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Student Printing Facilities - Overview

Overview: Printing Facilities For Students

The University provides a range of student printing, scanning and photocopying services on campus.  These services fall into two major groups based on the print management systems you use to access them.

UniSA student print quota

All enrolled UniSA students receive a print quota for the current year which, for the purposes of the print quota system, is an approximately 12 month period finishing in mid to late December.  Note that Study Period 7 continues into the following year so its associated print quota amounts are re-applied in early January. Your UniSA print quota provides access to

The UniSA print quota provides you with an initial amount of "free" University-funded printing after which you can, if you wish, pay for additional printing by topping up your own print quota.  Your quota is associated with your computer network username and the cost of your printing is automatically deducted from your quota as you print. 

You can monitor your print quota balance to see how much you have left when you logon to the student portal at myUniSA where your current quota balances are displayed on your myResources page. The print quota management system will prevent you from printing a document if you do not have sufficient printing balance left.

More detailed information is available at UniSA Student Print Quota.

MONITOR print/photocopy account

Additional facilities are available through your MONITOR account which is associated with your student ID card and your network username.  Your MONITOR account starts with a zero balance and you can pay into your MONITOR account by using the Autoloader machines in each campus Library.  Your MONITOR account gives you access to

You pay for your photocopying by swiping your student ID card through the MFD's card reader.  You can print to either the Library MFDs or the City West Library POD printers by selecting the appropriate print queue on any of the student computers in the Library (the MONITOR print queues are all clearly identified as "MONITOR" so you can tell when your printing will be deducted from your MONITOR account instead of your UniSA print quota.  A popup dialog box  will appear when you send your document to a MONITOR printer to show you your MONITOR balance and the cost of the print job and ask you to confirm that you want to print it.

Differences Between Print Quota and MONITOR Printing

  Print quota printing MONITOR printing
Available from student PCs in All ISTS-managed student PCs - including Library

(general purpose computer pools, computer barns and study rooms)

 Student PCs in Library only
Print queues recognised by Queue descriptions (mostly) begin with "PRINT QUOTA" Queue descriptions begin with "MONITOR"
Printing funded by Initial University-funded UniSA print quota

plus optional student-funded quota top-ups

plus optional school-funded quota top-ups

 Initial zero balance

plus optional student-funded MONITOR account payments
Release print job to printer by Print jobs automatically go straight to printer Each print job must be confirmed via "Print Job Notification" popup dialog box
Select by Default printers Must select printer manually

Page Charges

From mid-December 2007 the following print charges apply for standard printing. 

Monochrome or colour Paper size Single or double sided printing Cents per printed side (monochrome)
Monochrome A4 Single sided 9
Double sided 7
A3 Single sided 18
Double sided 14
Colour A4 Single sided 30
Double sided 28
A3 Single sided 60
Double sided 56

Note that

Ten Tips To Reduce Your Printing Costs

  1. Print monochrome printing on the standard pool laser printers instead of the Library multifunction devices.  Use of the pool printers is deducted from your UniSA print quota.  Library MFD and POD printing is deducted from your own funds in your MONITOR account.
  2. Only print colour when you need to.
  3. Print double-sided.
  4. Print PowerPoint slides 3 or 6 slides to a page, black and white only with no backgrounds to speed up printing and save your printing quota. 
  5. Don't print draft copies of your document for every minor revision
  6. Before printing check print preview to find out how many pages will be printed
  7. Only print the pages you need
  8. If your print job does not print don't re-send it without first checking the print queue from your PC. 
    • There may be many other jobs ahead of yours or the printer may have run out of paper.
    • If you keep re-sending your document multiple copies will be printed later and deducted from your Printing balance. 
    • You can delete your own print jobs from the queue to prevent this.
  9. If you can not wait for your print job to appear delete it from the print queue before you log off to avoid it being printed and deducted from your print quota balance after you leave.
  10. Protect your access to your IT facilities (including your print and Internet quotas) by
    • remembering to log off when you have finished using a computer
    • locking your session with the security screen saver if you have to leave the computer temporarily (eg to collect your document from the printer)
    • protecting your password.  Change your password from the initial default password and choose a new one which will not easily be guessed by others

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