Hundreds of North Queensland graduates have received an offer to study at James Cook University

High-school graduates Ellianna Quilala, Timothy Rono and Hunter Dawson were “overjoyed” to be offered a place at JCU. Read how they did it.

New James Cook University students Timothy Rono, Hunter Dawson and Ellianna Quilala are excited about their university futures. Picture: Evan Morgan

Hundreds of high-school finishers have received offers to study at James Cook University in 2025.

More than 1,000 students received word on Thursday as part of the Queensland Tertiary Admission Centre’s major round.

Ellianna Quilala, Timothy Rono and Hunter Dawson were all selected, having recently graduated.

Timothy and Ellianna will be studying medicine and Hunter will be looking to follow in the footsteps of his favourite teachers.

“I’ve just had some great teachers in the past, and there was this one teacher Mr Robinson, I always looked up to him. I thought, maybe I could be that to someone too,” Hunter said.

New James Cook University students Timothy Rono, Hunter Dawson and Ellianna Quilala are excited about their university futures. Picture: Evan Morgan

“My dad was a doctor and my mum was a doctor, so I really looked up to them,” Timothy said.

“I always wanted to be a doctor as well, but I also wanted to do it for my family. They’ve done so much for me and it’s my way of giving back to them,” Ellianna said.

JCU acting vice chancellor Professor Marcus Lane said a total of 2,981 offers were made across the university’s campuses Australia-wide.

“These figures include 692 places for Cairns so far for 2025, which is up almost 18% from last year, and 2018 places in Townsville, also up from last year,” he said.

The students said they were overjoyed to receive their offers.

“I saw the header for the email and I was so nervous. I cried when I opened it because I genuinely didn’t expect an offer,” Ellianna said.

JCU has campuses across Queensland, including in Townsville, Cairns, Brisbane, Mount Isa, and an international campus in Singapore.

Courses such as medicine, dentistry, nursing and veterinary science saw the most enrolments, with more than 4,000 students selecting one of the courses as their first preference, with Ellianna saying she had to ‘work really hard’ to get the required ATAR.

“Medicine is really competitive, there’s no guarantees,” Timothy said.

Professor Lane said it’s “pleasing” to see increased interest in the traditionally popular disciplines.

“We are excited for this next generation and the contributions they will make to the JCU community and their respective workforces in the future,” he said.

“We’ve been working really hard in providing quality education that leads to quality career outcomes with good starting salaries.”

“We’ve invested very heavily at our Townsville campus in particular, with brand new student accommodation and a new hundred million dollar engineering facility.”

“We’ve made significant improvements in our infrastructure and we continue to work hard on student experience and the quality of our curriculum.”

The students said they’re ready for this next chapter of their lives.

“I’m excited for the freedom of being an adult and being able to go do what it is I want, not having someone breathing down your neck,” Timothy said.

“There’s so many opportunities here, clubs, lots of student associations, the world is your oyster, you can do anything.”

Originally published as Hundreds of North Queensland graduates have received an offer to study at James Cook University