In Australia, all Group 8 universities (most are in the World Top 100 rankings) will accept mature age students. It's not your age, it is your research proposal

In Australia, all Group 8 universities (most are in the World Top 100 rankings) will accept mature age students. It's not your age, it is your research proposal that earns a place. Typically you need a prior research Masters in a related field and bring a substantial amount of industry experience and connections. Universities are encouraged to increase their collaborations with industry. In order to prepare a successful proposal you need to read 20-100 recent papers in the field and cite at least 10 of them. Going to conferences is good for social networking, but you will only get a briefest summary of the research being conducted. The purpose of a presentation at a conference is to raise sufficient interest for some of the attendees to read the presenter's paper(s).