Does UNSW have a July intake for their Master of Risk Management? I can't find any documentation on this.

As a general rule, there is no difference in the study time between the Feb and July intake. With a 1 year program, go in during Feb and be back in Malaysia by Christmas. Go in during July and have your graduation in the winter of the following year. You don't get any more (or less) holidays between the different intakes while you're as a student.

1) Finance, Economics, Actuarial Studies are majors in the BEcons undergraduate degree. Yes, you can choose your subjects, as long as they correspond to a particular major.

2) Electives. Say you decide to major in Finance, but you would like to know a bit of the basics of Management. You can pick some subjects meant for Management major students as your breadth subjects. It not need be BCom related: if you want to get a feel of Computer Science you could enrol in INFO10001: Informatics 1: Data on the Web as your breadth.

3) Generally, it is cheaper to find a apartment/place and rent out, vs finding a single room. Of course, this is predicated that a) you have the funds to start up a brand new rental apartment b) you can find other people to share your place.

As for costs, they can be found of University of Melbourne's website. This is not spoon feeding land.

Foreign Residents are taxed even higher: 30%. People who are a Australian resident for tax purposes are tax free for the first $6000 they earn every financial year, and between $6,001 - $37,000 its 15% as the starting rate. What made you think foreign residents are taxed lower compared with Australian residents?

All international students are considered Australian residents for tax purposes, as long as they have applied for a Tax File Number (TFN). If you do not provide your TFN to your bank/employer, they are obliged to withhold 45%, the maximum tax rate of what you earn.

This means if you do not give your bank your TFR, 45% of any interest you earn will be withheld. Similar with employment. Everyone who is in Australia needs a TFN. And you can apply for one from the ATO.

You only need to file a tax return if you have tax withheld from you. Usually there will be a PAYG slip given to you detailing how much of your income was withheld. You can file your tax returns online, and usually any refunds will be paid to you within 2 weeks. Paper tax returns take longer.

I know the tax return forms can be intimidating. Which is why I recommend that people use the e-Tax filing, which has build-in checks to ensure your file them correctly (as much as possible). See also the extremely helpful introduction on the front page by member Caspersky.

My only gripe with e-Tax is that it is a Windows application. It is useless under WINE, and Mac users have to bootcamp just to file their tax returns.

If you do provide your TFN to your bank, you only pay tax on interest if your interest has returns of >$500/month.

Only if you only earn interest, dividends and royalties in Australia. Anything else would be withheld at the rate of 45%.

Not quite. If you are a Australian resident for tax purposes, and the only source of income is your bank interest, and your bank interest earned is less than $6000/financial year, and you have not had tax withheld from payments made to you (usually that would happen if you have given your bank your TFN), one does not need to file a tax return.

1) Having a TFN does not mean one is a Australian resident for tax purposes. Neither does it mean you need to file a tax return. If you do not earn any income in a financial year, you do not have to file a tax return. You, of course, can only file a tax return if you have a TFN. (Strictly speaking you can file a tax return even without a TFN, but it would be hell tracing everything that you have earned and/or had withheld)

2) The ATO does say "[If] you receive, or you are credited with, interest from any source within Australia, you must declare the interest as income.". Simply put, it means any interest you earn (even if it is $1), is considered part of your income, and you need to declare it. Some people do not consider bank interest as "income" (you didn't do much work to earn it anyway).

It does not say "If you earn any bank interest, you need to file a tax return".

3) Your first $6000 you earn as interest in a year is tax free.

Assuming you are a Australian resident for tax purposes, if you do not work, have no income, and only "earn" bank interest less than $6000/financial year, one does not need to file a tax return.

If you do not work, have no income, but your bank interest nets you more than $6000/financial year, you will need to file a tax return, even if your math indicates that they have taken the correct rate from you. It is very possible that the ATO sends you a bill for $0.

If you do work, you will need to put in a tax return, even if you have earned less than $6000/financial year.

For instance, if during a financial year, your part-time job paid you $2500, and your bank interest made you $100 better off, the assessable income is $3000, far below the $6000 tax free limit. You still need to file a tax return.

If your part time job paid you $5900 that financial year, and you got $101 in bank interest, your assessable income will be $6001. You will need to file a tax return. However, only the $1 over the $6000 is taxed.

The general rule is, if you do not have tax withheld from income, or PAYG withheld, you don't need to file a tax return.

Glad to know that I'm not the only person. There must be something in the air in Australia. I went back to Malaysia and didn't stop sneezing for days. And I'm not even from the Klang valley.

Funnily enough, I do know people who have moved up to Brisbane from Melbourne due to their allergies. Hay fever is extremely common here, especially amongst Caucasians.

If you are ethnically Chinese or Indian, never identify yourself as "Chinese" or "Indian". They assume you come from China and the Indian subcontinent respectively. Malaysian's overall have a better reputation from nationals of these 2 nations. For now. At the rate we're going we're going to end up worst off: some Malaysians do themselves no favours not trying to integrate to this place, while the China Chinese and India Indians see you as 2nd rate samaritans.

