Find everything you need to know to get a high-quality education in Australia: types of universities, admission process, tuition fees, student visa, etc.
The same bachelor's degree can cost an international student 19,098-28,868 USD a year at a regional university[1] or 32,802-43,905 USD at a Group of Eight university[2]. Regional providers cost materially less for the same qualification level.
An Australian offer letter settles the first of two decisions. The second belongs to Home Affairs, which tests money, English and study intent against published thresholds that moved repeatedly after 2024. On the money side, you must show a full year of living costs on top of tuition.
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Australian higher education by level: the working numbers
What each level costs, takes and requires
Level
Typical duration
Main intakes
Indicative annual tuition for international students
34,579-38,893 USD, frequently covered by a research scholarship
IELTS 6.5-7.0
No fortnightly cap once the course has started
Tuition figures are 2027 commencing-student rates published by the named universities and are indicative: Australian providers price by unit of study, not by degree, so a single institution's engineering and arts degrees can differ by 6,345 USD a year. Use the two ranges above as the outer edges of the market and the course page as the quote. Fees are reviewed annually and normally rise for the following calendar year.
Enrolment conditions are set by law, not by the provider
The Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 and the National Code of Practice set what a provider must do for international students: written agreements, refund terms, course progress and attendance monitoring, complaints and appeals processes, and transfer rules. If a provider collapses, the Tuition Protection Service exists to place students in an alternative course or refund unspent fees. These are enforceable obligations rather than service promises, which is a meaningful difference from systems where the institution writes its own terms.
A public register tells you whether a course can legally enrol you
Only courses listed on CRICOS, the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, can be studied on a student visa, and the visa application requires a Confirmation of Enrolment for a CRICOS-registered course[5]. The register is public and searchable, so an applicant can verify a provider and a course before paying a deposit — a check that is not available in most destinations.
Vocational and higher education sit on one qualification ladder
The Australian Qualifications Framework places school, VET and higher-education qualifications on ten comparable levels. In practice that means a Diploma or Advanced Diploma can carry credit toward a bachelor's degree, and dual-sector providers run both. It does not mean automatic recognition: credit is granted by the receiving institution against its own rules, and the amount varies by field.
International graduates find full-time work less often than domestic ones
In the 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey, run four to six months after completion, 50.8 per cent of international undergraduates, 52.2 per cent of international postgraduate coursework graduates and 71.8 per cent of international postgraduate research graduates were in full-time employment, against 75.4, 88.3 and 84.0 per cent of domestic graduates[6]. The survey attributes part of the gap to international graduates being almost twice as likely to continue into further full-time study, and warns that 2025 rates are not directly comparable with earlier years because of a change in how the labour force is defined. Budget on the assumption that a graduate job will not follow immediately.
Post-study work rights are substantial and tiered by qualification
The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) Post-Higher Education Work stream allows a stay of 2 years after a bachelor's or coursework master's, 3 years after a research master's or a doctorate. Indian nationals have separate durations under the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement: 2 years after a bachelor's, 3 years after a bachelor's with first-class honours in STEM including ICT or after any master's, and 4 years after a PhD[7].
Regional providers cost materially less for the same qualification level
A 2027 bachelor's degree at a regional university can start around 19,098 USD a year against 32,802 USD and up at a Group of Eight university, and graduating from a regional institution can also open the Second Post-Higher Education Work stream for an additional 1 to 2 years of stay[8]. For a budget-constrained applicant that combination is the strongest value proposition in the Australian system.
The visa application charge is now one of the highest in the world
From 1 July 2026 the Student visa charge starts at 1,586 USD per application[4], with a lower charge for eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens, eligible ASEAN citizens and applicants in the ELICOS and non-award sectors[5]. It is payable per applicant, and it is not refunded if the visa is refused. Budget it as a sunk cost of applying, not as a cost of studying.
You must show a full year of living costs on top of tuition
The financial-capacity evidence uses 18,850 USD in 12-month living costs for the student, 6,595 USD for an accompanying partner and 2,823 USD for each accompanying child, plus the first 12 months of course fees and travel costs[5]. Home Affairs states plainly that this is a minimum for the visa, that actual living costs may be much higher, and that you should not rely on work to support yourself.
