Choosing a suitable boarding facility for your student son/daughter is not a task to be taken lightly, and parents are faced with the realisation that they must make a decision that will benefit all concerned. One of the most common difficulties is whether to choose a boarding school that may be far away from home, or whether a rural student hostel might be a better option if the home is within reasonable distance for weekend leave.

It is almost impossible to produce a list of student boarding accommodation that encompasses every single place in Australia, but here NARSA endeavours to list as many facilities as possible so as to provide a wide range of choices for prospective families.

The Student Accommodation Guide provides detailed information about a large number of facilities right across the whole of Australia and includes the following types of facilities:


• Boarding Schools — Located in capital cities or large regional towns of Australia they comprise a combination of education buildings and accommodation buildings on the one campus.



• Residential Colleges — Located mostly in rural towns, some near to and some far away from capital cities or regional towns, these colleges provide accommodation only and students attend a school of their choice. Many of the students who access these facilities do so in order to pursue a special curriculum which is not available in their local school.



• Agricultural Colleges — Also located in rural towns they cater for students whose choice of schooling is in the field of agriculture. Education and accommodation are provided on the one campus.



• TAFE Colleges — In mainland Australia these colleges are for tertiary students. However, in Tasmania the secondary schools cater for students only up to Yr 10, while Yrs 11-12 students attend a TAFE college. For these senior school students accommodation is available on the TAFE campus.



• Rural Student Hostels — Located in rural towns of varying size, these hostels provide accommodation only for students who live in areas too remote to have daily access to a school. These hostels vary greatly in student numbers and range from a few small ones in extremely remote locations to larger ones in towns where a choice of schools may be available.



• IYMP houses — A relatively recent Government initiative known as the Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme, these boarding facilities are located in capital cities and large regional towns throughout Australia. They provide accommodation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tertiary students between the ages of 16-25 who have completed their secondary schooling and have obtained a University or TAFE college placement, an apprenticeship/traineeship, or employment in the wider community.

Click here to access the Student Accommodation Guide