If you are looking for official data on what it is actually like to live in Australia as an international student, the clearest public source is the QILT Student Experience Survey. The 2025 cycle asked undergraduate international students to rate nine aspects of their life in Australia, from personal safety on and off campus to transport, making friends, employment while studying, and overall living experience. The results are published as positive ratings, meaning the percentage of respondents who gave a favourable response, and each figure comes with a 90% confidence interval because the survey is a sample, not a census.

Across the largest source countries, overall living experience ratings sit in the high 80s to mid 90s. India recorded 96.2, the Philippines 96.7, Nepal 95.5, Indonesia 95.4, Singapore 95.7, Malaysia 93.2, Vietnam 92.9, Sri Lanka 92.2, China 91.9, Bangladesh 91.5, and Hong Kong 91.4. South Korea recorded 87.7. These are national-level results for undergraduate international students in their first year of study, not outcomes for any particular institution or individual.

What the Nine Experience Measures Cover

The QILT Student Experience Survey asks about nine specific areas of living experience. Knowing what each measure captures helps you read the numbers correctly.

Personal safety on campus is consistently the highest-rated area across nearly all source countries. India recorded 98.3, Vietnam 98.3, Indonesia 98.6, Nepal 98.6, the Philippines 98.6, Bangladesh 97.8, Sri Lanka 97.9, Malaysia 97.1, Singapore 96.9, Hong Kong 97.0, China 95.6, and South Korea 94.8. Ratings for personal safety off campus are lower but still strong, with the Philippines at 93.8, Nepal 93.2, India 91.0, Sri Lanka 90.5, Bangladesh 90.0, Indonesia 88.8, Vietnam 88.3, Singapore 84.8, Malaysia 82.9, Hong Kong 82.6, China 81.6, and South Korea 81.7.

Improving English skills is another area where most groups report very positive experiences. India recorded 98.4, Nepal 98.2, the Philippines 98.2, Bangladesh 97.0, Indonesia 97.0, Thailand 97.0, Sri Lanka 97.3, Singapore 97.1, Vietnam 96.4, Malaysia 95.9, Hong Kong 93.8, China 91.5, and South Korea 83.3.

Making friends shows more variation. The Philippines recorded 87.5, Singapore 86.8, India 86.2, Vietnam 87.3, Hong Kong 84.8, Indonesia 84.6, Sri Lanka 84.6, Malaysia 84.4, China 84.0, Bangladesh 82.1, Nepal 93.4, and South Korea 75.6. The spread suggests that social connection is one of the areas where experiences differ most between national groups.

Transport ratings vary widely. The Philippines recorded 86.8, Sri Lanka 83.8, Nepal 83.1, India 82.6, Indonesia 79.2, Malaysia 77.9, Bangladesh 76.3, Vietnam 73.7, China 70.6, Singapore 62.4, South Korea 61.6, and Hong Kong 56.4. This is the lowest-scoring measure for several groups, which is useful context if you are choosing between cities or campuses.

Employment while studying and work experience are separate measures. Employment while studying covers whether students who wanted to work were able to find a job. Nepal recorded 91.4, the Philippines 90.0, Thailand 86.7, India 83.2, Vietnam 82.3, Indonesia 82.3, Sri Lanka 82.5, Bangladesh 79.7, Malaysia 79.3, China 76.6, South Korea 75.2, Singapore 72.8, and Hong Kong 70.9. Work experience, which measures satisfaction with the quality or relevance of work obtained, tends to score lower. The Philippines recorded 85.4, Nepal 85.3, India 77.7, Vietnam 77.7, China 76.6, Indonesia 74.3, Sri Lanka 73.6, Malaysia 71.4, Hong Kong 71.3, South Korea 71.1, Bangladesh 70.2, Singapore 66.6, and Thailand did not have a published figure in this dataset.

Overall student accommodation experience is the ninth measure. Nepal recorded 94.8, the Philippines 93.1, Indonesia 93.1, Sri Lanka 92.0, India 91.9, Vietnam 91.7, Singapore 90.0, China 90.3, Malaysia 89.9, Bangladesh 87.7, Hong Kong 87.8, and South Korea 83.6.

How to Read the Confidence Intervals

Every point estimate in the QILT tables is accompanied by a 90% confidence interval. For example, India's overall living experience rating of 96.2 has an interval of 95.8 to 96.5. This means that if the survey were repeated many times, 90% of the resulting intervals would contain the true population value. The interval width reflects sample size and response variability.