Offshore visa processing is rationed by provider, not by applicant merit
Under Ministerial Direction 115, in force since 14 November 2025 and applying through 2026, higher processing priority goes to providers who keep new international enrolments within their indicative allocation under the National Planning Level[9]. Two equally strong applicants can therefore see very different processing speeds depending only on which provider they chose and how far through its allocation that provider is.
Distance is a real cost, not an inconvenience
Home Affairs sets the travel component of the financial evidence by region: 1,586 USD from East or Southern Africa, 1,903 USD from West Africa, 1,269 USD from anywhere else outside Australia[5]. That is the department's own estimate of a return airfare, and it recurs every time you travel home during a three- or four-year degree.
Health cover is compulsory and continuous
Overseas Student Health Cover is a visa condition for the whole of your stay, including dependants, and it must start on the day you arrive rather than the day your course begins. Basic OSHC covers doctor visits, some hospital treatment, ambulance and limited pharmaceuticals; dental, optical and physiotherapy are excluded unless you buy an extras policy[10]. Premiums differ between the registered insurers, so compare before letting a provider arrange it for you.
A Confirmation of Enrolment only makes you eligible to apply
Home Affairs assesses the Genuine Student answers, the funds file and the English result on its own terms, and at the end of the degree the graduate visa is assessed again on age, English and qualification. Meeting each published minimum is necessary and not sufficient.
Who Australian higher education suits
It suits applicants whose priority is a degree with a clear employment pathway and a defined post-study work entitlement, and who can fund the full cost from savings, family support, a loan or a scholarship rather than from term-time earnings. It suits research students especially well, because research master's and doctoral candidates face no fortnightly work cap and are the group most likely to have tuition covered. It suits applicants moving from a vocational qualification into a degree, because the AQF makes that ladder explicit.
It suits less well applicants whose plan depends on part-time income closing a funding gap, applicants who need to start within a few months — the visa charge, the evidence file and the processing queue all take time — and applicants in highly specialised fields, since Australia has fewer institutions than the United States or the United Kingdom and a narrow specialism may exist at only one or two of them.
If you are undecided about level: a coursework master's is the shortest route to a degree plus a 2-year graduate visa and is the most common choice for international applicants with a completed bachelor's. A vocational Diploma is the cheapest route into the system and can carry credit into a degree, but on its own it leads to the 18-month Post-Vocational Education Work stream and requires a qualification matched to an occupation on the skilled occupation list. A research degree is the only route where the tuition is routinely paid for you.
The regulation that sits behind an Australian offer
Most study-destination guides treat quality assurance as a footnote. In Australia it determines which courses you can apply to, how quickly your visa is processed and what happens if your provider fails — so it is worth understanding before you shortlist.
The ESOS framework and the National Code
The Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, with the National Code of Practice made under it, governs delivery of education to international students. It imposes obligations on providers rather than rights students must claim: written agreements setting out fees and refund conditions, standards for pre-enrolment information, monitoring of course progress and attendance, defined grounds for transferring between providers, and internal complaints and appeals processes. The National Code also defines the course-break arrangements that unlock unlimited work hours, so the rules on work hours during course breaks also trace back to it. The Tuition Protection Service is the financial backstop: if a provider stops delivering a course, it works to place affected students in a comparable alternative or refund unspent tuition.
CRICOS registration
CRICOS is the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students. A course that is not on it cannot be studied on a Student visa, and the Confirmation of Enrolment your visa depends on can only be issued for a CRICOS-registered course. Every legitimate provider quotes its CRICOS provider code and each course's CRICOS code, checkable on the public register before you pay anything. A provider that cannot give you a course CRICOS code is not offering a course you can hold a Student visa for. The registration also follows you after graduation: eligibility for the Temporary Graduate visa depends on a recent qualification from a CRICOS-registered course studied in Australia.
TEQSA and ASQA
Two regulators sit above the register. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency registers and monitors higher-education providers; the Australian Skills Quality Authority does the same for registered training organisations and most TAFE institutes. Both can impose conditions, refuse renewal or cancel registration, and both publish their decisions. A dual-sector provider answers to both. What this framework does is set and police a floor. It does not equalise teaching quality across institutions, and it does not make one registered degree equivalent to another in the eyes of employers. Treat registration as the entry check, not the selection criterion.
