UC Graduate Carmen Ulrick part of first cohort to complete new ECE Bachelor course 

University of Canberra (UC) graduate Carmen Ulrick was one of the first cohort of graduates through the University’s new bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education which was designed, in part, to address the national workforce shortage in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. 

Ms Ulrick was one of many graduates who attended the biggest graduation ceremony the University has had since before COVID.

UC Associate Professor of Education Kate Highfield shared with local news source The RIOT ACT that the Bruce-based university had offered early childhood degrees in the past, but went back to the drawing board a few years ago to “reinvigorate” it.

“I joined UC at the end of that development process, but we had a series of consultations with the sector and obviously the appropriate peak bodies … and heard about the need for degree-qualified teachers,” she said.

“We know that from a brain development perspective, those first five years are so important … so elevating early childhood education to where it’s meant to be is a really important part of this.”

The three-year degree includes placements at various early childhood centres across Canberra including the Wiradjuri Pre-School and Child Care Centre on the university campus.

“There are many degrees across the country, but probably this is one of the more practical ones,” Professor Highfield explained.

“We have a large number of placement days (and) one of the biggest innovations for me is that we’re taking theory and applying it to practice so quickly.”

In total five students graduated from the Early Childhood Education degree on the evening of Tuesday 25 March 2025, including Ms Ulrick, a 36 year old mother of three. 

Ms Ulrick initially started UC’s combined bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and Primary Education in 2019 – two years after she started working in the sector – but moved across to the standalone degree in early 2024 almost as soon as it launched.

“I have three children who are neurodivergent and when they brought out the standalone degree, I kind of did a bit of self-reflection … and just thought a primary school classroom probably wasn’t the right move for me at this point in my life,” she told the paper.

“And I just love early childhood. Young children are just the most pure, genuine form of humans. It just doesn’t get any better than that. They’re just so curious; they just love life in a way that unfortunately adults don’t much anymore and I get to enjoy that through them.”

Commenting on being a part of the first cohort to complete the qualification she said she felt “really lucky.” 

“I know it’s only a very small group, but we’ve got this kind of camaraderie together which is really nice,” she said. 

Now that she has graduated Ms Ulrick intends to continue her full time position at Wiradjuri, with long term aspirations of becoming a lecturer so that she can empower others to make a difference in the sector. 

“Nothing brings me more joy – don’t tell my children I said that – than the things that come out of children’s mouths. They’re just priceless,” she said.

“There are hard moments, of course – every job has that … and everyone in the sector is probably feeling it a little bit … but the good well and truly makes up for it.”

Read the original coverage of this story here. For more information about studying with UC in the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education please see here.