Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) are unique project-based learning courses where UNSW students can apply what they have learnt in their degrees to a real-world research project. VIP's will be ongoing long-term projects where students will have the potential to stay on for multiple years.
Visit the 'How it Works' page for more information
Students can apply for a VIP team in their first year so they are set to begin the actual course from their second at university.
Engineering Students: all undergraduate engineering students are welcome to apply to join a VIP team. ENGG2600, ENGG3600 and ENGG4600 are discipline elective courses. You need to have completed ENGG1000 (CompSci and FoodSci exempt)
Medical Students: only students who are in 3rd or 4th year (Independent Learning Project - for 4th years) in 2022 can apply for a VIP team. Medical students will enrol in VIP as General Education Electives in course codes ENGG3600 or ENGG4600
Students from other Faculties: are welcome to apply to join a VIP team and use course codes ENGG2600, ENGG3600 or ENGG4600 as a General Education Elective.
Engineering Postgraduate Students: only Masters of Engineering Science (program 8338 only) students can apply to join a VIP team with approval from their engineering schools postgraduate coursework coordinator. Engineering school contacts You enrol in ENGG4600
Masters of Engineering (program 8621) and Masters of Information Technology (program 8543) cannot participate in VIP
We encourage Engineering UG students to save their first-year elective for their second or third years to enable students to have enough discipline elective space in their degree allowing them the opportunity to participate in the VIP Program.
Students must have an adequate academic performance to be accepted into VIP courses. As part of the application process to join a VIP team a students WAM will be taken into consideration before being accepted into the program.
Engineering: School Academic Programs contacts click here
The VIP course codes are: ENGG2600, ENGG3600 and ENGG4600 each are worth 6 UoC. They are assessment-based and are elective courses for Engineering students and General Education for non-engineering students.
The courses run across three consecutive terms: T1, T2 and T3 (2 UoC per Term) which enables students to extend their project-based learning experience beyond a single semester. Engineering students only can enrol to 20 UoC per term without having to apply for overload approval.
Students from other faculties may have to request to overload via the Over Load Studies form
Students must have an adequate academic performance to be accepted into VIP Courses
VIP is available to undergraduate students from the beginning of their second year who have completed the following UoC by T1 2022:
NOTE: Medical students - only students who are entering third and fourth year from the beginning of 2021 can apply for VIP courses as General Education electives
Students must have completed the below Units of Credit from the start of 2021 to be eligible to apply for the VIP Program
Second-year - ENGG2600 = 42UoC
Third-year - ENGG3600 = 72UoC
Fourth-year - ENGG4600 = 114UoC
For more information on how it works for students click here
Visits the UNSW handbook for more course details: (note the handbook is not updated with the correct minimum UoC for each course)
We list all the Vertically Integrated Projects HERE
No VIP does not count as Industrial Training.
Courses ENGG2600, ENGG3600 and ENGG4600 run across three consecutive terms. These courses are ongoing long-term projects that run for a minimum of three years. Some of the projects may continue for many years.
UNSW expects students to spend a minimum of 150 hours to complete a 6 UOC course like VIP. You will have at least 1 contact hour per week of team meetings with your lead academic/s. It is suggested to use at least 4 hours per week devoted to collaborative working time, assessments, and working on your assigned deliverables.
Remember the courses are assessment based..NO EXAMS!
For more information on how it works for students click here
Visits the UNSW handbook for more course details:
VIP is a single continuous project that runs within a single calendar year (T1-T3), and students correspondingly enrol into a 2UoC VIP course in all three terms to match that. Projects are self-contained within a particular year so to make all the organisation and commitments that support them easier to manage.
The census date for VIP is not the same as those published for other courses. The census date for VIP is Sunday at the end of week 1 in Term 2.
If you find that you need to withdraw from VIP after the official UNSW Term 1 census date but before the VIP census date of Week 1 in Term 2 please email challeng@unsw.edu.au for assistance as you will not be able to unenroll from VIP on your own.
There will be no academic penalty if you withdraw before VIP census but you MUST submit the fee remission paperwork for that to happen. Fee Remission Form
If you do not complete all three terms of enrolment in VIP (i.e. 3x2UoC) you will not be awarded any credit. If you had an EC grade for the first one or two terms and then do not complete the final term(s) the EC grade(s) will be changed to FL (Fail) instead. If you are considering dropping VIP mid-year please talk to your academic before taking any action.