Ministerial Direction 115 and the National Planning Level
Since 2024 Australia has managed the volume of international enrolments through visa-processing priority rather than through a hard cap. Ministerial Direction 115 came into effect on 14 November 2025 and governs 2026 processing, replacing the earlier Ministerial Direction 111. For 2026 the government set the National Planning Level at 295000 new overseas student commencements, 25000 higher than in 2025, and issued each provider an indicative allocation, with no active provider receiving a 2026 allocation smaller than its 2025 one. Processing priority is assigned in three tiers according to how a provider is tracking against its allocation. Some cohorts sit outside the count, including students moving from an Australian secondary school or an embedded pathway provider into a publicly funded university[9].
This applies only to applications lodged outside Australia, and applications lodged before 14 November 2025 continue to be processed under Ministerial Direction 111. For 2027 the government confirmed in July 2026 that the National Planning Level stays at 295000 and that no active provider will receive a lower allocation than in 2026[11]. The settings have been reset every year since 2024, so confirm them again before you lodge for a 2028 start. Ask a prospective provider where it currently sits against its allocation before you commit, because that answer affects your processing queue more than the strength of your file does.
The AQF is a single ten-level ladder covering school, vocational and higher-education qualifications. Its value to an international applicant is comparability and articulation: it shows where a Certificate IV sits relative to a Diploma, and where a Diploma sits relative to the first year of a bachelor's degree, which is what makes the vocational-to-degree route a designed pathway rather than a workaround. Its limits matter too. The framework describes levels; it does not oblige any institution to grant credit, does not standardise admission requirements, and does not make a foreign qualification automatically equivalent to an Australian one. Credit decisions are made by the receiving provider, case by case.
Types of provider
Universities. Self-accrediting institutions delivering bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees and holding the research mandate. This is where the internationally visible names sit, and where the highest tuition sits with them.
Non-university higher education providers. Private institutes and specialist colleges registered by TEQSA to deliver degrees, often concentrated in business, design, health or theology. They can be cheaper and more flexible on entry; verify CRICOS registration and check how their degrees are read by employers in your field.
TAFE institutes and registered training organisations. The vocational sector. TAFE institutes are government-owned and are the largest VET providers; RTOs are independent. Courses are practical, frequently include workplace learning, and are designed with industry input.
Dual-sector providers. Institutions delivering both VET and higher education, which makes an internal Diploma-to-degree transition administratively simple.
ELICOS providers. English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students, delivered standalone or packaged in front of a main course. Packaging ELICOS in front of a degree lowers the English score the visa requires.
A working shortlist of universities
Rankings are a starting filter and not a verdict, and Australia's field is compressed enough that ten places between editions means little. The dossier below pairs the current QS edition with what each institution is actually used for.
UNSW Sydney placed 19th in the QS World University Rankings 2027, the first time UNSW has ranked first among Australian universities, and the only Australian institution in the global top 20 that year[12]. Strongest for engineering, computing, business and built environment; Sydney tuition and Sydney rents both at the top of the national range.
University of Melbourne placed 22nd in the same edition and leads Australia on QS academic and employer reputation[13]. It runs the Melbourne Model: broad undergraduate degrees followed by a professional graduate degree, so law, medicine and architecture are entered at master's level rather than from school. Read the structure before applying — it changes how long your qualification takes. See the University of Melbourne profile for programmes and requirements.
University of Sydney publishes its full 2027 international fee schedule by discipline, which makes it the most useful single reference point for budgeting: 32,802-43,905 USD for undergraduate study and 32,041-46,189 USD for postgraduate coursework, depending on faculty. Strong across health sciences, business and humanities.
Australian National University in Canberra is the research-intensive option, closest to the federal public service and to policy and international-relations employers. Smaller cohorts than the Sydney and Melbourne institutions. See the ANU profile.
Monash University and University of Queensland combine Group of Eight research capacity with large professional faculties — pharmacy, engineering, agriculture and biosciences at UQ, medicine, IT and business at Monash — and campuses outside the two most expensive housing markets.
Regional universities such as Federation University publish full 2027 international schedules in the 19,098-28,868 USD band for degrees, and graduating from a regional campus can qualify you for an additional graduate visa stream. The trade-off is a smaller labour market on the doorstep and fewer specialisations.
