Travel report Autumn 2016

Transcription

1 Travel report Autumn 2016 University of Technology, Sydney Preparing for the exchange I applied to do my exchange semester in the autumn 2016 (Australian spring) in the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). After getting the approval for the exchange from Aalto at the end of February, I got the first from UTS in the middle of April. In the they asked me to check that I fulfill all the entry requirements for the University and complete my online application before the 30 th of April. In the application I was asked to list my course preferences. I found that the business department in UTS offered a vast selection of courses and I had no difficulties choosing the required nine preferred subjects. I then had to print out the application form and the printed form and supporting documents had to be submitted by Aalto s exchange office. Included in these supporting documents were the official Transcript of Records and proof of English proficiency. Initially I sent my translated upper secondary school diploma as this proof but then I received an at the end of May saying that this diploma is not accepted and they would need a Certificate of Matriculation Examination. After sending that I got the official Letter of Offer fairly quickly. By this point I had already applied for the accommodation with the UTS housing in the end of May and I received an offer from there quickly. The application deadline for the spring session was 15 th of June and UTS guarantees a room at housing for all arriving exchange students who apply before this.

2 Nevertheless, I would recommend applying well before the deadline. This is because many of my friends who applied late didn t have that much of a choice with the different accommodation types and for example ended up staying in the really expensive private studios. The application period for the Housing apartments opened on 2 nd of May. I received an offer for one of my first choices which was a 4- bedroom shared apartment in the Gumal Ngurang building. Only after getting the apartment I received the official Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) for the school in the beginning of June. I needed this confirmation for my Visa application which I then sent immediately. I also needed to buy an Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC). I bought the Medibank insurance that UTS recommended which cost me about 230 euros for the duration of the semester. I was a little bit worried that the Visa would take a long time to obtain, but to my surprise I received the Visa on the same day that I applied for it. The Visa price was about 370 euros. After getting all the required documents I finally bought my flights around one month before leaving. Arriving in Sydney I arrived in Sydney one day after my rental agreement commenced and about one week before the orientation week. If you stay in the UTS housing I would recommend arriving around the same time as I did because the Housing organizes a lot of activities during the first week and it s really easy to get to know people while participating in these events. The orientation week activities organized by the University concentrated much more on the practical aspects of studying in UTS.

3 The reception at the housing went really well. The Housing office had organized a free transport from the airport to arriving exchange students and the bus took me straight to the Housing reception where I got the keys to my apartment. We also got a lot of informational material on arrival which I found very helpful. Our 4- bedroom apartment was empty when I got there because all of us who ended up staying there were arriving exchange students. My room had all the basic furniture in it but I had to buy pillows and linens etc. myself. I bought the linen package that the Housing offered and found them to be good quality. Because the apartment had no previous tenants living there, we also had buy all of the cutlery, dishes and cooking equipment ourselves. During the first two weeks before my courses commenced I participated in a lot of the activities arranged by the Housing. It was easy to get to know people in these events and I really recommend them, especially since UTS has no tutor program and the official orientation week activities were more formal and concentrated on providing information rather than being social events. The orientation week started on the 25 th of July and the official term one week later. Courses I had already chosen my 9 preferred subjects during the application process and once I had gotten all of them approved, I had then chosen the courses I wanted to attend and made my timetable on the UTS portal. The biggest difficulties I had with the course selection were that some of the courses were on top of each other and the best groups filled up really quickly. For example, I ended up having to choose one tutorial that was organized from 7:30pm to 9pm on a Thursday night because every other group was full. Faculty of Engineering and IT Building on Broadway The subjects I chose to do were The Financial System, International Accounting, The Socio- political Context of Management and Strategy: Theory and Practice. All of the courses were undergraduate courses and worth 6 credit points. All of the subjects also comprised of one weekly lecture and one weekly tutorial in a smaller group. In my opinion the workload of the courses was about the same as in Aalto. Below is a short description of each subject.

4 The Financial System The aim of this subject is to develop an understanding of the operations of a modern financial system, covering its payment, financing and market- risk management activities. The subject was quite similar to the finance courses offered in Aalto. It was the only one of my subjects that had a mandatory book. The course itself was interesting and well- organized. Evaluation of the course consisted of weekly assignments, an essay and the final exam. International Accounting This subject introduces students to the concepts and accounting issues involved in the recording and reporting of international transactions and business activities. The structure of the course was a little different than the undergraduate accounting courses in Aalto. Almost all of the materials and assignments were about the theoretical and juridical aspects of the international accounting practices and the course included very little practical applications of these rules in actual accounting practices. Evaluation of the course consisted of a group presentation and the final exam. Socio- political Context of Management This subject considers sociopolitical theories and concepts of relevance to the practice of management. The focus of the course was a little bit different than I initially imagined when I took it. It focused heavily on applying the thoughts and theories of influential philosophers on the modern management practices. It offered new viewpoints and talked about some important ethical issues but as a whole I found the subject not practical enough. It had a lot of articles and weekly reading to do and a group presentation. Evaluation of the course consisted of both oral and written group presentations, an individual written assignment and the final exam. Strategy: theory and practice This subject, incorporating extensive case studies, offers an intellectually rigorous exploration of strategic theory and practice. The subject was interesting and talked about both well- established and newer theories and approaches to strategy. Evaluation of the course consisted of weekly quizzes and the final exam. Living in Sydney The cost of living in Sydney was quite similar to Helsinki, although the rent prices are a bit higher. The prices of food and services were around the same than in Finland. I didn t need to buy any books for my subjects, only one of them had a course book which was available in the UTS library. The biggest costs for my exchange were the flights to and back from Australia and all the travelling I did during the semester. I bought both of my flights only about one month before travelling and ended up paying around 900 euros for the flight there and 700 euros for the return flight. Other travelling I did in Australia was of course optional but I would definitely say that it was worth the price. I didn t work

