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Regional Australia offers great opportunities in higher education for both overseas and Australian students of all ages whether studying on campus or by distance education.
The key advantages of regional Australia's universities include:
Getting Started
We suggest that all prospective students should consult The Good Universities Guide. Prepared annually by Hobsons (www.hobsons.com.au) the Guide provides very well structured and easy to follow quantitative and qualitative information on all Australian course offerings, institutions and campuses.
We also suggest that prospective overseas students consult the IDP Australia web site - http://www.idp.com/. This includes general information as well as a specific section on some of the universities within regional Australia - http://www.idp.com/students/studentresources/article74.asp.
You may also care to browse the supporting pages on this site were we have grouped campuses and study centres by state or territory and then location with courses offered at that location. This structure is designed to assist those interested in living in regional Australia to identify higher educational offerings in a particular area.
Issues and Problems
We struck several problems in preparing the tables, problems that bear upon the broader question of regional choice.
Role of Study Centres
The first problem lay in the role of study centres. Many universities in regional Australia maintain study centres in both metro and regional centres to assist local students. Some centres are basically shop fronts, others mini-campuses with their own offerings. These centres have been evolving rapidly in part because of competition among institutions for students.
We have not attempted to identify and list every study centre. Instead, we have included only those centres located in regional centres with at least one identified local course offering. The effect is to understate available services in at least some areas
To overcome this, we suggest that you drill down through the relevant university web sites (the tables include web sites for all universities with locations in regional Australia) to further identify services and offerings in specific geographic areas of interest to you.
Subject Choices
A more important problem relates to the classification of course offerings. Each university classifies offerings in its own way. Further, some offerings - arts or business for example - may include many subjects. So the lists we provide are in some ways a summary of summaries.
This is an important weakness because it means that the listed offerings do not properly reflect the full range of choices, nor does it indicate areas where that university may be especially strong.
Hobson's Good University Guide is a good starting point here because it includes sections setting out major subject areas and providers. The Guide also includes some material on strengths in its sections on specific institutions.
Individual university web sites also include more detailed course material as well as claims about excellence in particular areas
While the combination of the Good University Guide with individual university web sites does provide a base, gaps remains.
We do not want to duplicate other general information sources. However, there are some pages in preparation that will address some gaps.
Campus Experience and Life Style
From our perspective, one of the key strengths of the universities within regional Australia is the way in which many offer a life style and intensity of campus experience no longer possible within the very big metro universities.
The reasons for this are simple.
While many of the universities in regional Australia are large (examples include Charles Sturt University (30,000 students), University of Newcastle (22,000), University of Southern Queensland (21,000), Central Queensland University (19,000) and the University of New England (17,000)), these numbers include distance education students and are also often spread over several campuses. So campus numbers are generally smaller, allowing higher interaction among students and between students and staff.
Reduced travel time is another important factor, with many internal students living on or close to campus. Not for these students the metro experience where you may need to spend up to an hour each way travelling to sit a 45 minute semester test. This allows more time for other things, including use of the extremely good facilities offered by many regional campuses.
Different universities within regional Australia also offer different life styles and experiences based on the great variety between the different regions themselves.
A student at the Australian National University or the University of Canberra has access to alt the facilities of the national capital as well as the nearby bush and snowfields. A student at the University of Newcastle can access the surfing beaches on one side, the Hunter Valley wine country and nearby mountains on the other. And so on
To manage this variety, we have pages in preparation that will focus on campus and life style issues, linking this to other relevant parts of the site.
Distance Education
Distance education was pioneered in Australia by the University of New England as a way of giving students remote from universities the chance to study at tertiary level. Today a number of universities in regional Australia offer distance education choices for both Australian and overseas students.A short table is in preparation here.
Overseas Students
Universities throughout regional Australia welcome oveseas students.