Want to study in Australia? Here are some things you need to think about

Students are you thinking about studying in Australia in 2014 and beyond? We look at some of the key aspects you need to consider when deciding on studying in Australia.

 The most important question is why?

You will be away from home and it will be costly so the first question I'd think of is why? Is it for its academic reputation. Or is it because you have some family here? Or do you like the beaches and all?

Many International students study overseas in the US, UK and Australia.

Academic reputations
Australia is ranked one of the highest cities in the world with Melbourne and Sydney in the top ten. Melbourne and Monash are ranked quite highly as well as the University of Sydney. The QS rankings are the world rankings which cover facilities, the quality of the degree and the subject availability.

7 of Australia's universities are in the top 100 in the world according to the latest QS rankings.

Some students have enjoyed their education so sometimes there may be recommendations by word of mouth or on the uni's Facebook pages. Some other sites such as Hotcourses.com.au also have reviews about the campus.


Costs
These are some of the things you need to consider as you'll need to cough up the money somehow.

School fees and Application fees
Many courses in Melbourne can charge anywhere between $16000-$36000 per year for tuition. The fee doesn't include the application fee which is a separate fee just for applying for the course. Some of the universities don't such as RMIT, as they want to attract more and more students.

But if you can't afford the money  you try and apply for a scholarship, but these are extremely hard and rare to get.

Applying for courses is easy- you can do it online at the university's site. The Australian government has a site which lists all of the courses and universities that offer courses for students. If you come to Melbourne and you found that you picked the wrong one you can always change. But just don't wait until one year later to change. By then it is too late.

Try and find out about the uni from students that are studying there so that you can avoid making the wrong decision.

Some universities have application fees which are under $100. You have to pay that at the time of applying for courses.

Cost of living
 This is outlined in many posts on this blog so try and have read of them.

Close proximity to home
You'd want to consider how far is Australia from your home country. Many Malaysians and Asians study in Australia because it is close to their country.

Your future

Many students chose Australia usually to get the PR. But PR is very hard to find here as well as good jobs, particularly in the automotive industry and aviation industry where thousands of jobs are set to go and people are made redundant.

The Skills Occupation list always changes from time to time so by the time you finish your degree the occupation that you want may not be there.