Be a High Achiever with University of Sydney

The University of Sydney (Uni SYD) is one of Australia’s leading research and teaching universities ‘down under’. From its beginnings in 1850 Uni SYD has wide opened doors to a world of possibilities, helping the students to grow, discover and develop their passions. Following are the excerpts of an interview held with Regional Manager – International Student Recruitment, Nathan Headlam during his recent visit to Sri Lanka exploring the potential for Sri Lankan students to enter this prestigious university.

QQ- What are the international rankings of Uni SYD?

Nathan – Uni SYD is placed 38th in the world on the 2013 QS overall World University Rankings. We were also placed within the first 50 best in the world in Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health and Engineering and Technology in the subject rankings by The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2012– 2013.

– What are the key strengths?

Nathan – Uni SYD is Australia’s oldest university. It has a strong shared identity, which binds a broad range of academic disciplines together as a single university community. This factor has helped us to shape our long-term strategy. Through our Strategic Plan 2011–15 we aim to strengthen our ability to enable the brightest researchers and the most promising students, whatever their social or cultural background, to thrive and realise their full potential to benefit both Australia and the international market. Our strategic objectives focus on areas that reach across academic disciplines to deliver leadership and change in areas of national and international importance.

– What are the disciplines with high demand from international students?

Nathan – We have a wide range of disciplines offered at Uni SYD and most importantly all these are widely sought after. Our academic disciplines include Agriculture and Environment, Architecture, Design and Planning, Business, Dentistry, Education and Social work, Engineering and Information tech- nology, Health Sciences, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Science, Arts, Music, and Veterinary Science. In addition to the main Camperdown/ Darlington campus we have a network of teaching campuses spread throughout the Sydney area. Across our campuses the University has lecture theatres, teaching spaces and studios with state-of-the-art facilities, laboratories with the latest technology, clinical schools to support professional development and experimental farms and research stations to put theory into practice.

- Is there a reason for you to especially focus on Sri Lankan students?

Nathan – Currently University of Sydney is the home to 51,394 students, which includes over 10,000 international students from 152 countries. So, Sri Lankan students can join this truly international environment and to gain from it. There are many benefits studying at Uni SYD. Many of our academics, teachers, are leaders in their field who give the students insights into the latest thinking and research in such fields. At the University of Sydney we teach the student to think critically and find solutions to real world problems. We also have an excellent student exchange programme with other leading universities in the world. We have been having many Sri Lankan students in the past and at present too and they are excellent students with a focus. We are very happy to have more students from Sri Lanka joining us and be able to shape their future.

Q- How is the living condition and safety in Sydney?

Nathan – Sydney has a population reaching over 4.4 million people and has excellent ratings in quality-of-life surveys based on the quality of its air and water, the beauty of its natural environment, and the level of infrastructure and services available. Every year, hundreds of students from around the world join Uni SYD. So, we are also committed to ensuring students safety on campus, and during commute to and from the university even though Sydney is a safe place in general. However, we offer specific health and safety tips for students while running a number of services designed to help maintain a safe campus, including security patrol officers, and induction courses to prepare the student for particular work or research locations.

Q– What are the advantages for Uni SYD graduates to stay in Australia after studies to get valuable work experience?

Nathan – At Uni SYD, we not only give our students the best possible academic knowledge to start their career but groom them to be leaders with critical thinking and questioning minds which we believe are essential tools for students before entering work place. Our courses are designed to have teaching in our classrooms to be linked to work in labs, libraries, teaching hospitals, research farms, building sites and galleries. With Australian introducing post study work visa for international students we believe our approach to tertiary studies will help students to succeed in getting valuable work experience at actual work place as employers look for quality as well as capabilities.

Q– How do you support student visa application and identify genuine students?

Nathan – The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has recently introduced streamlined visa processing arrangements for all university courses. Under this arrangement genuine students usually have to supply less evidence resulting in a faster visa application process. Uni SYD is also registered as a participant for streamlined visa processing. The university now takes the responsibility of enrolling a student as a genuine student coming over for the sole purpose of studying and qualifying thus qualifying for a student visa. In this process we heavily rely on our in country agents to give us accurate information. We are very happy with the way Edlocate as our agent in Sri Lanka has assessed the applications and assisted genuine students to join Uni SYD.

– Are options available for bright and high achieving students to join Uni SYD to graduate in an accelerated manner without going through A/L examination?

Nathan – Yes. We have our own Foundation Programme which caters to such students to enter the bachelor degree programme at year 1 after a year’s foundation programme. As long as a student is clever, focused and studious they can do well and graduate without wasting 2+ years doing A/L. This Foundation programme also caters to students who have sat A/L but do not have direct entry results.

Q– What are the available options for postgraduate studies?

Nathan – We have a wide range of postgraduate degree programmes both through course work and research. The faculties and schools are geared to assist prospective students to be guided in course selection and where necessary to identify academics to supervise post graduate research programmes. We are happy that Edlocate counselors work very closely with the university staff to assist students in this regard.- Ashwin Hemmathagama