From your first enquiry to the moment your program concludes, we’re with you every step of the way.
Whether you’re interested in a short-term, semester, or full-year program, an AIIU Global High School experience will open your world and enrich your life.
We’ll answer your questions, stay in regular contact while you’re abroad, and facilitate communication between you, your Support Officer, your host family, school, and our international partners. It’s all about ensuring a safe, supportive, and unforgettable overseas journey.
AIIU host families are carefully screened and selected to provide a welcoming, safe and caring environment. Your host family will choose you based on shared interests and values, and they’ll be excited to welcome you into their home and learn about life in Australia. If you choose a non-English speaking destination, you’ll gain the unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a new language and culture through daily conversation.
It may feel daunting at first, but the lifelong benefits are immeasurable.
Child Safety & Quality Management
We prioritise student wellbeing with robust child safety, protection, and quality management policies that meet Australian and international standards.
Our International Destinations
Explore our diverse exchange and study abroad destinations around the globe – each offering a unique cultural and educational adventure.
Become an AIIU Host Family
Open your home to the world. Support global understanding and lifelong friendships by hosting an international high school student.
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The principal purpose of AIIU’s Global High School programs is to provide a broad educational experience for students and to further international/intercultural understanding.
Broad Educational Experience AIIU’s Global High School participants develop competencies in communication, collaboration and cooperation, strategic and creative thinking, leadership, networking skills, deductive reasoning, problem solving and decision making, and resourcefulness. Global High School Programs foster the development of sophisticated ways of looking at the world, respect for other cultures, sensitivity to different cultural, political and economic systems and mindfulness towards the welfare of the planet and its people.
The result being that returned students invest in advancing understanding and harmony across and within communities around the world. AIIU’s programs are first and foremost educational.
Students live with host families and assimilate into local host communities. AIIU Global High School programs are not touristic in nature. Independent travel is a breach of program rules.
Students must attend school full time, undertake all set assignments/tasks and participate in all assessments. The promotion of AIIU Global High School programs draws attention to the academic nature of programs and the requirement to be a full-time student.
International/Intercultural Understanding
AIIU’s Global High School programs encourage young people, their families and extended communities to share experiences, worldviews, languages and cultures with others from different backgrounds and traditions, with the expectation that all participants will develop a broad knowledge of and tolerance for other cultures.
Students have the choice of either short-term (2 or 3 months) or long term (semester and year-long) Global High School programs with AIIU. Different countries offer different program durations. Long term programs allow for wide-ranging and deeper integration into host cultures; genuine outcomes for international/intercultural understanding follow.
Complement your Australian high school studies with a short term, semester or year living and studying overseas in a country of your choosing. An AIIU Global High School program is the opportunity of a lifetime!
Being a study abroad or exchange student is more rewarding than simply being a tourist, you’ll live like a local and make on-the-ground connections. As an AIIU Global High School student, you’ll join a global network of like-minded young adventurers, and you’ll return with memories and skills for life.
At a Glance:
- Live with a local host family
- Attend school full time
- Experience your host country’s cultures and customs first-hand
- Learn a language (for non-English speaking countries)
- While beneficial, you do not have to host a student in return
Global High School programs offer a wealth of benefits across educational and personal dimensions to those involved in such programs.
Educational Benefits
- International learning and knowledge propel students towards acceptance and understanding of an array of different cultural and community perspectives.
- Language acquisition is achieved through practical immersion.
- Awareness and adoption of alternative, multi-faceted approaches to learning.
- Analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Enhanced interest in global issues as well as a broader general knowledge.
Personal Benefits
- Self-development and awareness leading to enhanced self-confidence and self-esteem. This is often the most noticeable change in returned students.
- Maturity and social poise, fuelled by the necessity to confront challenges outside a familiar support network and comfort zone.
- Integration into another family as well as the development of life-long friendships, fostering an appreciation of home and family.
- A tremendous sense of accomplishment upon completion encourages students to develop independent opinions, make informed decisions and strive to attain fresh goals.