Each term of enrolment in VIP is worth 2UoC. If you are completing 18UoC of other courses in the same term(s) as well as VIP you will be taking 20UoC. For students in Faculty of Engineering degrees the maximum UoC you can take before having to apply for overload is set at 20UoC rather than 18UoC. This means that you can take VIP courses without having to ask for approval to overload.
For students from other Faculties who want to enrol in a VIP course and overload, you may have to apply for permission from your Faculty Program Authority via this form: https://portal.insight.unsw.edu.au/web-forms/
The VIP Courses are a unique offering that enables students to gain experience by contributing to a project that is led by a UNSW academic researcher, and that may also involve a third-party industry partner. Students will collaborate in a team with other students, the academic researcher, and, where relevant, the third-party industry partner to generate ideas and solutions.
In some rare projects, the work undertaken may give rise to intellectual property that is suitable for commercialisation. Therefore it will be a condition of enrolling in the VIP Program that students assign the intellectual property they create in the course of the project to UNSW prior to commencing the VIP courses because the IP generated could:
As such it will be a condition that students who accept a position in the VIP program will be required to sign and have witnessed a Student VIP IP deed-poll. A hard copy will need to be given to the VIP lead academic at the start of the VIP course each year.
More IP FAQ's and the VIP deed-poll form can be found HERE
If you have any questions on this subject please discuss them with the VIP academic.
Generally, VIP requires students to be present to participate with their team, so exchange and VIP are incompatible.
NOTE: Your VIP project academic and the VIP Academic Director may approve distance study under special circumstances for a single Term.
UNSW charges tuition fees on a unit of credit (UOC) basis by individual units of study in a course. You will be charged 2 UOC in each term for each of the VIP courses.
VIP courses are weighted the same as other Engineering courses are for Honours calculations (2x for Level 2, 3x for Level 3, and 4x for Level 4)
As VIP involves face to face teaching it is not recommended for distance study (online).
NOTE: Your VIP project academic and the VIP Academic Director may approve distance study under special circumstances for a single Term.
Pending COVID The ChallENG Team is planning an Engineering Education Festival where VIP Teams will be able to display their projects in an expo style event at the Round House.
The date for the Festival is 23 November. More information to come later this year.
We encourage all VIP teams to discuss current and potential industry partners you would like to invite to this event.
Vertically Integrated Projects in one of the pillars that sit under The ChallENG Program framework.
The other pillars of The ChallENG Program are:
No, all project team members will go through the same application process and be chosen by the supervising academic team.
Yes, if you have electives available, you are welcome to reapply to your VIP team and continue working on the project for the remainder of your degree. Alternatively, you can apply for another project within the VIP Program.
You must complete your course and satisfy all assessment requirements as set out by the course coordinator to receive full course credit.
Partial credits will not be given.
VIP is a multi-term course where students must complete all three parts; partial enrolment in just one or two terms is not possible. To stop students from ending up partially enrolled the course requires approval to drop. If you need to unenroll from VIP please contact us and we will process this for you: Email: challeng@unsw.edu.au
Depending on the circumstances we may also be able to offer another solution instead that allows you to continue your enrolment in the course.
Yes, you will receive a numerical mark and grade on your transcript upon successful completion of your course.
Students are given assessment tasks each term. At the end of terms 1 and 2, if they are completing assessments and are on track to pass, the grade for VIP in those terms will be listed as EC, which stands for Enrolment Continuing. This does not have a mark but counts as a pass in terms of academic standing.
At the end of term 3 after all assessments are completed a final mark is calculated and added to the VIP course in Term 3. The enrolments in Term 1 and 2 are also updated with the final mark as well (the EC grade will remain). Overall the whole 6 UoC has a mark and counts towards your WAM.
The Vertically Integrated Projects Program has been approved by all UNSW Engineering Schools as a for-credit elective. The type of elective it counts as varies by discipline and degree – please refer to the summary table here.
All students wanting to join a VIP team will need to 'Apply' for their chosen project. If you are accepted into a VIP Project and not sure on how the VIP course will count towards your Engineering Degree you should liaise with your School Program Authority.
Yes, it does count towards your honours WAM.
Students are given class permissions for all three terms and must enrol and remain enrolled in all three terms in order to successfully complete VIP and be awarded with 6 UoC – students who drop one or more terms or do not pass all three terms will receive no credit all.
If you need to apply for special consideration you should do the same as you would for any other UNSW course. If your application for special consideration is approved the nature of the substitute assessment or extension will depend on the project you are enrolled in.
