Postgraduate Engineering Degrees...suitable for PR?

** Please note that the following post holds information which is only applicable for Post Graduate Engineering degrees OR for people who want to accredit their degrees from the Australian Engineering Council.

An Important fact

I have seen people asking the suitability of Masters in Engineering Science (MEngSci) or in general, postgraduate engineering degrees for applications to a residency. Here are some common questions...

Can I apply for PR after my engineering postgraduate degree from an Australian University?

Yes you can, but first you will have to get your bachelor's engineering degree approved for a positive skills assessment from Engineering Council of Australia. Once Engineering Council issues a positive skills assessment for your undergraduate engineering degree, you will be able to claim points for Australian education and nominating an occupation on the SOL. As of now most engineering professions like Electrical engineer, telecom engineer fetch 60 points.

** Please note that getting a positive skills assessment and getting your undergrad engineering degree is not the same thing. Engineering Council will give you a positive skills assessment BUT will not accredit your degree if you are from India/Pakistan. But you dont need to worry about that as long as you can get a positive skills assessment and apply for PR. :)

1. Can I use a postgraduate degree to apply for a residency?

Answer: No, normally for most skilled migration visas that are not employer-sponsored, you cannot use your Australian postgraduate engineering degrees (or any postgrad engineering degree for that matter) to apply for migration, unless ur BE fulfills the requirements for the visa (i.e. either an Australian BE or a BE from a country of the Washington Accord, or some other BE with 3-4 years of experience).

So what Do I do then?

You cannot get your degree accredited but you can still get a positive skills assessment from engineering council of Australia based on your undergraduate engineering degree. If you can get your undergraduate engineering degree approved for a positive skills assessment, then you can claim points for your Australian postgraduate degree while applying for PR.

** Please note we are only talking about post graduate engineering degrees. Not IT or management ones.

What you do is to get a positive skills assessment for your undergraduate engineering degree from Engineering Council of Australia and then apply for your PR.

2. Why is that so?

Answer: Because Engineers Australia (IEAust) does not accredit any postgraduate degrees regardless of which university they are from. They always carry out the skills assessment for migration purposes with the BE degree. (Or BTech as it is called in some countries)

3.Any way I can have my postgraduate degree accredited?

Answer: In short, NO. It is a blanket policy that does not change from case to case. And there is no indication this will change in the foreseeable future.

4.Any other points to be aware of?

Sometimes they do issue succesful skills assessments based on PG degrees, but that is only if the BE is seen as insufficient to underpin the occupation. The assessment always focuses on the undergraduate degree.

5.Any evidence to back these claims?

I have contacted Mr Paul Gillespie, associate director for migration skills assessment, IEAust, and the OSQA office of IEAust as well, and the points I posted above are based on their emails.

Source 1: Email correspondence with Mr Paul Gillespie:

Dear Sir

Assessment is primarily centered around the undergraduate (ug) degree.

If you have an Australian accredited engineering undergraduate degree you may apply using the Australian Qualifications Application Form. Otherwise a CDR will be required.

A PhD in engineering would add value to the assessment but the generic competencies originate from the ug degree


Paul Gillespie
Associate Director
Migration Skills Assessment
Engineers Australia


Source 2: Email correspondence with OSQA office:


Dear Sir,

Thank you for your enquiry.

Essentially, the primary focus of assessment is on the undergraduate qualification in all cases. However, that is not to say that the postgraduate qualification is not considered ... sometimes a successful assessment in the applicants's nominated occupation / category needs to be based on the COMBINED Bachelors/Masters, if the Bachelors is not assessed as fully underpinning the nomination.

It is of little consequence from which country the qualification has been obtained - all non-accredited qualifications are assessed on a case-by-case basis ... and no postgraduate qualification is accredited from our perspective anyway. Very little significance is paid to the PhD qualification in the assessment of qualifications in support of Migration.


Regards... Gareth JONES


Migration Skills Assessment Team
Education and Assessment
Engineers Australia

__________________________________________

Ahmad Mujtaba StudIEAust.

Junaid

Migration Agent Registration Number: 0964018

Living expense working part time in Sydney?

Here is another question frequently asked by prospective international students wishing to come to Australia for future studies.

1. Are part time jobs available in Australia/Sydney/Melbourne for international students?
2. Are these part time jobs enough for making a decent living and covering all living expenses?
3. Would I be able to pay off my tuition fees by working part time?
4. Can I get a job to work in my own field/profession?
   

First of all visit this URL to get an idea of cost of living in Australia as an international student.

https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/global/live-in-australia/living-costs

So let us deal with all these questions one by one.

1. Are part time jobs available in Australia/Sydney/Melbourne for international students?

Yes, there are plenty of part time jobs available for international students in Australia, especially the major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide etc. I haven't lived in a small town but I am sure there must be lots of part time jobs in small towns too.

The first place to find a job are two websites, seek.com.au and mycareer.com.au

However, the above two websites mostly advertise professional jobs and do not have blue collar jobs listed on them.

