Academic skills

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Academic skills are important in your studies to ensure you adhere to university standards and your marks are not impacted by plagiarism or avoidable mistakes. Learn about academic skills with our guides and resources, including how to use Endnote for referencing, library skills tutorials and the free academic practice course.

Endnote is a program that assists with referencing and citations in your assignments. Endnote is available to all UNSW students for free from the UNSW IT website.

View Organising your references using Endnote (PDF), opens in a new window or watch the below video by Dr Holly Seale, a senior lecturer from the School of Population Health.
To assist students in gaining the maximum benefit from their study, the school offers a course in Academic Practice (PHCM9100), opens in a new window. These are student-based workshops designed to provide support in academic skills needed to successfully complete the assignments. Each week, skills topics will be presented and they will be linked with the materials that students deal with in their other courses. Participants will engage in critical activities on materials used in their studies, such as reviewing articles and assignments. There will be opportunity to discuss issues and field questions from colleagues to develop skills in defending a particular viewpoint or position. This course is available for all other students at no charge. It does not contribute to the credit requirements of the program.
UNSW Academic Skills, opens in a new window offers a range of academic skills that provides support to both coursework and research students enrolled at UNSW. Here you will find resources designed to help you develop and refine your academic skills. You can book consultations, register for workshops and courses and browse online resources such as:

referencing assignments

plagiarism

writing skills

critical thinking

reading and note-taking guides

exam preparation

oral presentations

lectures, tutorials and groupwork

time management

resource library in Moodle

workshops and courses

consultations: you can also book an appointment for one-to-one help with academic writing and study.
From this page you can access information on the additional support services available for UNSW postgraduate coursework, opens in a new window students.
ELISE (Enabling Library & Information Skills for Everyone), opens in a new window is an online tutorial to help you understand how to find and use information for your assignments or research. It will also help you understand plagiarism and how to avoid it. The ELISE Study Skills tutorial is highly recommended to postgraduate students in their first term of study.
A feature of academic writing is that it contains references to the words, information and ideas of others. Whenever you use any words, ideas or information from any source in your assignments, you must reference those sources. There are different referencing systems. As a student, it is your responsibility to learn one of the accepted academic methods for acknowledging sources of information (citing references) and then to use this method consistently. In general, the school uses either the APA system or the Harvard system. Guidelines for referencing can be found on the UNSW Academic Skills and Support website, opens in a new window. Also see the UNSW Library online tutorial on Plagiarism and Referencing, opens in a new window. Citation style manuals, opens in a new window can be found on the UNSW Library’s ELISE tutorial page, including APA and Vancouver.
These guides are a quick and easy pathway to locating resources in your subject area. These excellent guides bring together the core web and print resources in one place and provide a one-click portal into the online resources.

UNSW Library Subject Guides, opens in a new window

Public Health Subject Guide, opens in a new window