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Diploma of Commerce

Blow your career options wide open with a Diploma of Commerce, your pathway into accounting, marketing, economics, finance, and more.

Key Information

Duration

8 or 12 months

Intake Dates

March, June, October

View important dates

Campus Location

Melbourne Burwood

Geelong Waterfront

Onlineǂ

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2026 Fees Domestic

A$27,528 (A$3,441 per unit)

FEE-Help available

2026 Fees International

A$40,000 (A$5,000 per unit)

 

CRICOS Course Code: 022637C

ǂ Domestic students can study this diploma online. All online students are required to attend one supervised, on-campus exam during the exam week for the core unit MAA103 Accounting for Decision Making. International students cannot study this diploma online.

Course overview

The Diploma of Commerce is your stepping stone to a wide range of career options across private and public-sector organisations. Enter directly into the second year of  Bachelor of Commerce, Business, Sport Management, Business Analytics, Law, or Property and Real Estate.

You’ll gain all the foundational knowledge to pursue further study in areas like accounting, business law, economics, finance, international business, marketing and management at Deakin University. Completing a degree in one of these fields is a huge advantage to your future career.

Employment and career options upon completing your Bachelor degree:

  • Accounting
  • Business consulting
  • Business management
  • Economics
  • Financial planning
  • Human resource management
  • Industrial relations
  • International trade
  • IT administration
  • IT system development
  • Law reform
  • Legal aid
  • Marketing
  • Network management
  • Policy research and development
  • Public administration

Pathways to Deakin University

On completion of this Diploma you can pathway into the following degrees at Deakin University:

Bachelor of Commerce

Majors: Accounting, Economics, Finance, Financial Planning, Human Resource Management, Management, Management Information Systems, Marketing

Bachelor of Business (Sport Management)

Bachelor of Business Analytics

Bachelor of Laws

Bachelor of Property and Real Estate

Bachelor of Business

Majors: Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Event Management, Organisational Psychology, People Management, Project Management, Business and Digital Communication, Retail and Supply Chain Management, Sustainability and Development

Course and unit outline

For further details about Diploma of Commerce units, unit availability and trimester structures, please download the course and unit outline.

Download course and unit outline

Course structure

Required units

To successfully complete the Diploma of Commerce, students are required to complete and pass eight core units (1 credit point each) and one compulsory module (0 credit points). Some international students will also be required to take an additional, compulsory English module (0 credit points).

The unit covers: the impact of accounting in society; business planning and budgets for management decisions; classification, analysis and summarisation of business transactions; preparation of classified accounting reports; techniques to analyse and interpret financial statements.

Both online and on-campus students are required to attend a supervised, on-campus exam for this unit.

This unit covers fundamental macroeconomic principles, supported by real-world instances drawn from business and economic policy applications. The unit provides insights for evaluating the working and the impacts of monetary and fiscal policy, and how central banks and government conduct such policies. Extensive focus is devoted to key macroeconomic concepts, including but not limited to economic growth, money, unemployment, inflation, balance of payments and exchange rates. Upon completing this unit, students will have developed a strong understanding of the forces that contribute to economic growth and sustainable development.

This unit aims to introduce students to finance and provide an introductory knowledge of the Australian financial system. The unit will discuss some of the fundamental financial concepts such as the time value of money and the concepts of risk and return. Students will learn to apply these fundamental concepts in the areas of investments in equity and debt. These issues will be discussed in the local and international context.

The digital revolution has changed the practice of business. Data to support business decisions (data collected by business systems as well as through the Internet and Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter) are growing exponentially and becoming increasingly difficult to understand and use. Business Analytics is the broad use of quantitative reasoning skills in business decision making. Business Analytics helps managers to solve complex business problems, improve business performance, anticipate and plan for change while managing and balancing risks. This unit will provide students with the analytical knowledge and skills to explore data to find patterns and relationships in data; assess uncertainty and risk of business decisions; evaluate decisions; and forecast and predict trends.

The unit provides the underlying concepts and purpose of Law for Commerce and the Australian legal system. The unit covers the law relating to contract, consumer protection, business entities and relationships, and torts with a focus on negligence.

Marketing focuses on the creativity involved in the marketing process, ranging from understanding consumer needs to designing customer-driven integrated marketing strategies using the marketing mix. It is the intention to build the knowledge on the marketing planning process and how this is successfully implemented in market and computer-oriented organisations that include profit-oriented companies, government and the not-for-profit sector.

The aim of this unit is to provide students with a critical understanding of the intellectual foundations of the study of management. The unit will provide the opportunity to analyse how the solutions to management ‘problems’ have developed under different conditions throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. The unit also explores how management practice influences, and is influenced by, the external environment. This will involve examining how managerial action impacts on and is shaped by the environment, through a consideration of, ethics, social responsibility, and the social and cultural context of management.

Our world is now a world of information. On the one hand this makes many things easier, fun or even possible but on the other it can cause us to be overloaded with information and distracted by our constant connections. In this unit we look at how we might manage better and use information and connections in business, at work and in everyday life.

The unit begins by considering the changes that the digital world has made to our lives and how we live in a world immersed in information and social media. We then look at how we can search and analyse information and utilise social media for business, learning and collaboration. We then look at how information can be used to assist people but also to monitor and manage people at work and at home. Finally, we consider how to use ICT in a more secure manner.

This module’s learning and assessment activities provide students with guidance on what constitutes academic integrity. It will allow students to develop knowledge, skills and good practice principles to avoid plagiarism and collusion and thereby maintain academic integrity.

This module is designed to provide international students with opportunities to review, develop and practice the English language systems and skills required to successfully participate in an undergraduate degree program. It is compulsory for international students only and consists of a mandatory 2-hour on-campus class per week for the duration of the first trimester.

Some international students are exempt from this module. For exemptions, visit our English language entry requirements page.

Your course timetable

On-campus

On-campus classes run between 9am and 7pm on weekdays. Most units run as 2 x 2-hour classes each week. You can also expect between 4-6 hours of private study per unit, per week.

We offer standard and streamlined timetable options.

Find out more about our standard and streamlined timetables.

Online

Online study is only available to domestic students​. Videos, classroom notes, readings, activities and assessments are available online​, to be accessed at any time. A one-hour live online session is held each week for every unit, and you are strongly encouraged to attend. Units MMK101, MMM132 and MIS203 require online attendance at the live online session for key assessment tasks. Designated weeks vary by unit. Refer to your unit outline for details.

Please note, both online and on-campus students are required to attend a supervised exam for the core unit MAA103 Accounting for Decision Making during the exam week.

Transferring to Deakin University

Australian and international students

Weighted average mark (WAM) required for transfer, by campus:

  • Online (O) option is not available to international students
  • T1 (Trimester 1 entry); T2 (Trimester 2 entry); T3 (Trimester 3 entry)
  • + Offered at Burwood (Melbourne) and Online only
  • ++ Offered at Burwood (Melbourne) and Online to domestic students only
  • ≠ Not all majors are available on all campuses
  • ^^ Students will be required to undertake units in Online mode
  • ~ Waterfront (Geelong) students will undertake some units of study at Waurn Ponds (Geelong).
  • Your undergraduate course at Deakin University may require you to enrol into specific units and/or unit sets in order to meet the course, and/or major/minor sequence requirements. See Diploma to Degree transfer criteria

Learn more about this Diploma

Find out more about what you can expect from the Diploma of Commerce course, directly from our staff and students.

Deakin College - Diploma of Commerce

Entry Requirements

English Language Entry Requirements

International students must be able to demonstrate English language proficiency before being admitted to this course.

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