When comparing two countries or two measures, you should look at whether the intervals overlap. A difference in point estimates alone does not necessarily indicate a real difference. For instance, Nepal's overall living experience rating of 95.5 and Indonesia's 95.4 are effectively indistinguishable. The Philippines at 96.7 sits above both, but its interval of 96.0 to 97.2 overlaps with India's upper bound of 96.5, so the difference is not statistically clear-cut.

The survey is a sample, not a full enumeration of every international student in Australia. The published figures are estimates of what the full population would report, and the confidence intervals quantify the uncertainty around those estimates. When you quote a single number, it is good practice to also note the interval and the fact that it comes from a sample survey.

Where the Data Comes From and How to Verify It

The QILT surveys are administered on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education. The Student Experience Survey is one of several QILT surveys, alongside the Graduate Outcomes Survey, the Graduate Outcomes Survey Longitudinal, and the Employer Satisfaction Survey. Each covers a different stage of the student journey.

The main public access point for the data is the QILT website, where you can find survey results, methodology notes, and data processing procedures. ComparED is the companion site that lets you search and compare institutions and study areas using the same underlying data. The ComparED help section explains how to understand the data, including the difference between survey results and administrative data, and how to interpret the measures.

If you want to check a specific institution, CRICOS is the official register of Australian institutions and courses that can enrol students holding a student visa. CRICOS is the right tool for verifying that a particular institution and course are registered, not for looking up student experience ratings. For experience data, QILT and ComparED are the authoritative sources.

Using the Data for Practical Planning

The nine measures map onto real decisions you will make before and after you arrive.

If transport is a priority, the country-level data shows wide variation. Students from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Nepal report relatively high satisfaction with transport, while those from Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore report much lower ratings. This does not tell you which city is best, because the data is national, but it does suggest that transport experience is not uniform and is worth investigating at the city and campus level.

If you plan to work while studying, look at both employment while studying and work experience. The gap between these two measures is informative. Nepal's employment rating of 91.4 drops to 85.3 for work experience, and India's 83.2 drops to 77.7. The pattern suggests that finding a job is generally easier than finding work that students consider valuable or relevant. This is a planning consideration, not a guarantee about your own outcome.

If social connection matters to you, the making friends measure shows the widest spread between source countries. Nepal at 93.4 and the Philippines at 87.5 sit at the higher end, while South Korea at 75.6 is notably lower. The reasons are not explained by the survey itself, but the variation is a reminder that social experience depends on many factors beyond nationality, including campus culture, course type, and how actively you seek out connections.

Accommodation ratings are generally high, with most countries above 87. The lowest published figure in this dataset is South Korea at 83.6, which is still a positive rating from more than four in five respondents. If accommodation is a major concern, the data suggests that most international undergraduates are satisfied, but it does not tell you about availability, cost, or quality at a specific provider.

What the Data Does Not Tell You

The QILT Student Experience Survey is a national survey of enrolled students. It does not measure visa outcomes, employment rates after graduation, or salary levels. Those topics are covered by other QILT surveys, such as the Graduate Outcomes Survey, which looks at employment and further study after course completion.

The living experience data also does not tell you about the quality of a specific course, the teaching at a particular campus, or the support services at an individual institution. For that level of detail, you would use ComparED to compare institutions on the measures that matter to you, and you would still need to read the methodology notes to understand what each measure includes and excludes.

The survey does not explain why ratings differ between countries or between measures. It reports what students said, not the causes behind their responses. If you want to understand the reasons, you would need to look at other sources, such as institutional reports, student testimonials, or your own research into specific cities and campuses.

How to Check the Data Yourself

Start with the QILT website to see the survey results and the methodology. The data processing and procedures page explains how responses are weighted, how confidence intervals are calculated, and how missing data is handled. This is important because it tells you how much weight to put on small differences between numbers.

Then use ComparED to look at institution-level data. The help page on understanding the data explains the difference between the survey measures and other indicators, and how to compare institutions fairly. When you compare two institutions, check whether the confidence intervals overlap before concluding that one is better than the other.

If you are verifying a specific course or institution for visa purposes, CRICOS is the official register. It will confirm that the institution and course are registered to enrol international students on a student visa. It will not give you satisfaction ratings or student experience data.

A Note on Data Currency

The figures in this article come from the QILT 2025 Student Experience Survey, which is the most recent cycle at the time of writing. The data was checked on 7 September 2026. QILT releases new survey cycles periodically, so you should always check the QILT website for the latest results before making decisions based on these numbers.

The official data is a starting point, not a complete picture. It tells you how large groups of students rated their experience, with quantified uncertainty. It does not predict your individual experience, and it does not replace the need to research specific institutions, cities, and courses before you commit.