2025 Enrolment for Cromwell College
Welcome to Cromwell College! Applications for 2025 and 2026 are Now Open!
Are you ready to embark on an extraordinary college journey? The time to act is NOW.
Discover everything you need to know to kickstart your application process right here.
Here’s the catch: Our spaces are limited, and we don’t want you to miss out on this incredible opportunity.
Typically, we start accepting applications from May each year for the following year. But, we’re here to let you in on a little secret: The earlier you submit your application, the greater your chance of securing a spot at Cromwell College!
Get ahead of the game and submit your application sooner rather than later. Our provisional offers are made following interviews, so don’t wait for others to snatch up the spots you deserve.
The college currently has students studying at UQ, QUT, GU, and ACU. Prospective applicants should read the following information carefully.
Places Available
The number of places available to new students each year depends upon the number of departing students from the year before, as the College is always full. Most students find Cromwell College life very rewarding and stay three or more years.
Application Process
- Gather Information
2. Online Application
3. Interviews
4. Offer
5. Payment of Fees
Gather Information
Prospective applicants should research everything they can about Cromwell College. The College Student Handbook (updated each year) is a good reference point. Tours are strongly encouraged and are available by appointment. In addition, the College is hosting an Open Day on Sunday 4 August, 9am – 3pm with student led tours. We are also on show on UQ Open Day. We regard every day as Open Day and invite you to come and see us as we really are.
We highly recommend you visit us and meet the team to ensure that if you are accepted, that Cromwell College is the right environment for you. Where possible, speak with current or recent past Cromwell students about College life, to gain another perspective.
Although Cromwell College supports a strong family connection through a number of sibling enrolments, children from the same family can be quite different, as can the quality and diversity of the pool of applicants each year, so being a sibling of a current or past Cromwellian does not in any way guarantee a place at the College over other applicants. All applicants are subject to the same entry requirements and processes.
Bursaries
Cromwell College offers a number of bursaries from the Helen Begbie Memorial Fund to new students who, without financial support, would be unable to be funded by themselves or their families to come to the college. There are also special bursaries for families from remote and semi-remote areas. Applications for bursaries should accompany the initial enrolment applications and can be made using the procedure found on our website here.
Online Application
If after gathering your information, you believe that there is a real synergy between you and Cromwell College, then you should complete the following things. Please be organised and submit your application early. Applications for 2025 will remain open until the College is considered full.
- Online application. (This includes payment of the non-refundable Application Fee of $110.00 (including GST) to Cromwell College).
Please UPLOAD the following TWO (2) items:- Full Resume.
- Your official school report/s from the most recent term/semester.
Further supporting information can be presented by the applicant at the interview. If presenting further information at the interview, applicants should bring original documents to show, along with one copy for the College to retain, as the College will not hold your originals.
Interviews
All applicants from within Australia are required to attend an interview with the Principal. To ensure that the applicant and the Principal both maximize the experience, these interviews are conducted personally. It is preferable for applicants to be interviewed in Brisbane so that they can combine their interview with a tour, and see/feel Cromwell College first-hand. Brisbane interviews at Cromwell College are held by appointment. If your location poses a challenge to visiting Brisbane in person, our Registrar can arrange a Zoom interview with the Principal.
Contact Registrar, Ms Robyn Slater via email at r.slater@cromwell.uq.edu.au or by phone 07 3377 1300.
Once your completed application has been received, the Registrar will contact you to book your interview. All interviews are conducted by appointment only. Parents are most welcome and are very strongly encouraged at interviews. Interviews generally take around 45 minutes.
Offer
All applications are personally read by the Principal who conducts the enrolment interviews. He then determines to whom and when offers of places will be made. This difficult decision is made not by ranking students, but by allowing for an appropriate mix of genders, courses, social, sporting, cultural, community service, spiritual offerings, pastoral needs, age, and home locations. This mix is created by using profiles of both likely returning and new students throughout the whole College.
