Australian National University

ANU was founded by the federal parliament as a research institution and still has a higher share of postgraduate and research students than any other Australian university. Its politics, international relations and public policy programmes draw on being minutes from the national institutions they study.

Canberra is smaller and quieter than Sydney or Melbourne, with lower rent and a campus you can cross on foot — a trade-off worth thinking about honestly before you apply.

ANU is a smaller, research-intensive university in Canberra, and admission is assessed against the requirement for the individual programme, with the politics, international relations, economics and science disciplines being the ones Indian applicants most often come for.

• Completed Class 12 from a recognised board for undergraduate entry, meeting the subject prerequisites the programme lists — mathematics for economics, actuarial studies, engineering and much of science.
• A recognised bachelor's degree for postgraduate entry, with the discipline background the programme requires and close attention to the final years of study.
• English evidence through IELTS, TOEFL or another accepted test at the level set for the programme.
• Complete transcripts and certificates, and a statement of purpose for postgraduate coursework applications.
• Academic references, a research proposal and an identified supervisor for research degrees, where the fit with an existing research group carries real weight given the university's size.
• Additional written submissions for a small number of programmes, and for undergraduate entry a separate application for a place in a residential hall.

Confirm the requirement on the programme page for your year of entry, since prerequisites are set programme by programme.

ANU charges international students per programme, and the fee is built from the courses you enrol in across the year, so the number that applies to you is the one published against your own programme rather than a university average.

• The college and discipline set the rate. Arts and social sciences, law, business and economics, science, engineering and computing sit at different levels, and the spread is wide enough that a general figure would mislead.
• Fees are charged on enrolled courses, so a year weighted towards laboratory or field-based courses can cost more than a year of the same degree without them.
• Residential hall fees are a large and separate part of the total. ANU is unusual among Australian universities in how much of its student body lives in university accommodation, and the hall fee is charged separately from tuition and is a significant line in the budget.
• Compulsory charges outside tuition — the student services and amenities charge, overseas student health cover for the visa period, and field trip or equipment costs on some programmes.
• Indicative fees are republished annually, so multi-year budgeting should assume increases rather than the entry-year rate.

Take the figure from your own programme page for your year of entry, and budget accommodation alongside it. Ask us to confirm the current cost and its inclusions before you apply.

For a university of its size ANU runs a comparatively large set of awards, administered centrally and by its academic colleges, and several of the undergraduate awards are considered automatically from the admission application.

• Central international merit scholarships, assessed on academic record, with a number considered from the admission application rather than through a separate form.
• College and school awards tied to a discipline — the social sciences, economics, science and engineering colleges each publish their own.
• Donor and endowed awards with narrower criteria, including some tied to a field of research or a region.
• Research training funding for higher degree by research candidates, combining fee support and a stipend, allocated competitively and often in consultation with the prospective supervisor.
• Government-funded international programmes, applied for outside the university and on their own timetable.
• Residential hall scholarships and bursaries, which address accommodation cost rather than tuition.

For research degrees the funding conversation and the supervisor conversation are effectively the same conversation, so make contact with the relevant group early rather than after applying.

The campus sits at Acton, beside Lake Burley Griffin and walking distance from the centre of Canberra, and because the university is small and largely residential, life here feels more contained than at the big city universities.

• Residential halls and colleges are the centre of student life, with their own dining, tutoring, sport and traditions, and a much higher share of students living on campus than is usual in Australia. They are applied for separately from your course.
• A research-heavy, seminar-sized culture. Small cohorts mean more direct contact with academics, and undergraduates encounter working researchers earlier than they would elsewhere.
• Canberra is the national capital, which puts parliament, the public service, embassies, national institutions and policy think tanks within reach — the practical reason politics, international relations and economics students come here.
• A full clubs and societies scene despite the size, covering academic disciplines, cultural and national associations, debating, performance and volunteering, with intramural sport between the halls.
• A planned, quiet, green city with real winters and hot dry summers, bush and snow within a couple of hours, and Sydney a few hours by road.
• International student support covering orientation, visa and work-rights advice, health and counselling.

Apply for a hall place at the same time as the course. Canberra's private rental market is small, and living on campus is both the normal and the easier option here.