Malaysia does not have dry and cold winters. Neither do we have hot and dry summers. That said, it can get hotter in Brisbane and Melbourne during summer than what we're used to in Malaysia.



It all depends on where you live. Stay in certain suburbs and you'd think you are in China/India/Africa/Vietnam rather than Australia. I'm not aware of any Malaysian clusters in Brisbane (through the QUT student apartments come close).


What is it with people and going to "kampung" places? If you want the bright shiny lights go north. The southern hemisphere can be rather dull for those who live to be overly stimulated by external forces.

To put things into the Malaysian context, if Melbourne was KL, Brisbane would be Penang I suppose. Perth would be more towards Kuching/Kota Kinabalu. Adelaide would be Kuantan or Malacca. I don't think anyone would dispute Canberra is like Putrajaya, minus the shiny lights of the big city an hour's drive away.

Member apsidewatch, JPA scholarship student?

This post has been edited by haya: Aug 13 2011, 08:29 PM

I'm not sure about "normal", but it does take a while. The standard processing time is 1 month. Be patient. Even if you're starting work now, you can give your TFN to your employer at a later date.

Numerically, there are more Malaysians in Melbourne. QUT only has its fair number of Malaysians because of the MARA and MOE students doing education in QUT (The MOE has a special arrangement with QUT to train the future teachers of Malaysia).

Perth is like a second East Malaysia, partially because for a very long time there was a direct Kuching-Perth flight. The close distance also helped.

As for food, I don't come to Australia for Malaysian food. This is not to say I do not have moments where I do think of the familiar tastes of home (having Chef Wan on Masterchef didn't help, and I don't even watch Masterchef!), but I don't actively go out and seek Malaysian food. This is not to say that I would turn down an invitation for a meal with Malaysians (can't wait for raya), but seriously, what is wrong with the local palate?


As I said, it all depends on where you live. If you want to "feel like in another country", don't cluster around the suburbs where your kind are.

I will let other members discuss on the finer points of B.Com, but generally, students in Australia in single degree's have a lot of flexibility in the subjects they can choose, unlike the straight jacket of Malaysian academia. They can be called by different names like "electives" or "breadth subjects", but essentially you can pick any subjects you want to do from other faculties. Depending on your course, one can take up to 8 subjects from other faculties.

Generally a degree has 3 main components: core, major and electives. Core subjects are needed by all students in that course: for example all IT students need to do the fundamentals of programming, databases, networks and system architecture.

Once you have a (somewhat) grasp of what your qualification has to offer, one can choose your major. For instance, in a B.IT, should one decide to focus on software development, one can take subjects that focus on software development, application/network programming, even software development methodologies.

The point of electives is to give students the opportunity to broaden their views. Some will stick with their field. I know B.IT students who have never taken any subject outside those offered by the IT faculty/school. On the other end are students who want something different. I've seen people take accounting, language, math, law, creative industries, etc subjects as their B.IT electives.

Of course, most of the time people will just take the 1st year subjects as their electives. Many of the higher level units have prerequisites, which assume a fair bit of existing knowledge. I mean, there is not point enrolling in a algorithm data structure subject when you don't know the Big O notation.

All subjects have a course outline, which set out the assumed knowledge, prerequisites and assessment types. All are publicly available on the websites of all Australian universities.

1) Where do you get your information online?

2) If its from a government website, what makes you think they're giving wrong information to you?

You don't need a TFN to open a superannuation account, and once you do get your TFN you can give it to your superannuation fund. If you're not working yet you don't need a superannuation account. More often than not your employer will just put your contributions into their superannuation fund of choice, (usually with little or no input from you) regardless of what you have, and you'd have to manually change it to your own preferred superannuation fund.

I would strongly advice against deciding your course of study in Australia on potential migration pathways.

Australian immigration changes their rules like people change shirts. And most course are 3-4 years long, A lot can happen in that time, and the rules that were in place when you went in will more often than not have been modified beyond recognition when you graduate.

Occupations are taken off and on the SOL list regularly. Also, keep in mind that the occupations on the SOL do not necessarily reflect what is truly in demand in the job market. While the SOL is influenced by lobbyists in the industry, simply having a occupation on the SOL does not mean it is "in demand" by the workforce.

Finally, keep in mind the new rules stipulate that all potential migrants need a IELTS band of 8.0 across all modules.

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-ski...ity-english.htm

Quote: "You must provide [a] IELTS Test Report Form (TRF) Number to show you have a band score of at least eight on each of the four components – speaking, reading, listening and writing" (my emphasis)

Yes, we know that this will cut out 90% of all applicants. Yes, there have been legal challenges regarding the English language test. Some might even argue that the current policy favors white people from English-speaking nations. International students discuss this matter at great length when they get together.

But "unreasonable"? That is a very wide word that ignores other variables when a nation decides to accept an individual to settle in its territory on a permanent basis.

This post has been edited by haya: Aug 26 2011, 08:16 AM

Yep. Registered post.

