Study NT has kicked off its 2026 Agent Familiarisation Program with a relaxed welcome dinner at Snapper Rocks on the Darwin Waterfront last night.
Agents and Study NT staff came together over dinner and drinks, with the waterfront providing a suitably tropical backdrop for the start of five days designed to showcase what the Territory can offer international students.
The dinner gave visiting agents a chance to meet the Study NT team, connect with fellow participants, and get their first taste of Darwin before a packed program of campus visits, networking, tourism and, perhaps most unusually for an agent familiarisation, a real treat: plenty of cricket.
The program runs from 26 to 31 August and brings together agents from organisations including Expert Education and Visa Services, Grace International, KTM Consulting, Asia Pacific Group, Oceania Education and Visa Services, MI Education, PFEC Global and Auscan Consultants.
From classrooms to the cricket oval
Thursday gets down to business, beginning with a welcome from Study NT and Migration NT at NT House before the group heads out for visits to Canterbury Institute of Management and Charles Darwin University’s Danala Campus.
A working lunch with CDU representatives will then give the agents an opportunity to get a closer look at the university and its offering before the group heads to Gardens Oval for the first of a series of Top End T20 matches.
Cricket is a major feature of this year’s program, with Study NT the headline sponsor of the Top End T20 tournament. Rather than simply putting agents through the standard itinerary of campus tours and presentations, Study NT is using one of the Territory’s major sporting events to give its guests a broader experience of life in the NT.
Thursday’s schedule includes Nepal taking on HH Kingsmen at Gardens Oval before an evening match between New Zealand and Bangladesh at Marrara’s DXC Arena.
Friday continues the education focus, with visits to Flinders University NT and CDU’s Casuarina campus before more cricket, including HH Kingsmen against the Strikers and an evening match featuring NT Strike against Bangladesh.
It’s an interesting approach to agent familiarisation. The pitch is not simply about what students can study, but what life in the Northern Territory can look like once they arrive.
A taste of the Top End
Saturday shifts further towards the Territory experience, beginning with a visit to the Parap Village Markets followed by Crocosaurus Cove and lunch at the Sailing Club.
The afternoon then brings the group back to the cricket, with a T20 match and corporate networking session featuring Nepal and Victoria.
Sunday provides the grand finale, with the semi-final followed by the Top End T20 grand final, complete with dinner before the agents head off for their Monday departures.
For Study NT, the program provides an opportunity to put the Territory’s education proposition into a much broader context.
The official itinerary describes Study NT’s role as promoting the NT as a study destination for international students, working with education providers, businesses and local communities to help students achieve academic success while discovering pathways to their future in Australia.
And that is perhaps the strongest feature of the program.
Over the next few days, agents will see campuses, meet education providers and learn about study opportunities. But they will also experience Darwin’s markets, wildlife, waterfront, sporting culture and the distinctly different lifestyle that comes with studying in Australia’s Top End.
The Koala thanks Study NT for the invitation to join the group.
