University of Auckland

Auckland teaches the full professional range — medicine, engineering, law, business — and is the only New Zealand university in the upper reaches of the global rankings. Its business school holds the three international accreditations that matter to employers.

The campus is in the central city, so students live among the working population rather than on a separate campus, and Auckland is where most of the country's graduate jobs are.

Auckland is New Zealand's largest university and admission is decided against the requirement for the individual programme, with the limited-entry professional programmes considerably more competitive than the general standard.

• Completed Class 12 from a recognised board for undergraduate entry, meeting the subject prerequisites the programme lists — mathematics and sciences for engineering, and defined science subjects for health and biomedical programmes.
• A recognised bachelor's degree for postgraduate entry, with the cognate background the programme requires and weight on 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 most postgraduate applications.
• Academic references, a research proposal and confirmation of supervisor capacity for research degrees.
• Portfolios, auditions or interviews for architecture, fine arts, music and some health programmes, and separate selection processes for the limited-entry programmes.

Requirements and prerequisites are set programme by programme, so confirm them on the programme page for your year of entry rather than working from a general university minimum.

New Zealand universities charge international students per programme, and Auckland's fee is calculated on the points or courses you enrol in for the year, so the applicable figure is the one published against your own programme.

• The faculty and discipline set the level. Arts, business, science, engineering and the health disciplines are charged at clearly different rates, and a single Auckland figure would be wrong for most applicants.
• Fees are charged on the courses you take, so the annual cost moves with your enrolled load and with the balance of laboratory or studio courses in a given year.
• Compulsory charges sit outside tuition — the student services levy, approved medical and travel insurance for the length of your visa, and materials or equipment costs on some programmes.
• The business school's accreditation and its postgraduate programmes are priced separately from the general business undergraduate offering, so check which category your programme falls in.
• Fees are republished each year, and there is a defined process for confirming the amount for a given intake, so multi-year budgeting should assume increases.

Auckland is New Zealand's most expensive city to live in, and accommodation will be the larger variable in your total. Work from the programme fee and the university's published living cost estimate for your year of entry, and ask us to confirm both before you apply.

Funding here comes from three directions — university awards, faculty awards, and New Zealand government programmes for international students — and they are applied for separately.

• University international scholarships, assessed on academic record, with some considered from the admission application and others requiring their own submission.
• Faculty awards tied to a discipline or a named programme, published by the faculty, including business school awards attached to its postgraduate offering.
• Donor and endowed awards with narrower criteria — a field of study, a region, or a record of community involvement.
• Doctoral scholarships, which are the most substantial form of support available and typically combine fee cover with a living stipend, allocated in competitive rounds.
• New Zealand government international programmes, administered nationally and applied for outside the university on their own timetable.

Doctoral funding at New Zealand universities is worth investigating early, because international doctoral candidates are treated differently from other international students in several respects. Ask about the current position for your field before assuming the general international rate applies.

The main city campus sits in central Auckland, a short walk from the waterfront and the commercial district, so the university is embedded in the city rather than set apart from it.

• Several sites for different faculties — the city campus for most disciplines, Grafton for medical and health sciences beside the hospital, Epsom for education, and a creative arts presence in the city, with teaching spread accordingly.
• A large and diverse student body, being the biggest university in the country, with an extensive clubs scene covering faculty societies, cultural and national associations, performance, debating and volunteering.
• A strong Indian and wider South Asian community both in the university and across Auckland itself, which makes settling in easier than the distance from home suggests.
• University halls of residence in and near the city centre, applied for separately from your course and with their own deadlines; flat-sharing across the city follows for most students.
• The geography is part of the appeal — harbours on two sides, beaches, islands reachable by ferry, and a mild damp climate with no real winter by northern standards.
• International student support including orientation, visa and work-rights advice, health services and counselling.

Accommodation is the thing to settle first. Auckland rents are the highest in New Zealand, and hall applications close well before the semester begins.