Language courses

Enhance your degree and diversify your career prospects by studying a foreign language.

Language proficiency is an asset when competing for a career in a globalised economy and multilingualism is vital to the economics and cultural health of Australia. You will develop global knowledge, a cross-cultural understanding and gain a distinct career advantage.

If you're a student with either QUT, UQ or Griffith University, you can study a number of languages as a part of the Tri-university language alliance.

If you're looking for short courses, The Confucius Institute offers both standard and customised courses in Modern Chinese.


Tri-university language alliance

Languages are available to QUT students through the Brisbane Universities Languages Hub, an Australian-first alliance between QUT, the University of Queensland (UQ) and Griffith University (GU).

Through the alliance, you will have the opportunity to select from a large range of languages offered by all three universities. 

Languages available

QUT: Mandarin

Griffith: Japanese, Italian, Spanish

UQ: French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese

Study areas available for LOTE students enrolled in Bachelor of Education (Primary) and Bachelor of Education (Secondary) are French, German, Indonesian, Japanese and Mandarin.

Study options 

Depending on your course you may complement your degree through language study with a second major (six units) or minor (four units) or option units (electives).

To satisfy requirements of a second major or minor, the same language must be studied and undertaken at the same university. Students wishing to study a language as a second major should enrol in the first language unit in their first semester.

Studying Mandarin at QUT 

Award programs

Depending on your course, you can study the Chinese language as a second major (six units), a minor (4 units) or option units (electives). You can study Mandarin 1 to Mandarin 4 at QUT with more advanced units possible in 2013.

AMB030 Mandarin for Chinese is primarily for native Cantonese speakers. Speakers of other dialects will be considered for enrolment on an individual basis and should contact the Mandarin Coordinator for advice.

Student who need to complete advanced Chinese units or are native speakers, will be required to cross-enrol at UQ or GU.

In-country Mandarin Program

Students studying Mandarin at QUT can consider participating in one or two semesters at Qingdao University in the People's Republic of China, Shandong Province.

Qingdao University is one of China's most progressive and dynamic tertiary institutions and the largest university in the Province. The city of Qingdao is a very attractive modern metropolis with a population of two million people.

To be considered for the program, students are required to have completed at least 96 credit points of study in your degree including AMB031 Mandarin 1 and AMB032 Mandarin 2 and a minimum GPA of 4.5 or above.

Each in-country semester is 16 weeks and involves about 300 hours of instruction. The in-country programs subjects are:

By the end of one year of in-country study, students should have a level of language proficiency and cultural awareness well above that of students who study Mandarin across three years in an Australian University.

Students seeking further information should contact the Mandarin Program Coordinator - Dr Ingrid Wang.

Studying languages at UQ or Griffith

If you wish to study a language other than Mandarin you can enrol as a cross-institutional student at Griffith University (GU) or The University of Queensland (UQ).

Cross-institute languages enrolment

Complete an on-line enrolment application at Brisbane Universities Languages Hub (BULH)

Entry bonus scheme

To help encourage students to study languages, QUT offers two bonus points to current Australian year 12 students for successfully completing languages other than English (LOTE) subjects to grade 12 Level.

Find out more about the entry bonus scheme

Short courses with The Confucius Institute

For professional people and community members wishing to learn Chinese language, the Confucius Institute at QUT provides a range of designed courses for groups of clients, as well as offer a range of set regular courses. 

Modern Chinese language courses

More information about courses and programs at the Confucius Institute

English language courses

If you're an international student, you can study an English language course to:

  • improve your English
  • meet the language entry requirements for a course
  • prepare for an English language proficiency exam.

Courses range from 5 weeks to 45 weeks. You'll learn to improve your fluency and accuracy, while developing the core skills of:

  • reading
  • writing
  • speaking
  • listening.

English language programs

Contacts

General language enquiries

QUT Business School, Student Services