Is Perth a Good City for Regional Study and Long Term Plans? Overview

Short answer: yes, Perth counts as regional for Australian migration purposes – but not at the same level as a genuinely regional Western Australian town, and that distinction is worth understanding precisely before you choose a campus on this basis alone.

Yes, Perth counts as regional – here is exactly which category

The Department of Home Affairs splits designated regional areas into categories, and Perth sits in Category 2, “Cities and Major Regional Centres” – the same tier as Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Wollongong/Illawarra, Geelong and Hobart. Category 3, “Regional Centres and Other Regional Areas,” covers everywhere else regional, including all of Western Australia outside greater Perth. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are not designated regional at all, so they attract none of these benefits.

What that is actually worth

Studying while living in Perth currently earns the same 5-point regional study bonus on the skilled migration points test as any other designated regional area, on top of the separate 5 points for meeting the Australian study requirement. On the graduate visa side, the categories diverge: completing your studies while living and studying solely in a Category 2 area like Perth can qualify you for 1 additional year under the Second Post-Higher Education Work stream, while a genuine Category 3 regional area is worth 2 additional years. The points bonus specifically is a confirmed target for removal as part of the government’s 2026-27 points test reform – it remains active as of August 2026, but verify current settings if you are planning years ahead, and see our dedicated regional study benefits guide for the full mechanics.

The genuine regional alternative: Bunbury, Kalgoorlie and Broome

If maximising the regional visa benefit is genuinely your top priority, Western Australia has three real Category 3 options worth knowing about. ECU South West in Bunbury, about 200km south of Perth, is Western Australia’s largest university campus outside the Perth metro area, covering nursing, health sciences, arts, business, teacher education and social work, with a new University Department of Rural Health boosting clinical placements. Curtin’s WA School of Mines in Kalgoorlie specialises in mining, metallurgy, geology and surveying, alongside education, commerce and health courses delivered online; engineering and surveying students typically complete their first two years in Perth before finishing on campus in Kalgoorlie. The University of Notre Dame’s Broome campus, in the Kimberley region, focuses on nursing, education and Aboriginal studies, with strong community engagement and options for students from remote WA towns to study largely off-campus. All three qualify for the full 2-year graduate visa extension.

Universities in Perth today

Perth’s main options remain the University of Western Australia (UWA), Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University (ECU) – all long-established, separate institutions with no recent mergers to account for, unlike Adelaide’s 2026 consolidation into a single Adelaide University. See our Perth student suburbs guide for how each university’s location plays out geographically, and our Perth public transport guide for getting between them.

So is Perth worth it for regional benefits specifically?

If you want a genuine capital-city experience – a bigger university, more part-time jobs, a larger international student community – while still picking up a real regional benefit over Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, Perth is a sound choice: you keep 1 extra graduate visa year and the same points bonus as anywhere regional, without the smaller-town trade-offs. If maximising the visa benefit specifically is your main goal and you are open to a smaller city or town, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie or Broome gets you a full extra year on top of that. Either way, treat the points bonus as time-limited given the flagged 2026-27 reform, and confirm your specific circumstances against the official postcode list before you commit to a course based on this alone.

Bottom line

Perth is a genuine Category 2 designated regional area – a real advantage over Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, worth 1 extra graduate visa year and the standard regional points bonus – but it is not the maximum regional benefit available in Western Australia. That belongs to Bunbury, Kalgoorlie and Broome, which earn a full 2 extra years. Pick based on the city-versus-regional-town lifestyle trade-off you actually want, not just the visa numbers alone.