He lives at Woolloongabba, the home of Brisbane cricket, and loves playing as an all-rounder for his local club, but Pakistan’s Farhan Ahmed found himself on another good wicket when he enrolled at the University of the Sunshine Coast in early 2014.

The International student this month officially graduated with his Master of Professional Accounting at one of USC’s four graduation ceremonies on campus at Sippy Downs.

Mr Ahmed, 31, said he was delighted to be able to complete many of last year’s classes at the USC SouthBank campus and hoped to work as an accountant in the Brisbane region.

“My future goals include completing a PhD in economics, starting my own business and becoming an international cricketer, preferably in the Australian team,” he said with a smile.

Mr Ahmed had degrees from Pakistan (mass communication) and the United Kingdom (international management) and had worked as a banker and a journalist when he decided to move to Australia to study at USC.

“I was good at devising strategies but I wanted to know the other side of business that relates to numbers, and that’s why I chose to learn accounting,” he said.

“It was a challenge but accomplishing a Master in a couple of years without failing in any assignment or exam, or skipping any lecture or tutorial, makes me the proudest person on Earth.

“The efforts of the teaching staff and easy access to senior academics made USC an amazing place to study and pursue dreams. Teachers like Dr Susan Douglas, Dr Gabrielle Parle and Associate Professor Monte Wynder opened new doors to knowledge about law, economics, business law and contemporary accounting.”

— Julie Schomberg