Canberra Schools and Education Guide: Public, Private, and Tertiary

Canberra's education landscape is one of Australia's most distinctive: the ACT's small size (470,000 population), its highly educated workforce (Canberra has the highest proportion of tertiary-educated residents of any Australian city, driven by the public service, the defence forces, and the university sector), and the presence of the Australian National University (one of the world's top 20-30 universities in the QS rankings) together create an education environment that punches well above its weight. Canberra's government school system (the ACT Education Directorate) is consistently regarded as one of Australia's best public school systems, and the proportion of Canberra students achieving top ATAR scores through the public school system is significantly higher than the national average.

ACT Government Schools and Colleges — the ACT government school system has a distinctive structure: ACT government schools follow a P-6 (primary, Kindergarten to Year 6), 7-10 (high school, Years 7-10), and 11-12 (college, Years 11-12) system. The ACT colleges (Years 11-12) are separate institutions from the high schools, and students typically choose from a range of colleges across Canberra based on their interests and the colleges' specialist programs. The most prestigious ACT colleges include Canberra College, Dickson College, Lake Tuggeranong College, Lyneham High School, and the Campbell High School (for the inner north). The Selective Entry programs at Canberra's Catholic education system and the ACT's specialist Talented and Gifted programs provide additional selective entry options within the government system.

Private and Catholic Schools — Canberra's independent school sector is proportionally large for a city of its size: the prestigious private schools (Radford College, Canberra Grammar School, Canberra Girls' Grammar School, and St Edmund's College for boys) and the Catholic school network (the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn operates 57 schools in the ACT and surrounding region) provide extensive private education options. Canberra Grammar School (Red Hill) is the ACT's most prestigious independent school and charges fees of approximately $25,000-$32,000 per year for secondary students.

Australian National University — the Australian National University (ANU, Acton, adjacent to the Canberra CBD and the Parliamentary Triangle) is Australia's only internationally top 20-30 ranked university (QS World University Rankings) and one of the world's great research universities: the ANU's research strengths span astrophysics (the Mount Stromlo Observatory), political science and international relations (the Coral Bell School), law (the ANU College of Law), and the humanities and social sciences. The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific is the foremost centre for Asia-Pacific studies in Australia and one of the world's leading institutions in the field. The University of Canberra (UC, Bruce) provides strong programs in education, health, and journalism.

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