There are a number of aspects that make ICMS an interesting institution to discuss. First, it is significantly smaller than traditional universities. This applies to the number of students, staff, and campus/facilities. The reason that they ask that you place an ICMS degree that you have applied for as your highest UAC preference is likely for two reasons:
- When you receive an offer for your highest eligible UAC preference, you will not be considered for your lower preferences, which would mean a higher chance of you attending ICMS. Attracting students is a common goal of many universities/institutions, and is an important contributor to their success. This is not an uncommon practice, and is in fact used by some traditional universities.
- Given its smaller size, ICMS will likely be unable to admit a large number of students. Because of this, setting this condition would enable them to select the students who truly wish to attend ICMS (i.e. the most keen ones).
A positive aspect of ICMS seems to be that degrees include work placement units, which give students the opportunity to gain relevant work experience. Gaining relevant work experience is important as it helps students be more competitive when applying for jobs after they graduate. ICMS also seems to have industry partners, allowing it to facilitate such opportunities for students.
This document provides some examples, which include large/international companies. However, it is unknown whether this is always a smooth and guaranteed process. It is therefore important to contact ICMS to learn more about this aspect, as well as current ICMS students/graduates, who can share their experience (LinkedIn is a good place to contact students/graduates).
It would be reasonable to assume that academic standards at ICMS are lower than those of larger universities, at least with respect to their admission process, which does not consider the ATAR, and considers a band 2 in relevant HSC subjects the minimum performance recommendation. Additionally, ICMS is not officially ranked by prominent ranking systems such as QS or THE, which is not promising regarding its position relative to other universities.
On the other hand, teaching quality may be good. This would primarily be due to the smaller classes resulting from the lower number of students, which allow for greater attention towards individual students, but can also be achieved with good lecturers. I personally had the opportunity to speak to and witness the teaching approach of an ICMS lecturer earlier this year, and it was good.
Ultimately, the general consensus would be to attend a traditional university since they are more established and offer a wider variety of degree combinations and study options. I echo this perspective myself, especially if you want to study a Bachelor of Business/Commerce (or another traditional degree). However, ICMS excels (and may even be recommended) in other fields, notably those such as event management, hospitality management, tourism and fashion/brand management.
I hope this helps!