Either at your enrolment interview or within a few days following, the Principal will either make you a provisional offer of a place, offer you a place on the waitlist, or inform you that your application has been unsuccessful. This transparency allows all applicants to know straight away where they stand as they make plans for the following year.
Provisional Offer
A Provisional Offer is a firm offer of a place at Cromwell College for the following year, subject to the recipient gaining and accepting an offer of a full-time course at a Brisbane university, and paying their first semester fees in full by the January due date. A deposit of $1,000 is required within five business days of receiving the provisional offer to accept it. This deposit is deducted from the first semester fees the following year, but it is not refunded if the recipient does not receive and take up an offer of a full-time course at a Brisbane university the following year, or if they change their mind for other reasons.
Accepting a provisional offer of a place at Cromwell gives the student peace of mind that they have a secure place at the college for the following year, subject to them gaining university entry and then following through with it.
Waitlist Places
Some students are offered a waitlisted place at Cromwell College for the following year. Waitlisted places are then offered later in the year, or early the following year subject to availability. When offered, the college will know of any changes to the status of intending returning students, and when the QTAC offers are released in January, of any declined offers from those with provisional offers. Both of these situations occur regularly each year, impact immediately on available places for new students, and allow for quite a few waitlisted offers to be made.
Being a waitlisted student does not imply that you are unlikely to be offered a place. The difference is that waitlisted places are offered later in the year when the plans of returning and provisionally offered students become quite fluid. The college must be careful that it does not overbook for the following year with provisional offers, so there are always additional places that become available. This is when waitlisted offers are made and there are generally quite a few of them.
Waitlisted students should keep in close contact with the College. There are always changes to enrolments for various reasons up to and even after the start of the academic year, and it is the keen students on the waitlist who remain in contact with the college who generally pick up these places at short notice. There are always opportunities (the number dependent on availability) for students to join Cromwell for the second semester if they are unable to secure a place at the start of the year. Be sure to let the College know if you would like that option.
Waitlisted students who find alternative accommodation are respectfully asked to advise Cromwell, so that their names can be deleted from the waitlist, allowing other students to be added.
Unsuccessful Applicants
It may be that following the application process, a particular student is not suitable for a place at Cromwell. In fairness to the student, this will be advised to them within a few days of the interview.
Payment of Fees
All new students are required to pay their first semester fees, less the $1,000 deposit already paid, by the due date in January of the year they’re starting college. A reminder email will be sent to the email address used in the enrolment application.
If there are any new students who do not meet this payment deadline, in fairness to waitlisted students, they will have their provisional offers withdrawn, and their places will be immediately offered to waitlisted students the following morning. This ensures that waitlisted students receive offers as early as possible, and as well that the college remains fully enrolled. It is therefore imperative that students with provisional offers make the required payment by the due date. Waitlisted students offered places are required to pay their first semester fees within three business days following a firm offer of a place being made in writing to them.
Fees are weighted more heavily towards the first semester, with less to be paid in the second semester. This first semester payment includes the additional one-off charges for Orientation Week and the Foundation, along with the annual Students’ Association Fee, which is collected by the College on behalf of that Association. The Board of Governors set the fees for the coming year each September.
It is important that applicants, and where appropriate their parents, consider the fees and charges statement carefully ensuring that they are in a position to make these payments within the short time frame should an offer of a place be made. The College has a number of bursaries for which information can be found on our website. Some students have College approved payment plans to make fee payments easier.
It is very important to act earlier rather than later with your application to Cromwell College as places are limited, and provisional offers can be made following interviews. Generally, applications begin arriving from May each year for the following year. Please be organized and submit your application early to avoid disappointment!
Please do not hesitate to contact the Registrar, Ms Robyn Slater at any time by email r.slater@cromwell.uq.edu.au or phone (07) 3377 1300, should you have any further questions about the enrolment procedures at Cromwell College.
Thank you for your interest. I know that you have a choice of accommodation options, and I value your interest in Cromwell College.
Simon Armstrong
Principal / CEO