Aviation

My name is Seth Ali. I study a Bachelor of Aviation at CQUniversity.

I chose aviation because it's just something I've always wanted to do like for, like since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be a pilot. That's always been the dream for me.

The best thing about CQUniversity is the fact that they're unique in offering the flight training as well, like alongside the lectures, and not after it.

The teaching staff at CQUniversity are all great.

You have to be sort of independent and on the ball, but they do their best to ensure that students feel supported.

If we ever need help, we can talk to our lecturers, and that's really good. I love having that support.

My favourite thing about studying online is perhaps the flexibility of it, so if you are in a position where you need to work or perhaps you have other commitments outside of your study, studying online is a good way of working around it.

The plan for me is to get a job in the industry, whether that be through CQUniversity’s partners, either at Qantas or Hinterland or through some other means just to build up those hours, get that experience and then work my way up to the bigger airlines. That's the goal for me.

CQUniversity is very unique in that we have a specially-designed building for aviation.

It's at Cairns Airport, which is a big airport. It used to actually be the old control tower, so it's got an observation deck.

You can have a look at all of the apron, the runway, it's really cool up there. It also has a full 737 simulator. Very, very realistic.

The driving force behind wanting to study locally is all the convenience of it. There's less of a financial strain on me. It means I can focus more on the study.

And it means I can stay close to my family as well. And it's a beautiful place to fly. Beautiful place to study here in Cairns. So why wouldn't you