The opportunity to study in Australia is a much sought-after experience that students worldwide look to make a reality. But there are things you have to think about before moving.

If you’re moving to Australia to study, here is a checklist of things you’ll need to consider before you arrive.

Research Locations

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Australia is a vast and diverse country with several climates and cultural differences. Before deciding on your course, research the locations on offer and ensure that wherever you are studying is somewhere that will suit you.

For example, if you’re looking to study marine biology, the coast of Queensland, with its diverse maritime ecosystem, will be the perfect location. Meanwhile, anyone studying business or finance would be better off looking in Australia’s financial capital, Sydney.

After the decision is done, there is another one. You have to find a proper place to live in your location. No need to say that you have to go online. With modern sites, like Rentola, offering a vast range of outstanding student accommodation across Australia, finding somewhere to live will be nice and easy.

There is something to suit everyone, whether people are looking for rural or urban ways of life.

Get the Right Visa

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If you aim to study for longer than three months in Australia, you must get a study visa. The application process is straightforward and can be completed online, and when granted, the visa is automatically linked to your passport.

A regular visitor’s visa often covers courses lasting less than three months. However, it is prudent to check this before you travel.

So, while you won’t need to wait endlessly at embassies to pick your visa up, they are relatively expensive. Make sure you have the money readily available when submitting your application.

Health Insurance

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Depending on your course provider, you will likely need to organize health insurance. Study abroad programs generally include health insurance as part of their offering, but university study will require you to organize health insurance.

Under Australian law, all students are required to obtain Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC). Insurers provide several types of cover, so it pays to do your research and pick the policy that best suits your needs.

If you’re unsure whether health insurance is included as part of your course, speak to your provider before you travel.

Set Realistic Budgets

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There’s no getting around the fact that Australia is an expensive country to live in. Melbourne and Sydney are almost ever-present in the list of top 10 most expensive cities worldwide.

Whether housing, food, or home supplies, be prepared to pay top dollar.

Take time before you travel to research prices, create a realistic budget and make every effort to stick to it. There will sometimes be unforeseen expenses that crop up. However, it’s estimated that students should allow $6,000 to 7,000 on top of tuition and accommodation expenses annually.

Topsy-Turvy Seasons

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For anyone living in the northern hemisphere, one of the most significant cultures shocks Australia will provide is the switch in seasons. While Christmas is often spent basking in temperatures over 100 Fahrenheit and with shrimps broiling on the barbecue, be prepared for the shock of winter.

As May, June, and July approach and you’re used to wearing short sleeves and basking in the glow of warm sunshine, the southern cities in Australia do get cold during the Aussie winter. So make sure you prepare and pack accordingly, just as you would for a European or North American winter with plenty of layers and winter woollies.

Striving for a Grade HD

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The grading system in Australian education can take some getting used to. Rather than Grade A being the pinnacle and what students strive towards, they aim for a Grade HD.

There are five grades in Australia. They are:

• HD – High Distinction
• D – Distinction
• C – Credit
• P – Pass
• F – Fail

There’s every chance your first instinct will be an acute disappointment when you see a Grade C or D on your first few assignments before realizing that you’ve done a fine job.

Find Work

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The cost of living and studying in Australia is well-known. However, it is possible to help fund your education while living there by getting work, just as you might at home.

A study visa in Australia usually allows you to work a certain number of hours weekly. While the cost of living is high compared to other parts of the world, the good news is that the minimum wage also pays much more than it does elsewhere.

As well as helping to bridge that funding gap and improve your quality of life while in Australia, it’s a great way of meeting people and making new friends in foreign climes.

Get an Australian Bank Account

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If you have a study visa and are going to be studying for longer than one semester, it’s sensible to get an Australian bank account.

This will be essential if you are also working around your studies to help make ends meet.

Withdrawing money from your bank at home and using a bank card from another country will incur fees that will soon add up and begin to eat into your much-needed funds. If you can save a little each month, many Australian banks offer attractive interest rates for savers.

Do you get confused with acronyms or abbreviations that you see while studying in Australia or even before planning to study in Australia? And thanks to social media and messengers apps, we are using them more than ever before.

So what is an Acronym?

Acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word.

And so what is Abbreviation then?

Abbreviation is a short form of a phrase or a word.

Hope that’s clear now!

In this article, we look at a list of 70+ popular Australian acronyms that international students in Australia should know about.

We divided these acronyms in different areas where you might come across them in Australia.

Australian grading acronyms

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These are some of the acronyms you will come across in the Australian grading system:

HD – High Distinction

D – Distinction

C – Credit

CP – Credit Pass

P – Pass

F – Fail

NYC – Not Yet Competent

C – Competent

ATAR – Australian Tertiary Admission Rank

If you want to know more information on Australian grading system, then we suggest you check this guide.