A bachelor's degree runs three years full-time, or four with honours, where the honours year is either an added research year or a parallel stream inside a four-year program. Coursework master's degrees run one to two years, shorter for entrants with an honours degree. Doctoral degrees run about three years plus a review period, supervised rather than taught. Most providers run two semesters, some three trimesters: undergraduate study usually starts in March with mid-year entry available for many programs, and vocational courses commonly start in late January or early February[3].
For an applicant reading this in late 2026, the realistic planning targets are Semester 2, 2027 — a July 2027 start if your documents and funds are already in order, and Semester 1, 2028 — a February or March 2028 start if you are beginning from scratch, need a test result, or are applying for a scholarship with an annual round.
Course packaging is worth understanding because it affects the visa. You can hold two or more courses on one Student visa where there is clear progression between them — ELICOS then a degree, or a Diploma then a degree — with a Confirmation of Enrolment for each. The final course is the principal course, and it is the one Home Affairs uses to work out what financial and English evidence you must supply. Gaps between packaged courses must be under two calendar months, or three to four months where the first course finishes at the end of the Australian academic year in November and the next begins the following February[4].
What it costs and how it is funded
Tuition by level
Australian providers set tuition per unit of study, which is why fee pages quote a range rather than a price. The 2027 schedule published by the University of Sydney gives a usable picture of the upper market: undergraduate arts and social sciences 32,802-37,497 USD, business 37,497-40,352 USD, engineering and computer science 40,352 USD, health sciences 40,352-43,905 USD, nursing 32,802 USD; postgraduate coursework 32,041-46,189 USD depending on discipline; postgraduate research 34,579-38,893 USD. Federation University's 2027 schedule, at the other end, prices most of its bachelor's and master's programs between 19,098 USD and 28,868 USD a year.
Two structural points follow. First, discipline matters more than institution for the size of the bill: the gap between nursing and health sciences inside one university is over 10,786 USD. Second, research degrees are priced but rarely paid in full by the candidate, because research scholarships typically cover tuition.
Costs that are not tuition
Student visa application charge. From 1,586 USD per applicant since 1 July 2026, non-refundable if refused.
Overseas Student Health Cover. Compulsory for the full duration of your stay and for every accompanying family member, purchased from one of the registered insurers[10].
Living costs. The visa minimum is 18,850 USD for 12 months for a single student; Home Affairs states this is a floor and that real costs vary widely by location.
Travel. The department's own evidence figures are 1,586 USD from East or Southern Africa, 1,903 USD from West Africa and 1,269 USD from elsewhere outside Australia.
Provider charges. Application fees, student services and amenities fees, materials, placement costs and — in health, education and social work — police and working-with-children checks before placements begin.
Skills assessment, if you plan to work in your profession. Assessing authorities are organised by occupation and charge their own fees; budget separately and start after graduation, not before.
Scholarships and where they realistically come from
Most international students in Australia pay full tuition. The exceptions cluster in identifiable places.
Australia Awards Scholarships are government-funded, highly competitive, and restricted to applicants from a defined list of developing countries who can show leadership and a commitment to returning home. This is the largest funded route for applicants from much of Africa and the Pacific, and the selection criteria weight development impact as heavily as academic record[14].
Australia for ASEAN scholarships fund master's study for citizens of ASEAN member states and Timor-Leste — relevant for applicants from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and neighbours — against four priority areas: maritime, connectivity, economic development and the 2030 sustainable development goals.
The Australian Government Research Training Program supports research doctorate and research master's candidates through the universities themselves. Applications go to a participating university rather than to the government, and the support may cover tuition, living costs or ancillary research costs.
Provider scholarships are the broadest category and the most winnable. Most are merit-based, many are applied for through the same form as admission, and smaller and regional institutions offer more of them relative to their size than the Group of Eight does.
Regional and state incentives exist in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania, and include bursaries specifically for international TAFE students.
Strategy matters more than volume of applications. Scholarship rounds usually close well before the admission deadline for the same intake, government schemes run one annual round with a fixed window, and almost all of them require the admission application to be submitted first. Working backwards from a February 2028 start, that means researching schemes in the first half of 2027, not after an offer arrives.
Academic requirements and how your school qualification is read
Direct entry to an Australian bachelor's degree requires a senior secondary qualification assessed as equivalent to the Australian Year 12 standard. Each university publishes country-by-country equivalence tables, and the required grades differ by faculty within one institution.
