Why is this section important?

As a student planning on embarking on a journey of a lifetime, we do expect you, your parent and/or Advisor to have questions about quality, pricing, health and safety and other complex issues. It is best that you ask those questions and conduct your research before you apply to go abroad. Even if your own school manages a program to an overseas university, you should still be able to ask questions – most advisors are happy to provide support wherever they can. Just because your university is managing your application, does not mean it is going to be managed free. It is not unreasonable to pay an application or administrative fee to your university or indeed to a program. What is important however, is to check how much you pay for your overall program and what services are included. If you don’t get answers, you should be able to check the overseas university website and determine their tuition cost and any other compulsory costs (such as mandatory health insurance), convert it to local US$ dollars and compare this with the fee you are being charged for your study abroad experience. You are then in a better position to understand what services are being offered and whether the cost of those services equate the difference you pay beyond the Host University’s tuition fees. As mentioned previously, it is reasonable to expect to pay fees. The question is how much and for what services.

All AEC partner universities in Australia and New Zealand offer services ranging from on-arrival orientation, campus counseling, medical/health centers, tutoring where required and other support services. All students also have access to the university’s housing services as well as all universities have arrangements to pick up students and/or provide specific instructions to get from airport arrival to campus or to campus housing. The list below is an example of typical services offered at universities:

• Airport pick up or specific instructions for arrival
• On campus housing
• After arrival (and settling in) an extensive university orientation program specially designed for international students
• Access to Student Buddies/Student Ambassadors or other contacts, who assist student after arrival
• Access to Mentors including Faculty/Administrative staff from International Offices
• Counseling
• Study skills support

Australian and New Zealand universities are also well serviced for amenities on campus. The list below is an example of campus amenities:

• Recreational facilities
• Housing support office
• Job centre where student jobs are posted
• Child care facilities
• Chaplaincy
• Pharmacy
• Student clubs and societies
• Libraries and computer labs
• Doctors/Dentists or other medical personnel (usually at campus Health Center)
• Emergency and Security Office (personnel)
• Prayer rooms/facilities
• Post office
• Canteens/eateries/bistros
• Student union offices
• Banks

The major advantage of using a North American program to handle your admission matters, rather than going direct to the university is the fact that students, their advisors and parents can:

1. Obtain advice from an organization that is accessible in North America and knows the overseas university and country

Your North American program (like the AEC Program) knows the university’s criteria, assists with credit transfer, subject selection, financial aid, housing and visa support and of course briefings about life in Australia or New Zealand generally. Therefore, instead of telephoning Australia/New Zealand direct to enquire about a program or an aspect of your application, you may contact the program (example, the AEC Program) direct via a toll free number. Also there is no `14-21 hrs’ time difference between you and the overseas university to deal with!

The AEC is not the only program sending students to Australia and New Zealand. There are many programs operating with variances in pricing and even services. It is therefore, important to check out all programs and then make a decision based on your requirements.

There are other compelling reasons why students choose to use programs:

1. You can pay your fees in local currency rather than be concerned about sending money overseas
2. You can lodge your application to the program, rather than spending money on postage sending your application and supporting documentation abroad
3. Many programs will accept applications to multiple universities, usually with the one set of support documents (e.g. your home school transcripts).
4. Any issues related to credit transfer, financial aid and payment for your program can be dealt with locally as the program can sort these issues out with your Home School. (Many US schools only pay out financial aid in US Dollars and are not able to convert their funds into Australian or New Zealand dollars)
5. The program takes responsibility to provide you access to housing and usually programs guarantee housing on arrival so you know where you are living.
6. The program usually provides pre-departure information and/or on-arrival information that is very specific to your region. Australian and New Zealand universities invest a great deal of resources to also provide information.
7. There are times when the university may accept applications through a program without any application fees.
8. The program provides support services all the way through – from the enquiry stage, to helping with subject selection, financial aid/consortium agreements with your home school, to transferring funds for your program and housing fees to pre-departure, on-arrival notes/orientation to ongoing monitoring, usually 24 emergency contacts whilst overseas and finally return home and arrangements to send transcripts and conversion of grade information to home schools.

In summary, the Program is not a large university structure which you need to penetrate to enquire about your application and related issues – the Program deals with you and ensures that matters are dealt with on your behalf.

The cheapest way to go to Australia and New Zealand is by applying direct. (Each university’s tuition fees are listed on their web sites.) However, as listed in the response to the previous question  it is not possible to get the benefits offered by programs if you apply direct.

Using programs can be expensive because programs usually package the tuition, medical, on-arrival orientation, various tours and administrative fees. As we mentioned earlier, it is not unreasonable to pay application and administrative fees. The question for students is how much can they afford and the services offered in return.

The AEC program is currently the only major Australia/New Zealand bound program  that  does not charge students going on semester/year abroad and full degrees (Bachelors, Masters and PhDs) any fees whatsoever for administration but instead charges the student the exact cost of tuition. The AEC also does not have an application fee but a refundable application deposit!

The AEC offers semester/year abroad and full degree students all services needed to take you from the point of enquiry to application, housing, subject selection, financial aid, visa, pre-departure, on-arrival, orientation, on-going monitoring, emergency response arrangements, departure/re-entry, to transcript on return.

How does the AEC offer a study abroad program at no additional fees to the student? We do this by:

• keeping overheads low – e.g. we don’t travel business or first class and we don’t spend on lobbying.
• not going crazy on every advertising opportunity as we realize we can’t be every where and serve every body
• making sound business decisions.
• remaining focused on student services rather than investing in convincing schools that they should be fair to all programs that promote study abroad to accredited universities abroad – this saves money for the AEC.

AEC funds itself through fees it collects from Australian and New Zealand universities for managing aspects of marketing and application processing on their behalf. These fees have no relevance to what students pay as students pay the Host University tuition fees. There are other programs that also represent Australian and New Zealand Universities. The AEC is not the only program. What is important to understand is that each program manages their infrastructure differently so take the time to understand what each program is able to do for you and at what cost. You then make a determination about how you wish to proceed.

Additionally, the AEC generates revenue from managing Internships, Work and Holiday Programs, Summer/Winter/Short Course admissions and Student Tours.

Our aim is also to ensure that North American school advisors understand that they can use the AEC as a vehicle for direct enrolment without having additional administrative fees charged to their students to go abroad. This is a win-win situation for students, advisors, home schools as well as the AEC program.

From time to time, we do hear from students and parents that the home school Advisor has recommended a particular program due to their familiarity with that program, even if the other program is more expensive or not what the student wants. Home schools sometimes have criteria that is not transparent but encourage only certain programs.

Some programs `lobby’ for business through impressive accolades and relationships (which they support through higher priced fee packages to students) which we believe is unnecessary as this leads to an increase in study abroad cost which discourages applications from students who come from lower socio economic backgrounds or students go into higher level of debt. Whilst competition is healthy, it must be a level playing field for all programs.

The AEC rejects the notion that a school should discourage their students from having access to any program that offers their student an opportunity to study abroad at an accredited university, particularly when as a part of the `accreditation’ process, the overseas school has already been checked out by the US Department of Education and qualifies for US financial aid!

The focus of the AEC is on direct enrolment for semester/year abroad and full degree programs, whilst not compromising service delivery. We believe the universities we represent are already accredited by the US Department of Education and approved for US financial aid and therefore, advisors at home schools should help in the process of advising students of all the opportunities they have of going abroad.