The big super market companies, fast food chains, gas stations like the following:

1. Coles
2. Woolsworth
3. KFC
4. MacDonald
5. Opporto
6. Pizza Hut
7. Domino's
8. Nandos
9. Hungry Jacks
10. BP
11. Shell
12. Caltex
13. Bunnings Ware House
14. Harvey Norman
15. Domain
16. Bing Lee
17. Myer
18. David Jones
19. JBHifi
20. Greater Union
21. FedEx Kinkos
22. Bob Jayne T-Marts
23. Borders Book stores
24. Dymock Book stores

25. Dick Smith Electronics Australia

26. Boost Juice Bars
27. Krispy Kreme | Coffee and Doughnuts
28. Fitness First Australia
29. Clive Peters
30. Hoyts
31. Aldi

etc are some of the few places where you can get a part time blue collar jobs. Apart from the above mentioned established businesses, there are a plethora of Indian/Turkish/Thai/Chinese/Japanese restaurants where you can get work.

Please note that according to law you are only allowed to work 20 hours per week.

You should be able to easily make around $1000 per month which would cover your expenses. Getting a job at first is not easy because most new arrivals from the Asian countries don't know how to make a resume, prepare for the interviews and give the right answers to all the tricky questions of the interviews. I will make another post on that issue later on. So that answers question number 1.

2. Are these part time jobs enough for making a decent living and covering all living expenses?

As already mentioned, yes, working part time will cover your monthly expenses very easily and you will be able to balance your studies.

3. Would I be able to pay off my tuition fees by working part time?

The simple, honest and straight forward answer is a BIG NO!. You cannot make your tuition fees from simply working 20 hours per week. However, you might be able to do that during the vacations in which you are allowed full time work.

There are two academic semesters every year in Australia. From Feb to June and from August to Nov.

You get one month worth of vacations between June and August and almost 3 months worth of vacations between Nov and Feb.

You can work full time during these vacations. By working full time you can earn around $4000 in one month but the tuition fees per semester for four subjects these days is around $10,000.

So you will not be able to make the tuition fees for your semester which starts in August as there is only one month to available for full time work.

However, you have a good chance of making your tuition fees by working full time three months for the semester which starts in Feb.

All this depends whether your employer is willing to give you full time work or not. Towards the end of your semester, you should start looking for full time work.

So this brings us to the end of question number three.

4. Can I get a job to work in my own field/profession?

If you have valid experience and skills to match the requirements of the Australian work force, then, you surely can get a part time job in your own field.

For example, those who are from IT backgrounds can easily bag a part time job (provided there is one), if they have a certification plus some relevant experience. Plus not to forget how you make your resume and how you present yourself in the interview.

But if you are coming straight out from the university with no relevant work experience or certifications, you will have a hard time convincing employers to employ you. You can also show your projects and assignments as work experience. Any thing practical can be shown as work experience. Good marks and grades only help you when you can actually translate your academic experience into valuable and profitable expertise for your employer.

But finding an employer who wants to employ you for 20 hours per week is a little bit difficult since most professional jobs require full time work which is not allowed to international students. But keep searching and you might get one.

Hope all questions have been answered.

Kind Regards

Junaid

Migration Agent Registration Number: NO LONGER REGISTERED AGENT

Plssss Haaalp; Which Uni to chose

I often get frantic and desperate SOS messages from different people around the world asking me the same question.

Which university in Australia should I chose for my studies?


I have answered this question numerous times and this time I am going to put here on the blog so that the rest of the world can also see it and hopefully avoid asking it.


Here is a question which one Mr. Zeeshan in his email sent me from India.

I have an admit at the foll. univ

1. University of Sydney for Master of Engg in Wireless Engineering

2. University of New South Wales for Master of Engg in Telecommunication Engg

3. University of Tech Sydney for Master of Engg in Telecommunication Engg

Now this is the typical sub-continental style of choosing a university for post graduate studies. Just get an admission into any university as long as it has a good reputation. All the three universities named above have a very good reputation and all of them have a name in the industry. But should one chose a course in the university simply because of the reputation of the university? What if the course one enrols in, is not that good? What if the same course is being delivered much better in a different university with a lower ranking?

Here is my advice.

DO NOT CHOSE UNIVERSITIES BECAUSE OF THEIR REPUTATION AND NAME. Chose a course which you like and then enrol yourself in the university which is providing the course of your choice.

The next question would be; how do I choose a course?

Well, you have to do little bit of home work for that question to be answered.

The first thing is to visit the website of universities and check the course descriptions given on the website. All the subjects available in a particular course/program are listed on the websites of well reputed universities. The contents which will be taught in each subject are also listed on the website of the course. The number of assignments, quizzes, exams and lab work is also mentioned on the website. The availability of the subjects throughout the year is also mentioned on the program website.


So the first thing is to select a course/program. Then compare the course contents of the program with the course contents of a similar course being offered in another university.

At the end of the day you should be having a list of 5 courses in different universities. Compare the course contents, subject descriptions, topics covered etc. of all the courses you are interested in and then finally chose the course you would like to enrol in.

Once you have done, you can send your application to the university.

The bottom line is that dont chose a university based on the name. Chose a university based on the course contents it is offering in a particular area.

If there is any information lacking on the website of the course/program, send an email to the program leader or course coordinator who is always willing to help international students as they bring in lots of valuable cash.

Hope this answers the question.

Junaid

Migration Agent Registration Number: 0964018