The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, at rank 45 according to QS, has many plus points to its credit for Indian students, including for those needing a little hand-holding to make it to an engineering course as well as programs dedicated to help international students find jobs.

UNSW Sydney, known as Australia’s global university, offers programs in architecture, art and design, business, engineering and law, medicine and science. It has a range of scholarships and grants for international students.

Admissions to the first batch of Diploma Program (DP), in Science and Engineering, are open now.

Explaining the plus points of the novel Diploma Program, Matt Henderson, UNSW Head of Partnerships, Asia, says it has been especially designed for those international students who are just a shade below the cut off parameters for the regular Science or Engineering programs.

“The Diploma Program creates additional pathways for international students. Not every student can make the cut into the entry (for Science and Engineering). The Diploma Program can help students make a pathway.

“It provides students with more structuring, hand holding, with added academic support, including in English, so that after the 11-month study period they are able to join directly into the second year of the degree program,” he adds.

Key features of the Diploma Program include an Academic English and Communication Skills course; curricula and courseware based on first year degree courses – all backed by intensive teaching.

Diploma Program students are taught separately and go through regular assessments, all of which helps them master the content, says Matt.

For admission to the program, the minimum requirement in English language proficiency, according to the IELTS, is 6.0. In some cases students scoring 5.5 are also admitted into the Diploma Program, with additional English language lessons thrown in.

According to Henderson, in case a DP student fails to make the grade to enter into the second year of the UNSW Science or Engineering stream, then he/she would be “released” for admission to another university whose entry requires less stringent marks.

“But we will try to ensure that all students remain in UNSW,” he added.

Located in Sydney, Australia’s student city, UNSW is one of the world's leading research and teaching universities and is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 130 countries.

Acceptance and successful commercialisation of UNSW's cutting edge research and innovation is facilitated by 3,000 faculty backed by international faculty.

Australia allows foreign students post a 4-year program to stay on to work in Australia for 2 years and have a path to permanent residency. This is further extendable for a similar duration on sponsorship by an Australian citizen, company.

A UNSW graduate can hope to recover the money paid for a 4-year graduate program in 18 months of work.

These two factors favour choice of UNSW as a destination of choice for study as well as a potential career destination.