E-mail: marenne_gevers@live.nl Study Program: International Business Administration Exchange semester: Fall Academic year: 2016-2017 Host university: University of New South Wales Country: Australia (I) General information about the University The University of New South Wales, UNSW, is situated in one of the best possible (student) cities of the world. Sydney is the largest city in Australia and has a great atmosphere, because of all the different suburbs, the beautiful beaches, plenty of bars and clubs and because it is surrounded by amazing nature. I think you can spend years in Sydney and still haven t seen anything, so many things are going on and so many things are there to see. UNSW is one of the many and also one of the biggest universities Sydney has. It is located in one of the more southern suburbs, Kensington, and Sydney s CBD is reachable in approximately 30 minutes by bus. (They were working on a tramline from the university to the centre while I was there, so there is a good chance that next semester the time to get to the CBD is shorter.) Only 10 minutes away from UNSW s campus, is one of the famous beaches, Coogee Beach. The campus itself is huge, definitely if you compare it to Tilburg University s campus. On the campus you do not only have the lecture buildings, but also several shops, restaurants, bars, accommodation and sporting facilities. (II) Practical information Information before leaving The first contact I had with UNSW was on the 15 th of April. You will get excess to a program called Endeavour, where you have to create a profile and upload some personal documents and information. In response to this they will sent you a confirmation of enrolment and in this confirmation there is a code which you have to use to apply for your visa. I got this confirmation of enrolment on the 10 th of May, so it took them approximately one month to respond. In the meanwhile you can already start suggesting and enrolling in courses in the same program, Endeavour, since every individual course has to be approved by their specific faculty. Another thing that has to be arranged before you leave is the Overseas Student Health Cover, OSHC. The university provides you with a few alternatives, which you can choose one from. I choose NIB, since this was one of the cheapest options they had. Visa procedure and arrival The visa application was no problem for me, you have to fill in some personal information and questions and within 24 hours I received the approval for my visa, the only downside on the visa is that it is relatively pricey. Approximately 500 Australian dollar. UNSW organizes a pick-up service from the airport upon arrival, so you don t have to worry about anything when you arrive. The only thing was that I arrived too early to make use of this service. I would
still recommend coming a week or 2 before the start of the semester, especially when you still have to look for accommodation, because then you can arrange the last stuff before it is getting really busy again. For example finalizing your courses and schedule at the exchange office. Orientation/introduction activities The only thing that was a bit disappointing was the orientation week, I expected it to be similar to the Topweek from Tilburg, but it wasn t anything near that. There were just a few days that you could come to the university where they had set up some stalls that you could visit yourself. Next to that there was one mandatory session in one of the lecture halls with a formal introduction, as well as some formal workshop which were not mandatory. Something that I thought was weird was that all the different colleges (the university accommodations) all had their own separate introduction in the same week as the universities introduction. These introductions were a bit more similar to the Topweek introduction structure. Housing Concerning housing there are two main options, on campus or off campus accommodation. I chose to go with a on campus accommodation, since this was a completely new concept for me, because we do not have that option in the Netherlands. You have to register early if you want to get a room on campus, because a lot of students apply for it and there is not enough space to facilitate all these students. For the on campus accommodation there are still a lot of different option to go for, I chose the cheapest option, which is UNSW Hall. The benefit from living on campus is meeting a lot of (local) students and being close to university buildings. But if I could choose again for on or off campus, I would probably go for off campus, since there are a lot of nice student homes in the suburb Coogee that are completely filled with exchange students and I prefer to live in a smaller house at the beach than the big complexes like on the ones at the university, but that is a choice that is different for everyone personally. Costs Be aware that going to Australia is expensive, but I think totally worth it! It starts already back home, with booking flights, your visa and health cover, which are already quite expensive and mandatory. Next to that are the costs of living in Australia, housing is approximately between 180 to 350 dollars a week, supermarkets are expensive as well compared to the Dutch supermarkets. To make the most out of your exchange I would definitely recommend traveling around, which comes with a price tag as well. I travelled within Australia, to Fiji and to New Zealand in the six months I was there. So keep some money aside to go and travell. Academic calendar The academic year starts already in July, which is pretty early. There is one mid-semester break in the beginning of October and it lasts one week. The final exams start in November and are two weeks, before that you have one week of study break. It depends on your faculty and courses if you have final exams, I had for example only two final exams.
Exchange promotion Because I lived on campus I met a lot of local students, who were interested in studying in Tilburg as well, so this was one of the biggest promotion opportunities I had. There was a exchange market at UNSW as well to promote your home university, but unfortunately I had a lecture during that market, so I wasn t able to help out there. Social activities There is an organization called ARC that has a lot of societies you can join and plans some activities you can go to. If you live on campus, your college will probably organize a lot of activities too. You meet so many people in the beginning already that you won t have to be afraid that there is nothing to do, since every day there is always a group of (exchange) people going somewhere that you can join. Culture and language Since Australia isn t that different from many European countries, I did not really experience a culture shock. Of course you notice some small differences, but you will get used to all of it really quickly. The language isn t a problem at all. Most of the exchange people you meet do not have English as their native language, so everyone has to get used to it. You are less afraid to make mistakes, because everyone understands that it is not your native language. It was useful that my Dutch program was already entirely in English as well, that makes it easier to adjust. Personal Development I think everyone will learn a lot from a period abroad. Living in a different environment, with different people, different cultures and a lot more. You can experience the things that you normally only see in movies, or hear from stories all by yourself now. Meeting people from all over the world. For sure that is something really valuable that nobody can take away from you. (III) Academic information Academic level at University of New South Wales The way of teaching is really similar to Tilburg university. There are lectures, tutorials and seminars, but the way of examining was different. UNSW focuses more on spreading the workload over the whole semester, thinking of more smaller exams, essays, homework, group projects and participation grades instead of focusing primarily on big final exams. For example I only had two final exams out of the four courses I took. They have a grading system similar to ours, since it goes from 0 to 100 and from 50 and above you pass the course. Overall I thought the academic level of UNSW was a bit lower than at Tilburg university. It wasn t very difficult not to pass a course. Description of my courses Course Prerequisites Structure ECTS Comments
Business & Corporate Strategy MGMT3001 Event Management & Marketing MARK2060 Microeconomics2 ECON2101 Macroeconomics 2 ECON2102 Tips for future students yes 2 written exams, case studies and presentations No 1 written exam, 1 group project and 1 essay Yes Yes 1 mid exam, 1 final exam, homework questions 1 mid exam, 1 final exam, homework questions 7.5 One big group assignment with deadlines every week 7.5 Practical course: Visiting real life events and working with actual clients 7.5 - - I would definitely recommend every student to go on exchange! It will be six months of your life you will never forget. UNSW is for sure an amazing option and if you have more questions about it, don t hesitate and just contact me! I am happy to help! Pictures Sydney Opera House concert
Traveling through New Zealand Snorkeling in Fiji