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Everything you see here is real
Hi, I'm Kaya Lobaczewski. I'm a QUT business graduate. Now I work in New York, New York, at Tribal DDB, one of the largest digital communications companies. I'm manager of global programs. We deliver business solutions for some of the world's biggest brands. It's a big job but QUT business helped me hit the ground running and really fast-tracked my career. Kawfee...kawfee. You use that, you die (laughs). With real world courses and real world lecturers, QUT is a university for the real world.Kawwfeee!

Everything you see here is real
Hi, I'm Emma Vidgen I'm a QUT graduate with degrees in law and creative industries. I'm a deputy editor at ACP in Sydney Australia's biggest magazine publisher. I've written for Cosmo, Cleo and now Dolly. I get to interview celebrities and I write all our film and music reviews. It's the best job in the world.

So how do you make the A-list?
With lecturers from the real world and courses that are up to the minute.

QUT - A university for the real world
They taught me everything I know.

Everything you see here is real.
Hi, I'm Michael Donofrio. I'm a QUT Engineering graduate. I come from a family of builders. I've been working with Uncle Claude since I was fourteen.

I helped build this building in third year. I work for McConnell Dowell in Brisbane. A global engineering company. We work all over the world. Now I'm checking out our projects in Dubai.

Welcome to Dubai! This is where we build stuff! With real world courses, real world lecturers, QUT sets you up to make it big anywhere. Really big in the real world.

The Emma Vidgen diaries.
Hi, I'm Emma Vidgen. I'm a QUT graduate, I have degrees in Law and Creative Industries. I work in publishing in Sydney where I am a deputy editor for ACP Magazines. We're Australia's biggest magazine publisher.

Why did you choose QUT?
I had an idea that I always wanted to work in Media and I researched what all of the courses were and different universities around Queensland and I found that QUT offered the most practical course with the most hands on experience. So I felt like that was the course for me.

How did QUT set you up to take on the challenges of work?
Well they definitely delivered on their promise of offering lots of practical experience. There was plenty of hands on work on the student newspaper, on community radio and community television so it was really fantastic we were thrown in the deep end.

First year we were going out writing stories, interviewing people, finding sources, and the practical skills I developed in my law degree like interviewing, negotiating, problem solving all those things really help me in what I'm doing now.

It was pretty daunting initially but I feel I had an edge over other graduates.

Do you find lecturers in touch with what goes on in the real world?
They totally were, they were fantastic. And the tutors as well. A lot of the tutors were working for the ABC or Courier-Mail and that was really cool to have them at our disposal and then go home and watch them on the news at night.

When did you get your first taste of working?
When I was given a break in publishing to go out and write my first story I wasn't daunted at all and I knew how to find sources and interview them and get what I wanted from them.

Are QUT graduates well regarded by industry?
You only have to turn on a television, or open a newspaper to see how many QUT graduates are absolutely at the top of their game.

What's the campus like?
I had a fantastic experience even just with the location of QUT. It was a really gorgeous campus. There was a really good vibe there. The students were friendly, they had really great recreational facilities, there was a gym and I made lots of really great friends that I am still in touch with. It was a really good time.

Michael D'Onofrio. No Borders
Hi, I'm Michael D'Onofrio, I'm a QUT Engineering graduate. I've got a degree in engineering and a Masters of Project Management and I'm currently working for an engineering firm called McConnell Dowell.

Why did you choose QUT to study Engineering?
I really wanted to study at QUT because I wanted to come out with a practical engineering degree. I also wanted to be really close to the city, it's a fantastic campus because it's right there. You can just go into the city and go shopping and go see a movie whenever you feel like it between your lectures.

How did things develop once you got there?
I started studying Robotics Engineering. When I got to the end of first year I found out that I kind of liked being able to touch and see what I was doing. So I changed to Civil and Construction Engineering and I've enjoyed it ever since.

How in touch were your lecturers?
Sort of the way my Engineering degree developed is half of the lecturers are professors and half of the lecturers are actually professional engineers who come in and explain things to us just like they would do in their offices. So they are not academics, they don't necessarily teach us like an academic would teach. They just tell us how it is.

What were some highlights of your time at QUT?
Some of the highlights of my time at QUT, in first year I built a race car, that was absolutely fantastic, while doing the Maths and Physics, I got a chance to actually build something. I've been involved with Engineers without borders, we've been able to travel all around Australia and actually build things for Indigenous communities and that's been really cool. Another high point of my degree was swapping a semester of study for a student exchange to Italy. I stayed at a university just north of Milan. It took me right out of my comfort zone and I got to see all of Europe not just Italy.

What's QUT's reputation among employers?
I've had quite a few interviews while I have still been at QUT, and it always came across, when I said I was from QUT that was always received very well. It means they could pretty much just throw me straight into a job and I could start working straight away. I have the skills to start working.

Tell us about your work with Engineers Without Borders.
At the start of second year, me and another dean's scholars we started the QUT chapter of Engineers Without Borders. It's a volunteering organisation for engineers to actually apply their skills to disadvantaged communities. And at the beginning of third year I started a project to build facilities on a remote Aboriginal island. And I've led that project for the past two years and every year we plan to send a group of QUT students from Architecture Engineering to Construction Management up there every year and we're going to build something new for this community and share our engineering skills with them.

A video which gives a quick tour of QUT's Garden's Point and Kelvin Grove campuses.