Study in Brisbane, Australia

Study in Brisbane, Australia

As it slowly winds its way from the mountainous country near Kingaroy to its mouth on the Pacific Ocean, the Brisbane River makes a series of lazy curves through the flat countryside of Eastern Queensland. Along the way, about 14 miles from the ocean, it passes through the large yet peaceful city, known as one of Australia's finest, that shares its name. Filled with spacious parkland and blessed with a sleek skyline and some of the most comfortable weather in all of Australia, Brisbane is a pleasant metropolis with an inviting atmosphere that belies its enormous size. It is also known for its laid-back lifestyle and aversion to stress, a surprising quality given that the city of over 2 million also serves as the capital of Queensland.
 
Ever since word got out about the comfortable lifestyle that can be found in Brisbane (to say nothing of inexpensive housing and the wide availability of employment), it has been growing rapidly. Migrants from elsewhere in Australia, along with a few from Southeast Asia and even further afield, have been packing into the outer suburbs, causing the city to slowly ballooned outward and occupy more and more of the floodplain on which it is built. Fortunately, Brisbane authorities have been active about keeping up with the expanding population, and infrastructure projects have helped to ensure that the city does not become overcrowded. Public transportation, long shunned by the typically car-crazy Australian populace, is growing increasingly popular in Brisbane, and both locals and visitors can now take advantage of a cheap and reliable (if somewhat underused) system of buses, trains, and ferries.
 
Of the estimated 1000 daily arrivals in Brisbane, a significant proportion are students of one kind or another who have come for an extended residential study program. Brisbane has a high concentration of colleges and universities scattered throughout its many neighborhoods, totaling several tens of thousands of students. All these young residents contribute significantly to Brisbane's thriving art and music scenes, and give it the unmistakable feel of a college town. One particularly notable institution is the University of Queensland, which maintains an achingly beautiful and verdant campus and is consistently ranked in the top 1% of world research universities. Other renowned schools in Brisbane include the Queensland University of Technology and the large and academically diverse Griffith University. Vocational and technical training is also widely available in Brisbane, and the city's residents seem to have an insatiable appetite for higher education of all kinds. Career colleges in Brisbane offer specialized degrees in a number of practical fields.
 
Brisbane, like many major cities in Australia and New Zealand, is an immensely popular destination for English language study, especially among students from Southeast Asia. Easily accessible from Indonesia and various countries on the Asian mainland, Australia offers both convenience and a high quality of life, and an immersion experience in Brisbane is a supremely enjoyable way to gain fluency in English language.