Australia

Generally speaking, if you are intending to study in Australia, you will need to be on a visa class that allows this, rather than a tourist visa. Students and academics invited to visit Australian universities will generally also need an appropriate visa, even if their visit is of a short enough period to be covered by a tourist electronic visa. For extremely short term or part time courses, check with your Australian consulate or embassy. Australian students attend a high school program of approximately six years, and enter university (also called "uni") at seventeen or eighteen years of age. (In Australia, neither "school" nor "college" are used to refer to tertiary institutions, they are referred to only as "universities".) Australian undergraduate programs are usually three to four years in length. A fifth year is compulsory in some professional undergraduate programs such as engineering, law, medicine and dentistry. Medicine at the undergraduate level is either five or six years. Students in three-year degree programs can take an optional fourth year known as honours if they want to proceed into a postgraduate research program, whereas student enrolled in four year programs typically can incorporate their honours thesis into their fourth year. Australia does not have universities whose prestige competes with Harvard or MIT in the US or Oxford or Cambridge in the UK. However many are ranked in the top 200 in the world (Times Higher Education Supplement). Its most prestigious research universities are equivalent to the next tier of universities. However, these universities are very competitive on tuition compared to other Western universities. All tuition at university level is in English, save for courses that specifically focus on other languages. Students who have not previously earned a qualification in an English speaking program will have to take one of a number of English competency tests before being allowed to enroll. Postgraduate studies in Australia fall into two classes: coursework and research. Coursework degrees are generally at the Masters level and are terminal: they do not proceed into a research degree. Research degrees are at the Masters and Doctoral level.

Admission

Undergraduate admission to university is centralized at the state level. You make a single application for admission to the state admissions body stating your course preferences. The universities select students from this common applicant pool based upon their ranking and preferences. Unless you are applying for a creative arts degree, your ranking will be based solely on previous academic performance at both high school and previous university studies. Postgraduate admission is managed by individual universities and you will need to apply separately to each institution you are considering.

Tuition fees

The full fees are very competitive compared to many Western universities, and some classes of student have substantially reduced fees: Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and citizens of New Zealand can often study in Australia for about one-third of the notional tuition cost. Australian citizens also have the option of deferring payment and having the money taken from their income tax after graduation. Other students will generally be required to pay full tuition on enrolment each semester. Scholarships are rarely awarded for undergraduate or postgraduate coursework degrees. A comparatively large number of scholarships are available for postgraduate research usually covering both tuition where required and living costs. These are awarded by individual universities.