I used to be an international student from Asia in Australia. I will try to help you abit…

Australia is most likely have the lowest cost of living, and probably the lowest tuition fee as well due to the currency exchange. On top of tuition fees, you will need to pay for campus fee (vary from each uni) and Overseas Student Health Cover (abt AUD$350/yr) and text books (abt AUD$200). These are the rough estimate of the fees for your study.

Before coming to Australia, you will need to pay the fee for student visa processing and health check-up. You may also be required to take an IELTS test for indication of your English proficiency (depending which country you come from) for application to uni and for visa.

Living cost… Sydney and Canberra have the highest living cost, followed by Melbourne & Brisbane, then Perth, Darwin, Adelaide & Tasmania the lowest. I am attaching a weblink from one of the uni in Melbourne as an indication.

I can’t quite agree with the earlier answerers that describe Australia as only a good place to have fun. Yes… population-wise, Oz cannot beat UK, however it does not means that there’s nothing happened in Australia, or Australia is not a good place to work and live.

To find out the latest info abt course that you are taking and where it is offered, I suggest you to go to the Dept. of Education, Science and Training website (http://cricos.dest.gov.au). It will give the list of institutions that are able to offer courses to international students who wants to continue their study in Australia. The info abt fees and requirements are available from the universities’ websites. Please make sure that the information you are accessing are the one for International Students. Once decided on the uni, fill in the application form and send it together with certified copy of your academic qualification.

There are only 41 (soon to be 43) universities in Australia, ALL of them are fully accredited and they are tightly regulated, therefore the quality and recognition of their graduates are equal from wherever university you are studying from. The most important thing is you have to READ the course information carefully, since some courses may have the same name but different content.

I’m living in Melbourne and this is what you’re going to find in Melbourne:

1. First of all… some people do not like the weather in Melbourne (you can have 4 seasons in one day). However, if you read the second weblink from The Age newspaper, you will find out that the weather is still more preferable than the other cities. Sure you can have 42C day in summer, but almost immediately you’ll get a much cooler weather pretty soon afterwards. It is very rarely that you got 2 or 3 consecutive days of hot weathers (unlike Sydney, Brisbane or Perth).

2. Melbourne is a city of diversity. If you are a newcomer, and you do not look ‘Anglo-Saxon’, you do not feel like an ‘alien’, since you can find almost every race in the world walking in the city. They are both immigrants and overseas students.

3. THE FOOD!! Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Thai, All-you-can-eat, African, Lebanese, Mexican, Sea Food… anything else? All available and lots of them in a very-very-very affordable price

4. Pretty good public transport system. With one ticket, you can switch from train, tram and bus. They do not always come on-time, but still reliable and improving (www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au). Good for students, since not all can afford car.

5. SHOPPING!!! Original branded clothing sold very cheap. There are even shopping tour, where the participants are taken to retails outlets just for shopping. Big temptations for ladies.

6. Crime rates… just read the third article on the bottom.

7. Night Life… hmmmm… I’ll say the centre of nite activities will be Crown Casino and Docklands. Altho there are still plenty of cafe’s and clubs scattered around the suburbs as well.

8. Tourist attraction. This is the area that I think Sydney is better than Melbourne, since it has most of it’s attraction within its suburbs. Most Melbourne attraction are pretty much out of Melbourne, such as the gold mines in the cities of Bendigo and Ballarat, The Great Ocean Road, Lakes Entrance, Grampians, skiing in Mt. Buller etc.

Hope this helps. Good luck on your studies 🙂

I know nothing about the UK but can tell you that the Gold Coast of Australia is paradise. The lifestyle is easy, the weather is fantastic all year and Bond is less than 30 minutes to some of the most amazing beaches I have ever seen. It’s also only 30 minutes to get to the rainforests in the mountains.

Bond University has students from all over the world. I met Koreans, Argentinians, Polish, Japanese, etc.

Here are a couple sites to check out. Also, by American standards, Australian colleges are less expensive. However, you must consider the cost of airfare. There are plenty of places to live there for college students and the people are VERY friendly. I loved every moment that I was there (one year). On a student vias, you can work up to 20 hours a week, I think.

http://www.bond.edu.au/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_University

http://www.reflections.com.au/GoldCoast/index.html

http://www.australia-goldcoast.com.au/