British Student to Melbourne University?

I'm a current UK student in my final year of high school. I would love to study at Melbourne, but my main problem is the fees. My parents wouldn't be able to afford to pay for me to go, so I would only be able to if I could get a scholarship. One of the things which initially attracted me to the university is its' general scholarship programme, with up to full fee remission offered. However, there are very few such scholarships on offer, so understandably they will be extremely competitive. What sort of grades would you be looking for in a British candidate, studying for A Levels?

Regarding the curriculum, I understand from looking at your website that it operates on a more liberal arts style than the traditional single subject British model, which is something that attracts me as I am keen to explore a range of subject areas. However, I was wondering if it is necessary to choose between arts and sciences, and if I can study both, whether I would be required to have an A Level in a science subject?

Finally, I have a couple of questions about student life - particularly, accommodation. How is this arranged - are there halls, like in a British university? And what are the costs like? Would it be possible under a student visa to get a part time job in order to pay for the costs of accommodation?

Thanks for reading this, I admit it is perhaps a little long-winded but I have an awful lot of questions!

Reply 1

University of Melbourne, Australia

Hi,

Thanks so much for your email. There are 50 undergraduate scholarships available every year and 10 of these are full fee remission, 10 are half fee remission and 30 are one off payments of 10,000 AUD.

As a general guide, you would need to get at least three A stars to be considered for a scholarship as they are quite competitive.

You can study both arts and sciences under the Melbourne Model. You could do a BA and take up to 25% of your subjects from outside your home faculty and take these subjects from the Faculty of Science (or elsewhere or a mix of subjects from a number of Faculties).

Your other option would be to do a BSc and take 25% of your subjects from the Arts Faculty. If you did this you would need to have undertaken the prerequisite A Level subjects for admission to the BSc (ie Mathematics and one of Biology, Chemistry or Physics).

Re accomodation, more information about housing is found here: services.unimelb.edu.au/housing

The residential colleges have their own application system and you apply for these separately. Information re the colleges is found here: www.colleges.unimelb.edu.au/

You can work up to 40 hours per fortnight on your student visa and unlimited hours during university breaks. We recommend that studnets work no more than 16 hours per fortnight so it doesn't interfere w/ studies. All of the colleges offer both academic scholarships and bursaries for students in financial need. I'd recommend emailing them directly about this. Some of the bigger ones w more generous bursary programs are Ormond College, Trinity College and Queens College.

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