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Central Queensland University (CQUniversity)

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Why choose Central Queensland University (CQUniversity)?

Get to know the real Australia through Australia's largest regional university!

CQUniversity programs are designed to enrich your learning journey and provide you with a unique personal experience. With 14 locations across Australia, most located in the Sunshine State of Queensland, you can customise your study experience. Do you want to live on campus with kangaroos and enjoy canoeing and surfing while you study? Choose our original and largest campus in beautiful Rockhampton! Are you for the urban life and laneway eateries? Our metropolitan Brisbane campus is right in the heart of the city! Do you want to study where the rainforest meets the sea? Cairns could be the destination for you!

Study at one of the world's top young universities ranked among the top 2% of universities globally and Australia's only Ashoka U Changemaker Campus committed to Social Innovation; and start your unique study journey today.

Website
www.cqu.edu.au
Founded
1992
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Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Rachel Smith

Program
CQU Global Inbound Study Abroad
Job Title
International Recruitment Advisor
Passionate traveler and former teacher has found a career niche working in international education at universities!
Rachel Smith

What is your favorite travel memory?

How to choose just one?

I recently had a great experience in Rio de Janeiro at a student fair while traveling for work. I was talking with a student who was interested in studying on our Brisbane campus. He'd previously studied in Brisbane for short studies and wanted to go back to do a full degree.

I'm a Brisbane native recently moved to Sydney, and while we were chatting, it came out that we had lived only a few streets away from each other! We had visited the same restaurants, and he had performed at one of my favourite live music venues. We laughed a lot when we realized we'd probably been in the same places at the same time, but didn't meet until Rio! The distance between Brazil and Australia didn't seem big after that.

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

As a former teacher, I've previously worked with kindergarten through to high school age students. Working for CQUniversity was my first chance to work with older students.

It's been nice to interact with students more as equals rather than as a 'teacher' (or in the case if the kindergarten students, 'mum'!). I'm here to help still, but it's a much flatter hierarchy.

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

It's not a specific story, but I love it when students had such a great time that they then choose to return again to Australia. Usually, they come back with friends or family, and they do big travels through Australia including to the locations they studied at before.

Just one story - we had a student do one term Study Abroad who loved it so much that she later re-applied to finish her degree with us!

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

I would take the Outdoor Pursuits class as part of our Study Abroad program at our main Rockhampton campus. It's only available there, so it's one-of-a-kind.

It's a class that teaches leadership, teamwork and environmental consciousness whilst enjoying surfing, canoeing, hiking, etc. What a great way to get study credits and get to know your fellow students - and also to have the whole Australian outdoors as a classroom!

What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?

We introduce students to the whole of Australia - the cities, which everyone has seen on television, but then the lesser-traveled areas.

It's a genuine joy to introduce regional Australia to international students and hear their stories. I was once a Study Abroad student that chose to go to a regional university of just 500 students and it was really a once in a lifetime opportunity to take the road less traveled. So I love to encourage students to take that same journey with us.

I'm particularly proud when we do the graduation parties for Study Abroad students and get to hear the student stories - it really makes the hard work worth it!

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

Being people, not auto-responses.

I've worked a lot of jobs, from a check-out operator through to my current job in international tertiary education, but whatever the industry is, people just don't react well if you treat them like they're all the same.

Increasingly, businesses are recognizing that rather than the emotional equivalent of fast-food, you need to provide people with a hearty meal (just to drag out the metaphor!). The personal touch goes a long way.

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