🇱🇰Study in Australia from Sri Lanka

Apply through the university's international portal or an authorised agent. Direct application is available at most universities for Sri Lankan citizens, and agents are widely used for the offer, deposit, and visa steps.

Have certified transcripts and certificates ready, with translations where needed. Universities may want your results verified through the Department of Examinations or the awarding university.

Most universities run February and July intakes and assess on a rolling basis. Apply two to three months ahead. Use the universities directory to shortlist and the deadline calendar for the recommended dates.

A first year in Australia costs roughly LKR 94 lakh to 1.9 crore for a student from Sri Lanka, converted from A$40,000 to A$80,000 at the rate above. Tuition is the part that moves: the rest (living costs, the visa, health cover) is fixed by the Australian Government and identical for every nationality.

Tuition runs from the low A$30,000s at regional and newer universities to the high A$40,000s and beyond at the Group of Eight. Living costs depend on the city: budget around A$30,000 a year, more in Sydney and Melbourne, less in Adelaide, Perth, and regional centres.

On top of that: the A$2,500 student visa, roughly A$500 to A$700 a year for single Overseas Student Health Cover, flights, and initial setup. See the cost-of-living breakdowns by city and the most affordable universities.

Sri Lanka is one of the eight eligible countries under Australia Awards Scholarships, funding full-time postgraduate study in Australia. This runs alongside the general international scholarships offered directly by Australian universities (see the scholarships hub).

International students hold the subclass 500 student visa. You apply after you receive and accept an offer and the university issues a Confirmation of Enrolment. You must meet the Genuine Student requirement, which replaced the Genuine Temporary Entrant test in March 2024, and show genuine access to funds.

Sri Lanka is at student-visa Evidence Level 2, having moved up from Level 1 in late 2025. Home Affairs sets evidence levels from a weighted index across five factors: visa cancellations (25% weighting), refusals for a fraud reason (40%), other refusals (10%), the rate of visa holders becoming unlawful non-citizens (15%), and subsequent protection-visa applications (10%). An index below 1.0 sits at Level 1, an index between 1.0 and 2.7 sits at Level 2, and anything above 2.7 sits at Level 3. Sri Lanka's index crossed above 1.0 in late 2025, moving it to Level 2, but it is nowhere near the 2.7 threshold that puts Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh at Level 3. In practice this means more upfront financial and English evidence than Sri Lanka faced before, but a lighter document check than the Level 3 countries.

Home Affairs' own student visa program report puts Sri Lankan volumes in context. In the six months to 31 December 2025, Sri Lankan citizens lodged 4,397 student visa applications (2.1% of the national total, down 2.0% on the same period a year earlier) and were granted 4,076 (2.3% of the total, down 21.8%), as overall applicant numbers cooled. The onshore grant rate for Sri Lankan applicants rose across the year, from 73.4% in the quarter to December 2024 to 85.6% in the quarter to December 2025; the offshore grant rate eased over the same run of quarters, from 94.1% to 87.3%. Sri Lankan media later reported a sharper jump in refusals into 2026, citing Home Affairs and Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing about 38% of Sri Lankan student visa applications refused in February 2026, a level still well below Nepal (65%), Bangladesh (51%), and India (40%) in the same reporting.

Where Sri Lankan applications run into trouble it is usually over source of funds, exchange-control paperwork for moving money out of the country, or a study plan that does not fit the applicant's background. A documented savings history addresses most of it. Sri Lanka's exchange controls have also pushed some families toward informal undiyal or hawala money-transfer networks to move tuition and living-cost money out of the country. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka treats these transfers as a money-laundering offence, and Sri Lankan academics writing in The Island have specifically named students funded from home as easy targets for bogus brokers, since the transfers are unregulated and unrecoverable if a broker disappears with the money. Send fees and living costs through a bank or the university's own payment gateway, not an informal broker.

Full detail on the visa itself, conditions, and family members is on the subclass 500 page.

Most bachelor’s and master’s graduates qualify for a Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), which gives two to three years of full work rights. That skilled work is the usual step toward permanent residence through the points-tested visas.

Check where you stand with the points calculator and track demand in the SkillSelect invitation rounds.