Traditionally, the Gold Coast has long been Australia’s favourite holiday destination. While this stunning city by the sea is still popular among holiday-makers, the significant investment and subsequent growth, over recent years, has seen the Gold Coast emerge as a new-world city.
Nowhere has this newfound maturity been more obvious, than within the Gold Coast’s education sector. The city is home to three world-class, research-intensive universities, each providing a unique offering to students.
Bond University is privately operated, and sits in the Top 20 Best Small Universities of the World, according to the Times Higher Education rankings. The university is also rated as the number one university in Australia for student experience with five-star ratings, in every student category of the 2018 Good Universities Guide.
Popular courses
Around 40% of Bond’s population are international students, with the number of Indian students surging over the past three years, on an average increase of 20 per cent, per annum. The most popular courses for Indian students, at Bond University, are business, project management, construction practice and accounting.
The university’s new Master of Business Data Analytics (Professional) is expected to be particularly popular with Indian students. The programme began in January, this year, and enrolments from India are already strong. Students first learn technical skills, including the R and Python languages most commonly used in the development of data programming, after which they focus on practical application, based on actual business problems in industries, such as health, marketing and finance.
Exposure to expertise
In Bond’s trademark small classes, students are mentored by Australia’s leading economists, statisticians, financial analysts and mathematicians, including Professor Steven Stern, custodian of cricket’s Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) system for rain-affected matches.
“Skills in data analytics are in such high demand that it is a popular area for continuing professional development. As the modern world transitions itself to the information age and economy, there is essentially no area of modern business that is free of data-based decision-making, meaning that the most important component of any successful business, regardless of size or industry, will be its ability to mine its modern storehouse of customer and market information into gains, for the company’s efficiency and productivity,” says professor Stern.
Griffith University has more than 50,000 students across Queensland, with the Gold Coast hosting its largest campus. The university ranks in the top two % of universities globally, and is recognised as one of the world’s top young universities. Interest in studying at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus is growing among prospective students as to what the university and the City of the Gold Coast has to offer, as a study destination.
Located opposite the site of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games village, Griffith’s Gold Coast campus is a core partner in the Gold Coast’s $ 5 billion health and knowledge precinct development that is attracting multinational companies, keen to take advantage of the expertise available and the outstanding graduates.
Griffith offers a comprehensive range of programmes and disciplines at its campus, including leading programmes in health, IT and engineering, science and business, as well as law and social sciences.
Professor Sarah Todd, Vice President (Global), Griffith University says, “We have Indian students coming to our Gold Coast campus to study IT and engineering, business, sports management, health services management and architecture, as well as in a number of other areas. With Griffith University continuing to progress in the international rankings, we offer Indian students the opportunity to study on a modern campus where they are supported to achieve their potential.”
Southern Cross University, is Australia’s only beachside campus. It is the newest of the Gold Coast’s universities and is ranked in the top 150 universities under 50 years old, in the world, according to the Times Higher Education Young University rankings.
Options galore
Popular Southern Cross University programmes include Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Information Technology, Bachelor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Master of Engineering Management/Master of Business Administration double degree, and Master of International Tourism and Hotel Management.
Located right next door to the Gold Coast International Airport, Southern Cross University also offers a three-year Bachelor of Business (aviation management) with a fully-credited CASA Commercial Pilot Licence. Sanjeet Karkada is an expatriate Indian student, who had always dreamt of becoming a pilot and is undertaking the course.
Sanjeet says, “When you first get in the cockpit of the plane, you can feel a little overwhelmed with all the buttons and controls. “But once you are in the air, it is beautiful. You don’t feel nerves, you just enjoy every moment.”
Southern Cross has a substantial community of students from the sub-continent, particularly from India and Nepal. Don Whitford, the university’s regional manager of South Asia, Middle East and Africa, says, “Southern Cross University welcomes international students from more than 60 countries, and students from South Asia form an important part of our international student cohort.”
The writer is content editor, Study Gold Coast
