I have currently taking A-levels and want to study in Australia after college

I finish college in 2021 and I want to go to Australia to study Photography and go to university, I am unsure of what's best: like where to go and how everything will work so I am currently trying to do some research into it. I know living so far away from friends and family is hard but in the longterm it would be very worthwhile, due to experience and to experience a new and different culture. But if anyone could help me and offer some advice that would be awesome as I don't know much.

Thank you
Ellie

You need to speak to Mr Cake aka @BlinkyBill .

Have you worked out how you will be paying for it all?

I might try and get a scholarship and save up some money

I finish college in 2021 and I want to go to Australia to study Photography and go to university, I am unsure of what's best: like where to go and how everything will work so I am currently trying to do some research into it. I know living so far away from friends and family is hard but in the longterm it would be very worthwhile, due to experience and to experience a new and different culture. But if anyone could help me and offer some advice that would be awesome as I don't know much.

Thank you
Ellie

Hey Ellie,

Really cool to hear you're thinking of studying in Australia! I'm from Australia, so will help as much as I can.

I think probably a good place to start is considering where you might like to study and which universities you'd like to apply to. Then you could have a look into their scholarship programs and things. Probably a pretty key decision is whether you'd like to live in a bigger city, or a smaller town for example. Or whether there are any particular specialist universities you'd like to consider (like ones that offer really good Photography degrees). For example, Griffith University on the Gold Coast has a pretty good reputation for film degrees, so might be good to look into.

Living away from friends and family is hard, that's true. But the way I see it, home is only ever a day away. And (I'm totally biased), but Australia is pretty wicked.

Spend a bit of time doing some research and let me know if you've got specific questions I can try and help answer.

BB

You will have to pay Overseas Student fees, flights and living costs - and scholarships will be reserved for those from developing countries, and refugees etc who can't study in their own country. That isn't you.

A far better idea is to look at doing a UK degree in Photography with Study Abroad in Australia - you wont have to pay high fees and you'll still get to study/live in Australia for a while.

Got to say that A Level, both the UK GCE boards and Cambridge International one, is discriminated in Australia. Last month I read the entry requirement for A Level candidates of the University of New South Wales, and they were using a type of tariff score. If my memory serves me well this was it:

A* = 6, A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 2, E = 1

So if you achieve A*A*A* your tariff score is be 6 * 3 = 18. The minimum requirement was 16, which means that you will need to have at least A*AA to gain entrance into the university!

Australia seems to favour the International Baccalaureate very much, it translates well into very high ATAR. In Australia, universities don't review your application, it is a job of an external institution called the Tertiary Admission Centre (TAC). This TAC will receive all applications from domestic Australian students and assess them, for all Australian universties. However, for those who take the IB, regardless of where they take it, will also be considered domestic applicant (though you will have to pay overseas fees) and will apply through TAC and they will calculate your ATAR rank. On the other hand, those who take A Level do not have this privilege. They will need to apply directly to the university they want to study, which will then specially assess your application.

thank you and ive been to australia before and it was amazing i loved it so much, i was looking at uts in sydney as i have family there, i think i’ll be able to get a scholarship or try to i still need to look into it more, but do you have anymore advice or anything?

thank you

That's great you've been before! Also really helpful to have family over there. It does make things an awful lot easier.

There's some really valid points raised in this thread about ensuring you know what grades you'd need to how to fulfil the entry requirements. Australia's uni entry system can be a bit confusing, and it is slightly different depending on what state you're thinking about.

Yeah it’s hard to understand but i need to look into it some more and ask people who know maybe at UCAS, but how do the Australians teach and what’s it’s like to be a student in Australia as it will be very different to being a student in the UK, i’m also thinking of studying in New South Wales.

thank you for your help and advice

If you don't mind Ellie, you may want to consider New Zealand. NZ will provide you with quite similar experience like Australia does, and the fees and living costs are cheaper here as well, along with the fact that British citizens are entitled to state-funded healthcare. There are also lots of Brits here, and our English is very similar to British English.

Lots of schools in New Zealand teach Cambridge A Level, and universities here favour the A Level, like how they do with the IB in the UK or Australia. Therefore, Cambridge A Level is considered a domestic qualification (though is it not the national qualification), and the UK GCE A Level benefits from this.

Here is the entry requirement of the University of Auckland for UK A Level: https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/auckland/study/applications-and-admissions/entry-requirements/undergraduate-entry-requirements/overseas-secondary-school-applicants/undergraduate-programme-specific-entry-requirements.pdf

thank you so much i will definitely look into it as new Zealand is amazing as well, is it like how england do uni?