Academy U - The next generation of global citizens, leaders and changemakers

Western Sydney University’s Academy U program opens the doors of university to talented students who are still at school.

Students in the Academy U program at Western Sydney University.

Future Builder Award Finalist Western Sydney University

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Academy U - The next generation of global citizens, leaders and changemakers

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A Western Sydney University program designed to encourage promising local students to take a university subject while they are still in high school has proved popular, expanding from nine schools in 2022 to 15 in 2023.

Western Sydney University senior project officer Alicia Pinning says there is now a long waiting list of schools hoping to participate. “The idea is to provide an engagement program for high-potential students in western Sydney,” she says, “to provide them with that real life experience of university and open the doors of Western as an institute of choice.”

With a strong focus on leadership, the program is intended to “empower the next generation of global citizens, leaders and changemakers,” according to the university. “Academy U challenges students to embrace sustainability and provides enriched learning opportunities.”

The program, the university adds, is structured to help these high-potential students develop the “skills and capabilities to take action and effect positive change across the local and global communities beyond Western Sydney University.”

The students come from a range of schools, including independent and Catholic schools and an Islamic school, as well as state schools, and from many diverse backgrounds. The university provides the schools with guidelines to help them identify high-potential students and the schools then nominate students who might be suitable.

Spanning four years, the Academy U program begins with students in years 9 and 10 who can come to the university campus and learn about the available courses and the various facilities.

In year 11 the school students can take a first-year university subject – Leadership in Complexity – which begins with two full days on campus studying with the university’s academics.

Covering crisis leadership and different leadership theories, the course encourages the students to develop their own leadership style, Pinning says.

Three students in the first Academy U cohort were awarded a distinction in the Leadership subject.

The university offers two Academy U scholarships and the program has the support of a range of different deans across the university. The university offers webinars to help the Academy U students make the transition to higher education and Pinning says students in the program have shown an interest in pursuing careers in health sciences, engineering, psychology and the creative industries.

High school students who complete the Leadership in Complexity university subject are offered a place at Western and given a certificate of attainment for the leadership subject and course credit if they enrol at the university. The subject is part of the Bachelor of Creative Leadership degree, and it can be an elective in other degree courses.

Pinning says she and her colleagues plan to write a research paper on the Academy U program. “Research has found that consistent engagement aids and supports students’ transition to university,” she adds.

“A couple of other universities provide the opportunity of doing a university subject while still at school, but Academy U differs in that we provide engagement for the four years.”