In broad terms: an Indian CBSE, ISC or state board class 12 result is widely accepted for direct entry at a stated percentage, with more selective faculties asking for higher marks; a West African WAEC or NECO senior secondary certificate is commonly accepted for pathway or foundation entry rather than for direct entry to a research university, with direct entry more often available after a year of university study at home; a United States high school diploma is normally assessed alongside standardised test results or AP subjects; UAE-issued qualifications are read according to the curriculum, with British and international curricula treated on their own scales. GCE A Levels and the International Baccalaureate are accepted for direct entry across the sector.
Where your qualification falls short of direct entry, the designed alternatives are a foundation or pathway program, a VET Diploma that carries credit, or a completed year of university study at home. Foundation programs are usually one year and are often delivered by a pathway provider attached to a specific university, which is what creates the conditional progression to that university's degree.
Entry routes into an Australian bachelor's degree
Photo by: UniPage
Master's entry requires a completed bachelor's degree in a related field, with a stated minimum grade average. Programs designed for career changers exist and usually run longer. Doctoral entry requires a research master's or a bachelor's with honours, a research proposal and, crucially, a supervisor: most Australian universities will not consider an international doctoral application without prior contact with an academic whose research interests match the proposal.
English for admission and English for the visa
These are two separate requirements and the second one changed recently. Admission English is set by the institution: IELTS 6.0-6.5 for most bachelor's programs, 6.5 for most coursework master's, higher for teaching, nursing, law and medicine.
Visa English is set by Home Affairs, and for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025 the thresholds are IELTS Academic or General Training 6.0 overall, TOEFL iBT 67, PTE Academic 47, LANGUAGECERT Academic 61, CELPIP General 7, MET 53, OET 1210 or C1 Advanced 161. A packaged ELICOS course in front of the principal course lowers the requirement: at least 10 weeks of ELICOS, a Foundation program or an eligible pathway program brings IELTS down to 5.5, and at least 20 weeks of ELICOS brings it to 5.0. The older thresholds — IELTS 6.0, TOEFL iBT 64, PTE 50 — still apply to tests taken on or before 6 August 2025[5].
Two procedural traps. Home Affairs does not accept fully at-home or remote-proctored English tests. And from 21 January 2026, TOEFL candidates must select "Taking TOEFL for Australia" at registration for the result to be valid for Australian visa purposes — a registration setting, not a test variant, and one that cannot be fixed after the fact. Home Affairs still lists its TOEFL iBT thresholds as 67, or 51 and 37 after 10 or 20 weeks of packaged English study, and does not accept the Home Edition[5]; TOEFL reports scores on a new 1-6 scale from 21 January 2026, so check how Home Affairs converts them before you book.
Fixing a weak profile
Grades below direct entry. Take a foundation or pathway program tied to the university you want, or a VET Diploma in the field and transfer with credit. Both are recognised routes rather than concessions.
An off-field bachelor's for a master's application. Look for a graduate certificate or graduate diploma, usually 6 to 12 months, which can be nested into the master's. Programs explicitly designed for a change of direction also exist and run longer.
English below threshold. Package ELICOS in front of the main course and read graded books in English alongside. This is cheaper than retaking a test repeatedly and it lowers the visa English requirement at the same time.
A gap in study or work. Explain it in the Genuine Student response. An unexplained gap is a refusal risk; a documented one rarely is.
No research supervisor. Do not submit a doctoral application without one. Email academics with a two-page proposal and your transcript, and expect the process to take months.
Applying: sequence and timing
A timeline for a February 2028 start
Early 2027. Shortlist courses and verify each one on CRICOS. Check the country-specific equivalence table for every target and identify which need a pathway.
By mid-2027. Sit IELTS, TOEFL, PTE or another accepted test, checking the registration requirements first. Identify scholarship rounds and their deadlines, which usually precede the admission deadline.
From mid-2027. Apply directly to each provider. Australia has no centralised undergraduate or postgraduate application system for international applicants; each institution runs its own portal and sets its own dates.
Late 2027. Accept an offer, pay the deposit, receive the Confirmation of Enrolment, arrange OSHC.
At least three months before the start. Lodge the visa with the full evidence file. Processing times vary and are published as a guide only; applications lodged offshore are queued under the ministerial direction in force, so leave more room than the published guide suggests.