1) Registered post is called Pos Daftar by Pos Malaysia:
http://www.pos.com.my/pos/personal/special...pos_daftar.aspx

To reiterate what member Limeuu has said, it is NOT pos express or pos laju. All it does it send it via international air mail, but with a tracking number that allows the letter to be tracked. The delivery time is no different that ordinary international air mail.



That is not completely correct. In Australia, your registered post envelope will be deposited with the nearest post office closest to you place of residence. Just trot over and pick it up. Note that you will have to provide ID tp pick it up, and the ID must correspond to the person addressed to on the envelope. Unfortunately this means you can't get someone else to pick it up for you.

2) No bank in Australia allows the opening of a bank account in Australia over the internet. Blame Al-Qaeda for giving the federal government the excuse to enact the Financial Transactions Reports Act.

As mentioned in the front page, more international banks such as HSBC and Citibank allow you to open a "linked" account in Australia with their Australian branches if you are a existing customer with a financial relationship with them. However, there are some tough opening requirements: HSBC requires you to have a opening deposit of $10,000, and to deposit at least $2000/month to avoid bank fees.

Can you? No kidding.

I'm aware that CBA does allow the opening of accounts online. It makes sense that you can only withdraw after you've shown some ID and satisfied the 100 point test, but I was under the impression that it was inactive until you rocked up to a branch showed ID before you could transfer money in.

I suppose that's how CBA captures the international (student) market.

Time to update the front page then!

I think the point is that Foreign Telegraphic Transfers (TT) of funds, you are slugged twice for "transaction fees". For instance, Maybank in Malaysia charges RM10 for a TT, and when the funds arrive in your Australian account your bank will take a cut (about 2%) if the funds. (Assuming you're transferring A$10,000, that's A$200 taken by the bank).

With bankdraft's/cheques/whatever they're called these days, the draft/cheque only costs RM5 from Maybank, while the Australian bank does not take a cut from the draft/cheque's funds. If you make out a draft for A$10,000, A$10,000 will be deposited into your account. No more, no less.

2) Not sure why most people seem to have issues with signing up for a postpaid "cap" plan. I put in a order, and the next morning at the godly hour of 7.30am there was a courier on my doorstep with my phone.

For newcomers, prepaid is the best way to go. No credit checks, minimal identification, and if you outgrow the plan, you can port the number that you've given to everyone you met at o-week to a new provider. MNP here is fast. I've seen porting done within the day itself.

I'm starting to see a pattern here: they're quite lax when it comes to ordering services online.

What factors are holding you back from simply taking it up?

Short answer: way too early.

If you have access, privilege and ability of of staying in Malaysia Hall for a full academic semester, I'd take it. It is very hard to decide on accommodation when you've never seen it, and are not familiar with the surroundings.

Anyone who selects their place of accommodation without actually seeing the place is usually setting up themselves for a world of hurt. Especially when its a 6 month - 1 year contract for a dump of a place. Then we see them come begging to the university accommodation office asking for help to break the lease.

It will be rare finding 6 bedroom accommodation, especially around the Kelvin Grove area, and those that haven't been demolished to make way for 2-3 bedroom walkup apartments are few and far in between. And even if you do find one, with the new Housing Code limiting how many unrelated people can live under one roof, you may not find a willing landlord.

http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/bccwr/lib18..._house_code.pdf
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/student...6-1225774550203
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland...90916-fq0u.html

I would adjust your expectations. Don't expect to find one "just 5-10 minutes walking distance to the uni". Either the group of 6 splits up into 2 separate accommodations or you find a place somewhere further out.

Make sure your "loud voice while playing games/listening to music late at night" doesn't ruffle the feathers of your neighbors also.

It depends on the individual university entry requirements, but in general, yes, you will need either IELTS or TOFEL as proof of English language competency.

Queenslanders are a tricky one, as by definition many of them have more than 6 (decently sized in some cases) rooms. However most of the time those with "12-18 bedrooms" are reconditioned queenslanders with the living room walled up to create 2 x 3 boxes as "rooms".

The regulation is only effective in as so far that people dob in such people to council who then takes legal action (usually just a fine, then life goes back as usual). The issue of having too many people under one roof is that on-street parking usually becomes a problem, the bins usually overflow, the house is unkempt and destroy's the ambiance of the neighborhood.

The reason why this "no more than 6 unrelated people" rule was put in place was because they were jamming 20 people under one roof by putting them into the garage and balcony, with portable loos on the front lawn which was hardly cleaned and stank up the neighbors. (You should know that toilet cleanliness is not exactly a Asian trait) In highrise apartments, there were boarding up the balconies, degrading them into "overcrowded ghettos"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-15/sydn...exposed/2796982
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s3010745.htm

Some residential agents get around this by partitioning off the queenslander into 2-3 separate "houses" to get around the rule. This only means instead of having 2 toilets for 18 bedrooms they need 3 toilets per "house" (1 toilet per 6 rooms, usually non-communal accorss the 2-3 separate "houses")

Student accommodation slips through the loophole in that they're not a "dwelling". In other words they're regulated as if they are motels/hotels. Of course, this just means they have to do (and charge) what the short-term accommodation regulations stipulate (tl;dr: significantly higher capital investment and costs).