Experience News

Study Gold Coast created the Student Support Sponsorship Framework this year to provide financial backing for member initiatives to directly benefit students in need as a result of COVID-19. The scope of the programs created by our member organisations were as varied as the needs of their students and demonstrated once again why our education and training sector continues to place the needs of our students as our number one priority.

Initiatives ranged from chef prepared frozen meals delivered directly to institutions to a camp for international boarding students who had been unable to see their parents for 6 months or more due to the extended lockdown.

"I didn’t think I could grow so much professionally in such a short period of time." Shreya Kulkarni is studying her Masters in Marketing at Griffith University. This is her remarkable account of her internship experience at HTG Solutions on the Gold Coast.

With the first wave of summer upon us and those long, lazy days ahead many students naturally start thinking about spending more time at the beach. Those crystal clear waters and golden sands are one of the city’s biggest drawcards and for a large number of international students that’s an irresistible prospect. But for many of them beach culture, much less the prospect of being able to swim in the surf, is as foreign and palatable as a Vegemite sandwich.

The lure of the beach is strong, but without the knowledge and confidence to navigate the waves the closest they usually get is being left high and dry on the sand. With that in mind the city’s only beachside university, Southern Cross, has partnered with Surf Life Saving Queensland to launch their Hit The Beach surf safety program through Study Gold Coast’s Vision 2020 partnership fund.

Gold Coast students have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to the city through the Gold Coast Student Excellence Awards in a gala event held at the HOTA outdoor stage. The five award recipients are all outstanding individuals who have demonstrated innovative leadership and initiative through their positive impact and the contributions they’ve made within their communities.

In presenting the inaugural awards Mayor Tom Tate praised not only the winning recipients but also the wider student community for their contribution to the city. 

In Italian a cappella translates to ‘in the manner of the chapel’ and while church choirs are often accompanied by the resounding presence of the church organ, in the broader artistic sense an a cappella group perform with their voices as the sole instrument.

Serotonin is Griffith University’s resident a cappella group. Established just 6 years ago the group already has an esteemed history, including performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and winning the national title at the Australian A Cappella Championship.  

With the Gold Coast Student Hub chalking up another milestone it was time for a little facelift just in time for its 2^nd birthday celebration. Newly installed backlighting has created a subtle shift to the interior warmth of the Hub, but it’s externally where the most noticeable changes have been made with aesthetic design features enhancing the garden and courtyard spaces.

The external structure is now complemented by a beautiful framework of Australian hardwood timber, with festoon lights adorning the covered garden area. The hardwood screen wraps around the front of the building providing better privacy for the courtyard with brilliant waves of colour traversing the floor and spilling over the front wall to create a vibrant street mural at the front of the building.

Jason loves the Gold Coast so much that he has no hesitation in recommending it as the ideal study destination. One of the real attractions in returning to the Gold Coast for Jason is the opportunity to live in a city where he feels at home among the locals. “I enjoy learning and living with locals, rather than moving to another place and hanging out with just Chinese friends, so I’m really looking forward to the new experiences and friendships I’ll make this time around.”

A group of international and local high school students had a taste of tertiary life this week at Bond University by engaging in a number of academic challenges. The High School to University Experience is a partnership between Bond University and local Education Queensland International schools, funded through Study Gold Coast’s Vision 2020 initiative. The experience is designed to give secondary students an idea of what studying at university on the Gold Coast is like.

The Gold Coast is the second largest council region in Australia and as such commands a massive budget and a lot of responsibility to its rate payers.