Before departure. Complete health examinations if required, finalise accommodation, and confirm your OSHC start date matches your arrival date rather than your course start date.
Choosing courses and finding the information
Work from the provider's own course page for fees, entry requirements and start dates, from the CRICOS register for registration status, and from the regulator's register for the provider's standing. Aggregator sites and agent portals are useful for discovery and unreliable for figures — much of the material still circulating quotes a 393 USD visa charge and a 40-hour fortnightly work cap, both years out of date. Applying through an education agent is normal in Australia, but an agent cannot guarantee admission or a visa; the admissions office and Home Affairs make those decisions, and an agent who promises either is a reason to use a different one.
Deadlines and intake behaviour
Deadlines are set per provider and per course, not nationally, and many providers run rolling admission with a final cut-off a few months before the intake. In practice the binding deadline is the visa, not the university: you need the Confirmation of Enrolment early enough to lodge a visa application and have it decided before orientation. Treat any provider deadline as the latest date to apply, never the intended one.
The subclass 500 Student visa is the only visa for a course longer than three months, and it is granted against criteria that are published in detail. Reading them as a checklist is the single most useful preparation an applicant can do.
The Genuine Student requirement
Since 2024 the Genuine Student requirement has replaced the former Genuine Temporary Entrant test. You must show that study in Australia is the primary reason for the visa. In the application you answer a set of questions in English, each capped at 150 words, addressing the Genuine Student criteria, with an additional question if you have previously held a Student visa or are applying in Australia from a non-student visa. Supporting documents are attached in ImmiAccount[5].
The practical difference from the old test is emphasis. The former framing asked applicants to prove they intended to leave; the current one asks them to show the study makes sense. The strongest answers explain why this course, why this provider, why now, and how it connects to your previous study and your intended career — with documents rather than assertions. The weakest repeat the university's marketing copy.
Financial capacity
The evidence is built from four components: 12 months of living costs at 18,850 USD for the student, plus 6,595 USD for an accompanying partner and 2,823 USD for each accompanying child; the first 12 months of course fees; travel costs at the regional figures above; and, for school-age children accompanying you, schooling costs[5].
The document checklist does not always require you to attach the evidence at lodgement, but Home Affairs can ask for it at any point during processing, and if the checklist does require it and you omit it, the application may be refused without a further request. Prepare the full file whether or not the checklist asks for it.
The rest of the file
Confirmation of Enrolment for a CRICOS-registered full-time course, valid both when you lodge and when the decision is made. A CoE stops being valid if it is cancelled or the course is completed.
Overseas Student Health Cover for the full stay, unless you fall into an exemption category.
Identity documents. A current passport with photo and biographical pages, a national identity card if you have one, and change-of-name documents where relevant. Home Affairs states that failure to prove identity leads to refusal and can bar you and any listed family members from a further visa for ten years[5].
Health examinations by an approved panel physician, for you and any accompanying family, and character evidence for every applicant aged 16 and over.
The Australian Values Statement, signed by applicants aged 18 and over after reading the Life in Australia booklet.
Welfare arrangements if you are under 18, and a repayment arrangement for any existing debt to the Australian Government.
Where applications go wrong
Refusals cluster around a small number of avoidable patterns: a funding file that does not cover the full calculated amount or whose source cannot be documented; a Genuine Student response that does not explain the course choice or a gap in the applicant's history; an English result that meets the university's requirement but not the visa threshold, or one taken remotely; an expired or cancelled Confirmation of Enrolment at decision time; and an immigration history — a previous refusal or cancellation — left unaddressed. The department states explicitly that it considers your immigration history when deciding.
Refusal also costs the full application charge. That is the strongest argument for over-preparing the file rather than lodging early with gaps.
Work, placements and what the degree is worth afterwards
Working while you study
A Student visa permits up to 48 hours of work per fortnight while your course is in session. The cap applies during terms and semesters including exam periods, before your course starts, while you are taking another course that counts toward your main course, and during a term break unless that break is a mandatory course requirement listed on CRICOS. You may work unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks, if your course is deferred or suspended in line with the National Code, after you have completed your course while your visa is valid, and if your enrolment was cancelled because of provider default. Students who have started a master's by research or a doctoral degree have no cap at all once the course has begun[4].