Global High School programs also have long-term benefits that go beyond the academic and personal growth and development a student encounters during their overseas experience.
Long-Term Benefits
- Students who go on to tertiary studies find themselves more comfortable in ‘foreign’ environments.
- Prospective employers in almost every field look favourably upon experience gained while living overseas and knowledge obtained of another language and culture.
- Increased pressure to communicate and relate to others develops an awareness of group dynamics and personal sensitivity towards others.
- Successful program completion represents an excellent measure of personal flexibility, encompassing an ability to reach compromise, focus and succeed through challenging times.
You are eligible to apply for a Global High School program if you meet the following requirements; you are:
- still at school when you apply
- in good physical and mental health
- maintaining the equivalent or better than a C grade average for the last two years (Australia).
- language requirements vary for each destination.
- mature and open-minded
- flexible, adaptable, responsible and ready to learn
- between 15 and 17 years old when you start your exchange program (exceptions may be made for 14- and 18-year-olds), subject to program and destination
- an Australian resident
- provide proof of vaccinations – requirements vary per destination.
Outbound from Australia
Student Exchange Programs
- All AIIU exchange students apply for the visa required by their host country to authorise their stay with a volunteer host family and enrolment into a local volunteer school.
- Documents, written instructions and assistance with the visa application are provided by AIIU for all destinations on offer.
Study Abroad Programs
- AIIU Study Abroad Programs, including payment to host families, host schools or both are promoted as such to students and parents.
- AIIU marketing materials for Outbound Programs differentiate Study Abroad Programs from Student Exchange Programs, with the statement that Study Abroad Programs are not monitored by Regulating Authorities in Australia for registered student exchange organisations.
Inbound to Australia
Student Exchange Programs
- All AIIU exchange students entering Australia for programs advertised as ‘student exchange’ apply for student visas (subclass 500), using AASES forms.
- Records of AASES forms are maintained on AIIU’s Student Management Database and Visa Grant Notifications are stored securely on AIIU’s server.
- Student visas must be granted prior to arrival in Australia. Exchange students cannot be enrolled under a tourist visa. Program is cancelled in case of student visa refusal.
Study Abroad Programs
- AIIU Inbound Study Abroad Programs, including payment to host families and host schools, are promoted as such to sending organisations and separate third-party agreements to the agreements for student exchange programs are issued.
- AIIU Agreements for Study Abroad Programs do not refer to the regulations and monitoring in place for registered student exchange organisations in Australia.
- AIIU marketing materials for Inbound Programs differentiate Study Abroad Programs from Student Exchange Programs.
Inbound Visa Requirements A student visa (subclass 500) is always required for programs greater than 3 months. The student visa allows AIIU to enrol students into local high schools – with an AASES form (student exchange), or without (study abroad).
AIIU can apply for the visa document, the AASES (Acceptance Advice for Secondary Exchange Student) with the Regulating Authorities once the placement has been completed: the host family has been fully vetted, the school has confirmed acceptance to enrol the student, and a local coordinator has been appointed for the student.
The visa documents are sent to the partner shortly after the confirmation of placement, on the condition that the placement fee has been paid in full to AIIU. Due to strict deadlines applied by the regulating Authorities, partners will receive the conformation of placement and visa documents no later than 6 weeks prior to the student’s scheduled arrival date in Australia.
As a registered Student Exchange Organisation with the regulating authorities in Australia, AIIU operates student exchange programs on a reciprocal basis, balancing the number of inbound and outbound exchange students and the duration of its programs.
Reciprocity is regulated at a state or territory level.
Please send us your enquiry here. We’ll get back to you right away.
This is the preliminary application form for students wishing to embark on an overseas exchange or study abroad program through AIIU.
Your Privacy
AIIU is bound by the National Privacy Principles (NPP) and other requirements outlined in The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (The Private Sector Act). AIIU collects personal information from Host Families and other program participants to provide the required details to our overseas clients. These details are only provided to these clients. We do not provide your personal information to third parties.
Read our full privacy policy here.