Education

Timetable

The schedule of the lessons is Monday to Friday, 8:45 am to 3 pm, with breaks for lunch and snacks. Extra-curricular activities such as soccer practice, dance classes, etc is done after school hours or Saturday mornings.

Transport

The government schools offer subsidised public transport if necessary but most students who are enrolled in the schools, usually live around the geographic area limit of school and are able to go walking or by bicycle.

School year calendar

Australia is in the South Hemisphere; therefore the academic year coincides with calendar year, starting in the end of January and finishing in December. The summer vacations are the biggest school holidays (period of 6/7 weeks) and during the school year there are also small breaks usually of about 10-14 days between “terms” (2 terms per semester).

Not all states go on holidays at the same time, for example the vacations of Queensland generally begins 1 week before NSW which begins 1 week before the State of Victoria. This difference is most likely in place so to maximise holiday and tourist places, which would then extend for longer.  The timetable of school vacations are generally in April, July and September. The beginning of the holidays in public schools also differ by around 1 week from private schools.

Difference between private and public schools

There are private and public schools. Private schools in general are related to a religion and usually offer more options in music and sports. In both all students have to use uniforms but in the private schools the rules are more restricted on the use of a complete uniform.

The educational courses and standards of all high schools are very similar and all prepare students for the same nationally recognised qualifications in the country. Some schools also offer in the years 11 and 12 professional qualifications level for Certificate 2 and 3.

Technical courses in Australia

The Certificates and Diplomas of vocational courses allow the students to enter and leave different levels of academic studies. The unify system of education allows the student to register for a Certificate course which then after completion may give credits to Diploma courses or Degrees, in case the student continues in a university.

Professional experience may also be recognised. The technical courses are often considered a "bridge" to enter in an Australian university. 

Note: Despite the qualifications being nationally recognised, some institutions and universities only accept them if there are internal agreements between them. So it is important for the international students intending to take a course as a bridge, to verify if they will be able to enter in the university and the course will be accepted or credited.

Universities in Australia

Australia has both government and private universities that offer to programs called "Under Graduate", and after graduation courses called "Graduate Programs or Post Graduate".

In general the time of duration of the Graduate Certificates is 6 months, Masters is 1 year, Masters Honor is 1.5 yeasr, Doctorate is 2 years. However, these degrees are not measured by time but by subjects/courses taken, therefore depending on how may subjects/courses you are doing per semester, it may impact the time it takes to complete them. Most of these post graduate courses however, do have a time limit to complete.