Pakistani students who decide to head to Australia for higher education tend to pick programs in Engineering, Business, Media Sciences and Heath sciences (Public Health, Psychology, Physiotherapy) in this order of popularity.

Each year, around 6,000 to 8,000 Pakistani students head to Australia for higher education.

“The Australia Education Office Pakistan sends around 2,500 to 3,000 Pakistani students to Australia for undergraduate and graduate programs yearly,” according to student counselor Syed M. Raahim Baseer, at a free information session held Monday in Karachi.

The AEO helps introduce Pakistani students to the requirements for entry to Australian universities.

Baseer added that it is essential for students to pick a course that is relevant to their field and what they studied. This increases their chances of university and visa acceptance.

The top two concerns for Pakistani students are scholarships and university rankings.

Macquarie University in Sydney is the most popular for Pakistani students because it offers a 10,000 AUD scholarship per year to students with a GPA of 3.0 or above. This is around 25% of yearly tuition.

The University of Adelaide provides 30% scholarships for most programs. A student must have a 3.0 or above GPA in order to be eligible.

Students who are more concerned with rankings apply to the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University as they are the top two in Australia.

Intermediate vs A-level

Students who have done their intermediate can also apply to Australian universities. According to Baseer, they tend to be those who have family or friends already living there. For every 700 students around 100 or so are from the HEC education system. The remaining are A-level students.

“It’s easier for A-level students to get a higher IELTS score due to their fluency in English,” he said.

Most intermediate students end up pursuing a diploma leading to a bachelor’s. Australian universities offer a one-year diploma course for students with weak English. After the diploma, students move on to the second year of their bachelor’s degree.

Most undergraduate degree programs in Australia are usually three years long. Engineering programs are normally four years long.

According to Baseer, most students don’t return to Pakistan after completing their degrees. “They don’t usually move elsewhere or come back because Australia makes it easy for them to stay. So they apply for jobs and permanent residence.”