Diploma of Creative Writing

The Diploma of Creative Writing at Collarts is a focused, 40-week course for people who want to write seriously and get honest feedback on their work. You'll spend your time on the craft itself: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting and writing for performance. Workshops are the backbone of the diploma. You bring pages, you read them aloud, and the group pulls them apart in a useful way. Alongside that you'll study how stories are built, character, voice, structure, point of view, and read widely to see how other writers solve the same problems you're facing.

How the course is structured

Australian diplomas sit at level 5 on the Australian Qualifications Framework, below a bachelor degree. This one runs over 40 weeks and is made up of units of study, each carrying credit points. Assessment is mostly written work and workshop participation rather than exams. You'll build a portfolio across the year, and most diplomas of this kind finish with a larger project, a novella extract, a collection of poems, a short film script, that you develop with a supervisor. Collarts is an arts college, so the culture is small classes and practising teachers rather than lecture halls.

What you actually learn

By the end you should be able to draft and redraft to a deadline, edit other people's work with care, and talk about writing in the language editors and producers use. You'll also get a feel for the Australian publishing and screen industries: literary journals, small presses, writers' festivals, screen agencies and the grants that fund new work. If you're an international student, the Student visa lets you work up to 48 hours a fortnight while you study, and on completion you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream. English entry is typically IELTS Academic 6.0–6.5 overall, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic and Cambridge C1 Advanced accepted as equivalents. Home Affairs sets its own separate English threshold for the visa.

Who it suits

This diploma suits school leavers who want a practical year of writing before deciding on a degree, and mature students who have been writing alone and want a room full of readers. It also works as a pathway: many graduates use it for credit towards a bachelor degree in writing or communications. If you want to be published, produced or simply better at the thing you already love doing, this is a sensible place to start. Confirm unit lists, entry requirements and tuition on the official Collarts page and the CRICOS register before you apply.

• Author or freelance writer, books, essays and short fiction for Australian publishers and literary journals
• Screenwriter or script editor, film, television and streaming productions, often through state screen agencies
• Copywriter or content writer, advertising agencies, publishers, not-for-profits and government communications teams
• Editor or proofreader, trade publishing, academic publishing and online media
• Arts administrator or literary programmer, writers' festivals, writers' centres and arts organisations
• Communications officer, universities, cultural institutions and community organisations
• Dramaturge or theatre writer, mainstage and independent theatre companies