STUDY IN BRISBANE
What's in this student city guide?
Quick facts about Brisbane
📍 State
Queensland
📆 Established
1825
🌆 Area
15826 km2
👪 Population
2.3 Million
🌥 Climate
Subtropical
👋 Welcome to Brisbane
With Australia’s best climate, finest educational institutions and closer to hot travel destinations, Brisbane offers lots of fun, work and study opportunities to all international students.
Here is a student guide about study in Brisbane. We hope you enjoy reading it.
Reasons to Study in Brisbane
🌞 Sunshine capital
Brisbane is the capital city of the sunshine state (Queensland) which offers subtropical climate with hot humid summers, mild winters and nice spring & autumn.
💰 Affordable
Compared to Sydney and Melbourne, Brisbane is a much more affordable place to study. You will find lower costs of living expenses and education costs, providing more value for money.
🏪 Student Accommodation
Brisbane is one of the first cities in Australia which provides a new purpose built inner-city student accommodation to meet the needs of international students.
🧡 Safe and welcoming
Brisbane is one of the safest and most welcoming cities in Australia. It holds Australia’s largest city orientation day also known as The City Welcome Festival to welcome international students.
🎒 Finest education
Brisbane offers some of Australia’s finest educational institutions with award winning universities and tafes offers ranges of programs to international students.
🎢 Getaways
Living in Brisbane will help you to explore some of Australian east coast’s best attractions like Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Byron Bay with travel time less than 2 hours for each destination.
💡 Did you know?
Now a shopping, spending and eating centre, Queen street in Brisbane was a convict barracks area once.
Universities and Vocational Education in Brisbane
🏛 Universities in Brisbane
Here is a list of Brisbane based universities in Australia:
The University of Queensland (UQ) is the state’s most prestigious tertiary institution located primarily in Brisbane. In Australia, UQ is consistently ranked at the top for business administration, veterinary medicine and life sciences.
The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located on two campuses in the Brisbane area: Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. QUT bills itself as a ‘a world-class university with a global outlook’ with quality education at reasonable tuition fees.
Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The university was first to introduce degrees in environmental science and Asian studies.
📒 Universities with Satellite campus
You can also choose to study in the campuses of Central Queensland University, Australian Catholic University, James Cook University, Southern Queensland, Torrens University and University of the Sunshine Coast in Brisbane.
✍ TAFE and other education providers
Established in 1882, TAFE Queensland is the parent body for TAFE technical and further education training across the state of Queensland. It is one of Australia’s largest education providers with a wide variety of courses, diplomas, even bachelor degrees. There are many private providers of vocational educational programs in Brisbane.
Monthly Cost of Living in Brisbane
🏠 Rent
$800
🍔 Food
$600
🚌 Transport
$120
🔌 Utilities
$140
🎉 Others
$100
💵 Total
$1760
⚠ Disclaimer
The prices are expressed in Australian Dollars for each month. The figures are for single student in a shared living setting. The figures are gathered from various sources, talking with students, our team experiences and provide general guidelines. The cost of living in Brisbane can vary based on your lifestyle, type of accommodation, personal choice and many other factors.
Transport in Brisbane
📌 How to get to city from Brisbane airport?
Brisbane Airport is approximately 22 kms from the city centre. Brisbane airport is the third busiest airport in Australia.
The easiest and quickest way to reach Brisbane city from airport is via Airtrain. It takes only 20 minutes to reach from airport to the Brisbane city centre. It costs $19.80 one way but you can get discount if you book it online.
You can even go to other cities like Gold Coast directly from Brisbane airport.
You can also catch a shuttle bus like Skybus, council bus, taxi or ride sharing service like Uber from the airport.
🚌 Public Transport
Brisbane has a very good public transport system offering trains, buses and ferries as the main mode of travel. For travelling on public transport, you will need a travel card known as Translink Go Card.
You can purchase a Translink card from multiple outlets around Queensland and it costs $10 to buy this card.
🚖 Other Transport & Concessions
Overseas students in Brisbane get concessions on their public transport tickets. You can travel free in the city area using the loop bus service at designated points and some ferry terminals using City Hopper ferries.
You can also use Brisbane City Cycle service as there are plenty of bike pathways available for anyone who loves cycling. It is a subscription based bike rental to suit various budget need.
💡 Did you know?
The Story Bridge in Brisbane city is a twin of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal, Canada.
Key Events During The Year in Brisbane
🎬 Feb-March
Brisbane Comedy Festival
Like Melbourne comedy festival, Brisbane also has its own comedy festival that showcases the national and international comic talents.
🎵 May
Paniyiri Greek Festival
The longest running Greek festival in Australia is held in Brisbane every year and shares the Greek culture with everyone through food and entertainment.
🎪 August
Royal Queensland Show
Enjoy the finest food and entertainment from the state of Queensland at the Royal Queensland show.
🥂 October
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest is a popular German festival, and Brisbane is the biggest host for this cultural event in Australia, with the famous German wears, food, and beers on display.
🎡 September
Brisbane Festival
This annual international arts festival ignites a sprawl of performance arts, including theatre, dance, music and opera across the city of Brisbane.
Free Things to do in Brisbane
🚍 Heritage Tours
Take a trip down Brisbane’s memory lane with 18 suburban walking trails, along with an Aboriginal trail, to learn more about the fascinating history of each of these locations. Download the brochures from Brisbane’s city council website for each location and plan a trail to witness historical locations.
🌴 Lagoons
Cool down in Brisbane’s tropical weather at one of its famous lagoons like the Streets Beach or Settlement Cove, which are not only free to use but come with lifeguards and amenities like toilets and changing rooms too.
🏛 Brisbane Museum
A short walk away from Brisbane’s CBD, this museum holds a collection that exhibits the state’s cultural heritage, natural history, science and human endeavors. It also houses Sciencentre, an interactive education experience for the visitors.
📃 State Library of Queensland
With its award winning architecture, Brisbane’s largest research library hosts a thorough collection of Queensland’s cultural and documentary heritage, and provides free access to information not reserved to books, but also exhibitions, story readings, and across different multimedia.
🎹 City Sounds
Brisbane is home to Australia’s largest live music program. Enjoy free music sessions across different parts of Brisbane CBD like Queen Street Mall, Post Office Square, and Reddacliff Place among the others. Every week there’s a change-up of musical style, so you’ll never be tired of repetition.
🏁 Other places to explore
Apart from the list above, there are many other places to explore and visit in Brisbane. Here are some of them:
Gold Coast
Melbourne
Perth
Adelaide
Sydney
Darwin
Brisbane
Canberra
Hobart
Newcastle
Geelong
Wollongong
Sunshine Coast
Cairns