Clayton campus arrangements

If you are studying at Clayton campus, you will need to purchase the ElecLab Toolkit for $75 from Shop Monash by Orientation Week of the semester when you first enrol in ECE2131 or ECE2071. This link will go live in January. These kits will then be reused throughout your time studying in the department. The kits will then be distributed during sessions in orientation week, during the first week of practical classes, or at other designated collection times.

We have been able to reduce the cost of the Toolkit significantly for 2026 by introducing loan elements. However, we appreciate that this may still be a significant cost for many of you. We will be working with the Society of Monash Electrical Engineers (SMEE) to implement a student-run, department-funded equity scheme to ensure fair access for all students. We will also work with SMEE to establish a second-hand parts market for both selling and buying replacements.

Finally, we will be providing a more traditional on-campus space with conventional test and measurement equipment where you can do take-home labs, assignments and practical activities on your own time (within restrictions). This is similar to the configuration in ENG1013, where you could do all of the activities with your kits, but had higher-performance equipment available on the test rigs during your practical sessions.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you are taking any of ECE2071, ECE2131, ECE3073, ECE3161 and TRC3500 as an elective or as part of a minor, please get in touch with your chief examiner to discuss your options. In most cases, we will be able to lend you the subset of parts needed for the semester.
These kits will allow you to develop your practical engineering skills in ways not possible for previous students. They will help you learn the skills you need to succeed in your engineering degree, even if you are not able to attend lab sessions in person.
Given factors such as the limits to effective teaching space and time, the desire of students to complete more of their work asynchronously and remotely, and especially the trend of increasing expectations of skill development while a student, these kits have been designed to give you a leg up in as many of the disciplines supported by the ECSE Department as possible.
They allow us to teach in a best-practice manner and improve the quality of your education across the board in a way that is simply not possible without them.
We think the kit we've organised for you is a really important part of your education, and it's a great value for the price. Ideally, we'd like to charge you $20 per unit you use it in, but that's not possible due to Monash and TEQSA (the Commonwealth tertiary regulator) rules and restrictions on what can be charged against HECS. There are a few reasons why we're charging for them at all:
First, we see these kits as yours. They're a toolkit that you'll learn to master over time, and something you need to have ownership of.
Second, from a practical perspective, it's not sustainable to loan out and recollect this many parts on a per-unit or per-semester basis.
Finally, the department has a limited budget to support the teaching delivery of the course. In addition to individual kits, we also need to purchase and maintain the hardware and software resources for the on-campus laboratories.

Loaner kits and equity

Second hand/replacement parts will be sold on campus. We will be working with SMEE to further support students in need. Initially, the following students will be able to receive loaner kits from the department:

Students enrolled in specialisations other than ECSE, Robotics & Mechatronics, or Biomedical Engineering, eg enrolling in ECE2131 as part of the power engineering minor, or as an elective or
Visiting exchange and study abroad students enrolled in any of the affected units
Students in receipt of an Equity Scholarship.

Contact

Should you have any questions not answered here, please feel free to reach out to the ECSE Lab team and staff at the following address: ecse-labtoolkit@monash.edu.