5 during the exchange but many of my exchange student friends got jobs in Sydney and worked for example in restaurants or cafes. I would really recommend living in the UTS housing rather than finding an apartment from somewhere else. The rent prices in Sydney are generally really high and the demand for low- cost apartments is high. Because all exchange students are guaranteed an accommodation with the UTS Housing it really is the easiest way to find a place to live in. The housing buildings are clean and well maintained. From the different buildings I would recommend applying for a room in either Yura Mudang or Gumal Ngurang. I stayed in Gumal which I chose because it had a good location close to all the UTS buildings and was a bit cheaper than Yura Mudang. Yura is a newer and bigger building with better facilities but also the most expensive one. Most of the housing activities and social gatherings are held in Yura. I didn t know that many people who lived in the other buildings (Geegal and Bulga) but I know that they are a bit further away from the UTS buildings and the central station. View from the rooftop of Yura Mudang I would say that the negative sides about living in a Housing building were the strict rules they had and the inflexible rental agreement period. The housing buildings have around the clock security and they supervise that the rules about guests and noise curfews are abided. Second downside was that you had to pay the rent until the end of the rental agreement even if you weren t going to live there until that. For example, some of my friends had to pay their rent until the 23 rd of January even though they already moved out in November. You can sublet your room only to another student in UTS so I m not quite sure how easy that is to do. I stayed right until the end of the agreement so for me it wasn t a problem.

6 Travelling and free time I would say that it s really easy to meet new people especially if you choose to live in the Housing, and I quickly got to know a lot of the other exchange students. I also had really great roommates from Germany, China and Columbia. If you are interested in travelling around in Australia, it s pretty easy find other people to travel with since it seemed like everybody wanted to make the best of their time there. I travelled a bit during the semester: first during the spring break in September and then the study vacation in October before the final exams. I also did a short roadtrip during a long weekend. My last exam was in mid- November so there was also a lot of time to travel after the official term ended. I was really happy with how much I was able to see in Australia during my time there. I travelled on the east cost from Sydney to Brisbane and Fraser Island by car. I also did a trip to Whitsunday islands during Spring break and a short trip to Cairns. On the study vacation in October I went to Melbourne and to see the Great Ocean Road. I also did a trip to Tasmania. In addition, I also wanted to go to New Zealand since it s only about a 3- hour flight away. We did a two- week roadtrip there with a campervan. If you get a chance to go there I would really recommend it! The nature there was absolutely amazing. Sydney and Australia in general Royal National Park As a city I really loved Sydney. I felt like it had a great combination of beautiful beaches, great weather and everything a big city has to offer. My favorite areas there were Bondi and Newtown. The CBD is also really nice with the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge. From the countless beaches there is, I would recommend Manly, Cronulla, Palm Beach and of course Bondi beach. There is also some

7 really beautiful national parks around Sydney, for example Blue Mountains and Royal National Park were both amazing. I wouldn t say that the cultural differences between Australia and Finland are especially big. Maybe the biggest difference was the amount of small talk that was expected in different situations compared to Finland. One of the reasons I chose Australia for my exchange was that it s an English- speaking country. I had pretty good English skills even before the exchange but I definitely improved a lot during the semester. It was also nice to be able to handle everything from getting a phone contract to booking hostels in English and I never had any trouble because of the language. My number one tip for doing the exchange in UTS would be that you keep your plans fairly open before you go to Australia. I didn t book any flights or trips especially early, which made it possible for me to do some trips and activities on a short notice that I wouldn t even have thought of doing before. And in many cases those experiences turned out to be the most memorable ones. Final thoughts I would warmly recommend UTS for anyone interested in doing their exchange semester in Australia. The University and the offered courses were of good quality and there was also a lot of spare time to enjoy everything that Sydney and Australia has to offer. Because UTS has so many exchange students arriving every year, they have well working processes and practices in place for them. There was also a great atmosphere among the exchange students and it was easy to get to know new people. UTS has a great central location is Sydney which offered a chance to really get to know the city and its surroundings. Whitehaven beach My exchange went really well and without any bigger problems so I can t think of any significant thing I would do differently if I had to do it all over again. Even though a lot of students in Aalto choose to do their exchange during the Finnish spring, I really enjoyed doing it during autumn. I arrived there in the middle of Australian winter (most of the time the temperature was around degrees) which meant that the weather only got warmer and nicer when the semester progressed. Because the semester ended in November, I then had time to travel and spend some free time there when it was summer and the weather was great almost every single day.

8 I would say that the best educational thing I got out of my semester was my improved English skills. Two of my subjects also had an oral presentation as one of the graded assignments which allowed me to practice my presentational skills. From the subjects I took I would say the most useful was the Financial System which I recommend to anyone interested in finance. Personally, the exchange semester made me more independent and open to new people and cultures. It also made me appreciate travelling and exploring the different parts of the world even more than I did before. I really loved the diverse nature and culture of Australia and I hope to return there someday soon. Port Stephens