Education acronyms

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You will come across some of these education acronyms in Australia:

AQF – Australian Qualification Framework

CRICOS – Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students

ECOE – Electronic Confirmation of Enrolment

ESOS – Education Services for Overseas Students

RPL – Recognition of Prior Learning

RTO – Registered Training Organisations

VET – Vocational Education and Training

Government Departments acronyms

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These are the common Australian government department acronyms you might come across:

ABF – Australian Border Force

ABS – Australian Bureau of Statistics

ATO – Australian Taxation Office

DHA – Department of Home Affairs

DFAT – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

DoH – Department of Health

FWO – Fair Work Ombudsman

Language acronyms

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Some of these acronyms are commonly used in language classes or courses in Australia:

ELICOS – English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students

ESL – English as Second Language

IELTS – International English Language Testing System

PTE – Pearson Test of English

AMEP – Adult Migrant English Language Program

States acronyms

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Lists of all the Australian states and territory acronyms:

ACT – Australian Capital Territory

NSW – New South Wales

NT – Northern Territory

QLD – Queensland

SA – South Australia

TAS – Tasmania

VIC – Victoria

WA – Western Australia

Tax acronyms

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Common Australian Tax acronyms:

ABN – Australian Business Number

ACN – Australian Company Number

GST – Goods and Services Tax

PAYG – Pay-as-you-go

TFN – Tax File Number

University acronyms

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Most common Australian university acronyms:

ACU – Australian Catholic University

ANU – Australian National University

CDU – Charles Darwin University

CQU – Central Queensland University

CSU – Charles Sturt University

ECU – Edith Cowan University

JCU – James Cook University

QUT – Queensland University of Technology

RMIT – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

SCU – Southern Cross University

UC – University of Canberra

UTS – University of Technology, Sydney

UNSW – University of New South Wales

UWA – University of Western Australia

VU – Victoria University

Visa acronyms

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Some of the Visa acronyms that you will come across in Australia:

OSHC – Overseas Students Health Cover

GTE – Genuine Temporary Entrant

HAP ID – Health Case Identifier

VEVO – Visa Entitlement Verification Online

PSWP – Post Study Work Permit (Visa)

PR – Permanent Resident

Other popular Australian acronyms

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Here are other acronyms you will come across when living in Australia. These can vary from sports to national events and everyday life:

AFL – Australian Football League

AKA – Also Known As

ANZAC – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

ASAP – As Soon As Possible

BBL – Big Bash League

DIY – Do it Yourself

DOB – Date of Birth

OHS – Occupational Health and Safety

WHS – Workplace Health and Safety

Let us know if you find any other acronyms that you don’t know about, so we can include that in the list of these acronyms. Please make sure to send us your comments and ideas via Instagram DM here.

1st July means the start of a new financial year in Australia.

As the new financial year starts, usually there are plenty of updates that affect international students directly.

So in this article, we are going to discuss some key changes that are going to impact international students that came into effect from 1st July 2022.

1. Student Visa Fee Increase

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Every july we see an increase in the student visa fees and this year is no different.

It has been increased from $630 to $650 for new visa applications.

So, for any new applications from 1st July 2022, there will be additional 20 dollars to be paid by the applicants.

You can see the complete list of fees here.

2. Minimum wage increase

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From 1st July 2022, the minimum wage has been increased by 5.2 percent. So, the new minimum wage is $21.38 cents per hour or $812.60 per week. which will be roughly 40 dollars extra per week if you are working full time.

It is estimated that around 180,000 people will benefit from this increase

It is such a positive news for all the international students as most of the international students usually work on these minimum wage rates.

You can read the update from Fair Work Commission’s website.

3. Increase in Superannuation Guarantee

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For those student, who don’t know what is superannuation, it is basically your retirement fund and your employer have to pay you a certain fixed percentage of superannuation on top of your salary depending upon how many hours you work.

If you want to know more about Superannuation, then check our article on that.

So that percentage of superannuation guarantee is increasing from 10 percent to 10.5 percent.

It effectively means you will have more funds in your superannuation fund account.

You can read the detailed update on ATO’s website.

4. Superannuation Guarantee for everyone

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In the recent past, there was a condition that if you earn less than 450 dollars in a month your employers don’t need to pay you superannuation.

But that condition is now scrapped so basically everyone will receive these superannuation payments regardless of how many hours they have worked or how much money they earned during the month.

There’s only one exception to this that if you are under 18 and you work less than 30 hours then you’re not entitled to superannuation for that month.

Here is a complete information on this change.

5. Replacement Temporary Graduate visas

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As some of you are already aware that some international students who had the temporary graduate visas got stuck overseas because of the COVID-19 pandemic border closures in Australia.

So these students who had this temporary graduate visa will be able to apply for a replacement temporary graduate visa from 1st July 2022.

With these new replacement visas students will be able to get the same length of stay as per the original Temporary graduate visa.

Australian government is definitely doing the right thing by giving these temporary graduate visa holders additional time to stay in australia because obviously it wasn’t their fault that they got stuck overseas because of the border closures

Check the details here.

6. Pathway to PR for Temporary Skill shortage visas

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Temporary skills shortage visa holders (subclass 482) will have access to a new pathway for getting Australian permanent residency.

So this is a new pathway to PR for these temporary skill shortage visa holders who helped Australia during COVID-19 pandemic.

They will be able to apply for this pathway through TRT (Temporary Resident Transition) stream of the subclass 186 of employer nomination scheme.

These visa holders must have lived in australia for at least 1 year between 1st February 2020 and 14 December 2021.

This pathway will be only available for the next two years, so the people who are keen to apply for this visa they need to make sure that they apply within these two years.

More information on the update is available here

7. Course changes in Australia

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From 1st July 2022, international students won’t be able to change their courses unless they get an approval from the minister of immigration.

There will be certain type of courses that you won’t be allowed to change without getting ministers approval.

The reason given behind it is the security issues for Australia due to “unwanted transfer of critical technology”

We suggest you to check Department of Home Affairs website (specially condition 8203 and 8204) for more details.