for students to view on the unit schedules, and register in for study. All of our courses are flexible for students to choose their units and load according to their time commitments, interests and courseplans.

All students study 'online' through our online Learning Platform: Moodle. This is where all study materials, unit information, assessments and learning activities can be found. However, each unit may have a variety of study options available that are found on the schedules, and selected at the point of registration. These include Facilitated or not Facilitated options.

Run by experienced leaders, educators, and practitioners in their fields of study, facilitations are an opportunity for students to learn alongside others in a dynamic environment of enquiry and exploration. Facilitations can be scheduled in regular classes, or events run over individual or consecutive days.

The following will be found scheduled next to units to advise what options you can choose:

Option	Type	Description
In Person: Facilitation	Learning with Others	In Person facilitations provide a physical space to strengthen skills by gathering like-minded local individuals together to learn and network together. These events can be run in a variety of locations across Australia and are run according to local time-zones.
Online: Facilitation	Learning with Others	Online facilitations provide flexible learning options for students nationwide, by giving them the ability to interact with facilitators and learners from across Australia from their devices. These events are run digitally on Zoom in AEST time-zone (or AEDT during daylight savings).
Online: No Facilitation	Integrated Learning Activities	ACOM is committed to ensuring students have the greatest flexibility to study at their own pace in their own place. To enable this all units scheduled in a trimester can be studied online via our digital learning platform. Students who choose this option will be provided with a series of Integrated Learning Activities designed to help them integrate what they are learning into life and ministry practice. These Integrated Learning Activities are available to all students to engage with, however only students who have selected the online Integrated Learning Activities study option are required to complete all activities to successfully pass the unit.

For more student information see:

Student Handbook
Student Policies

Assignments

ACOM assessments are essay based and do not usually involve exams. Units may include online quizzes and practical assessments that are completed in your ministry setting. Assessment dates are clearly published on our Learning Platform (Moodle) and all tasks must be submitted to pass the unit.

Required readings are provided for students with online library access for further research. ACOM is continuously improving its digital library of learning resources. We have thousands of specialist books, articles and journals available to our students through our copyright licensing arrangements. Useful for both research and personal study, our students have access to over 100,000 e-books and journals on the Bible, leadership, pastoral care, theology and more. To read more go to our Digital Learning Systems.

Some units may require the student to purchase textbook(s), so please check the textbook lists on the schedules or at the point of registration.

Start your Application

Apply Now

Looking for more...

Study

About ACOM

More Courses