Breaching the cap can lead to visa cancellation. Australian workplace law protects international students on the same terms as everyone else, including minimum wage and record-keeping obligations, and the Fair Work Ombudsman handles complaints from visa holders — worth knowing before accepting cash-in-hand work.
Placements, graduate outcomes and in-demand sectors
Work-integrated learning is built into most vocational qualifications and into professional degrees in nursing, teaching, engineering, social work and allied health, where placement hours are a registration requirement rather than an extra. Where a placement is a mandatory CRICOS-listed course requirement, the fortnightly work cap does not apply to it. In non-professional degrees internships are usually optional and arranged through the university career service.
The Graduate Outcomes Survey, run four to six months after completion, put full-time employment at 50.8 per cent for international undergraduates and 52.2 per cent for international postgraduate coursework graduates in 2025, well below the 75.4 and 88.3 per cent recorded for domestic graduates[6]. Outcomes also vary by field, with health, education and engineering typically stronger in the national data. Demand is clearest in health and care occupations, construction and engineering trades, education and technology — which is also where the vocational sector and the skilled occupation list overlap most.
The Temporary Graduate visa
The subclass 485 visa lets eligible graduates live and work in Australia after finishing. You must be 35 or under when you apply, with exceptions, hold an eligible visa, have held a Student visa in the last six months, and hold a recent qualification from a CRICOS-registered course. Streams cannot be changed after lodging[8].
Post-Higher Education Work stream, for degree-level qualifications and above: 2 years after a bachelor's including honours or a coursework or extended master's, 3 years after a research master's or a doctorate. The default for a graduate diploma is 2 years. English is set at IELTS 6.5 overall for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, with equivalents in the other accepted tests[7].
Indian nationals hold separate durations under the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement: 2 years for a bachelor's including honours, 3 years for a bachelor's with first-class honours in STEM including ICT and for coursework, extended or research master's degrees, and 4 years for a doctorate.
Post-Vocational Education Work stream, for an associate degree, diploma or trade qualification: up to 18 months, and the qualification must be closely related to a nominated occupation on the skilled occupation list.
Second Post-Higher Education Work stream, for graduates of institutions in regional areas who hold a qualifying graduate visa: 1 to 2 years more, depending on the regional location of the institution and of where you live.
Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders may stay up to 5 years and may have a pathway to permanent residence after 5 years.
The graduate visa cannot be extended. Holders who gain the relevant work experience may be able to move to a Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa, which replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage visa on 7 December 2024, while still in Australia. For the wider picture of staying on, see immigration to Australia.
How the qualification travels
Australian degrees are recognised internationally, and the AQF's alignment with other national frameworks makes comparison straightforward for employers and admissions offices abroad. The limits are the ordinary ones: licensed professions are regulated locally, so practising in a third country requires that country's registration regardless of where the degree came from. The same applies within Australia — skills assessment for migration purposes is carried out by occupation-specific assessing authorities, on documents and sometimes with further professional or language examinations, and it is a separate process from graduating.
Fix the level and the intake. Semester 2, July 2027, if your documents are ready; Semester 1, February or March 2028, if you are starting the process now.
Verify every shortlisted course on CRICOS and confirm the provider's registration with TEQSA or ASQA before paying anything.
Check your qualification against each university's country equivalence table and identify where you need a foundation program, a VET Diploma or a year of home-country university study.
Separate the two English requirements. Meet the institution's for admission and the Home Affairs threshold for the visa, and check the test's registration rules before booking.
Build the full budget. Tuition for the first year, 18,850 USD in living costs, OSHC, the travel figure for your region, and a 1,586 USD visa charge that is not refunded on refusal.
Map scholarship rounds before admission deadlines. Australia Awards, Australia for ASEAN, the Research Training Program and provider scholarships all close on their own schedules.
Ask each provider where it stands against its National Planning Level allocation — it affects how fast your offshore visa application is processed.
Draft the Genuine Student answers early, at 150 words per question, explaining course choice, timing and career fit with documents attached.
Assemble the funding evidence in full even if the document checklist does not ask for it at lodgement.
Check the post-study consequences of your choices now: qualification level, stream eligibility, the 35-year age limit and, if relevant, whether a regional campus opens a second graduate visa.
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