Aayushi Pandey completed her graduation — in business administration — from Calcutta’s J.D. Birla Institute in 2016. She hailed from a business family and was looking for a postgraduate degree in business from abroad. “Keen to study abroad, I decided on Australia because of the part-time work and internship opportunities for international students that the country offers,” she says.

When Aayushi was a student, the focus countries were the UK and US. The situation has gradually changed in the past couple of years and students have started choosing Australia and New Zealand where post-study work visa options give them the opportunity to have a better career.

In Australia, Aayushi decided on Sydney because of its reputation as a global city and financial centre, apart from being rated as one of the best cities to live in. “More importantly, it is so culturally diverse; there are more international students than domestic students. This helps create a global mindset,” she notes.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. Picture courtesy: UNSW

While browsing through the list of Australian universities, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney appealed to her. There were two reasons for that: it was ranked among the top universities of the world and had the highest student employability ratings in the country. She opted for a master of commerce degree from the UNSW School of Business.

Aayushi’s experience in the UNSW classroom was quite different from that in India. Most subjects were taught based on real-life case studies. Students had to approach them as a team and find solutions to the real-life problems.

A week after her classes had begun, she landed an internship at a startup in Singapore. In her next semester, she approached the UNSW careers and employment department, where she was taught soft skills such as how to write a resume, how interviews are conducted in Australia and what the expectations of employers are.

After completing her degree, Aayushi had the option of joining her father’s business. Instead, she decided to look for a job in India. UNSW Careers and Employability guided her to UNSW India. After a round of quick interviews, she was selected to join the UNSW’s India office, where she is now guiding students on how to pursue studies and, eventually, a career abroad.