In Reply to: Living in bali to study posted by Mark_D on Wednesday, 21. October 2009 at 13:42 Bali Time:
if you are attached to an indonesian university through your australian univeristy then austudy will be paid- under certain conditions. Other than that it will only be paid while you are away from australia for a temporary period of 13 weeks. You do haveto notify them and unless you are planning to come back every three months it aint going to work. ( and that defeats the purpose for being cheap!)
In some circumstances, you may be paid Austudy for temporary periods of time you spend outside Australia.
On the practical side, my daughter studies in Malang at Uni but it is through her Austrlian University. she had help wiht her accommodation at the beginning but has since found ongoing accommodaiton with a family there whihc is working out well.
she has a mobile internet (One of the stick type-sorry not very technical ) whihc works ok and also uses the Uni facilities. she is on a 6 month visa as a students which was all arranged prior to departure. she cannot work and had to show that she had enough money to suppor therslef during that period of time. she can apply for a furhter six months if she wants to and that appears fairly automaticlly granted if she abides by all of the other conditions.
she had to notify centrelink of her departure, they cut the rental assistance straight away - they also keep track through her Uni of where she is and any changes to her status.
so yes it can be done but I don't think that your plan is workable given centrelink guidelines and the visa requirements.
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