E-mail: gmdeleeuw@gmail.com
Study Program: Organization Studies
Exchange semester: Spring semester
Academic year: 2014-2015
Host University: Griffith University, Gold Coast
Country: Australia
I always knew that I wanted to go on exchange. During my study Organization Studies, I
became more interested in Human Resource Management. Therefore, I wanted to specialize
myself in this field by following HR courses in my minor. Besides following HR courses, I
wanted to improve my English, explore other cultures and have some travel opportunities. So,
I decided to go on exchange to Australia!
The university I went to was Griffith University. Griffith has five different campuses, four in the
city of Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast. I choose to go to the Gold Coast as I wanted to
combine studying with spending my spare hours on the beach. This was a great decision,
while the Gold Coast has a subtropical climate with good weather all year around.
Furthermore, the Gold Coast has 40km of beaches! As I was on exchange in the spring
semester, I arrived in the Australian summer. It was around 35 degrees and very humid, and
even experienced a cyclone! By the end of the semester, it was winter and still around 20
degrees.
As the Gold Coast is in a subtropical climate, the campus looks like a jungle with a lot of trees
and birds. Simply beautiful! The campus is also much bigger compared to Tilburg University.
The campus has easy access by public transport. There are several bus lines and also two
tram stops. The trams brings you in 25 minutes from University to Surfers Paradise (the Gold
Coast city center).
The Gold Coast is home to over 2000 international students from all over the world, who are
all experiencing the same scary things as you do. You will never feel alone. The university
organizes several different activities to meet new students and is always willing to help in
case of any problems.
The Gold Coast campus offers a lot of different studies like business, psychology, marketing
etc. It is very easy to find courses of your interest and in your field. You can enroll in every
course of your preferences. However, your courses need to be approved by both universities.
I would advise to do this as soon as you know that you are accepted by Griffith. This process
can take a while and it is better to have this arranged before your departure! Beware that
some courses are filling fast, so you also need to have a back-up. Make sure also these
courses are approved by both universities.
Information before I left
After my acceptance was confirmed by Griffith University, it was time to prepare for my
departure. Griffith University provided me with an information guide which included an action
list (like how to find and enroll for courses) a couple of months before departure. There were
no difficulties, and in case I had questions, I could e-mail Truc of the international office and
received a reply within 24-hours. She was very helpful in providing information about courses
and enrollment. I was pretty scared to go to the other side of the world by myself, but Truc
made me feel welcome and reminded me of the things that needed to be done to ensure that
everything was arranged before my arrival.
To study in Australia, you need a student visa. This visa cost about 550 Australian dollar (385
euro). This visa also allows you to work for 20 hours in two weeks. Some students go on a
work-and-holiday visa. This visa is a little cheaper and allows you to stay longer in Australia (a
year instead of an half a year). However, you can only apply for this visa once in your life, you
need to consider this in case you maybe want to come back and work in Australia after your
study. My visa was arranged in only one day and you have access to your visa online.
You also need an overseas healthcare insurance. Griffith provides these to you and costs 200
euro. Besides that, you need to do an English test (TOEFL or IELLS). These tests also cost
200 euro and expire after two years. I was very insecure about my English while this was a
course I have failed in high school, but I passed the test successfully right the first time. I
would advise to do this test as soon as you know you are accepted by Griffith. It can take
some time to schedule a test and the results are available after 10 days.
The best way to get in the Gold Coast is to fly to Brisbane international airport. This was an
exhausting 24-hour flight. Luckily, someone from Griffith picked me up from the airport and
brought me to my accommodation in the Gold Coast. This was a great free service of Griffith!
You had to apply for this service, but was arranged very well.
Orientation/Introduction
I arrived two week before school started to explore my new habitat. This gave me enough
time to overcome my jetlag and arrange my TTCC and GoCard. You need these cards to
travel with concession by public transport. You can buy your concession GoCard at the
Student Guild at Uni and apply for you TTCC card at the student center at Uni. It takes a
couple of weeks to receive your TTCC at your address, but you will get a temporary TTCC
card that expires after a month. Do not forget to stop your OV-car in the Netherlands! The
government will pay you 80 euro a month for not using the Dutch public transport and
covering your transport costs overseas.
The university organized a compulsory meeting for all exchange students. They emphasized
the most important things like, visa, health cover and course enrollment and made everything
very clear. Griffith also provided buddy programs, but I did not participate in this program.
Griffith partners with a travel agency that organized the Byron Bay orientation trip. This is a
three-day-trip to Byron Bay a couple of days before school starts. The trip cost 200 euro
(including accommodation, meals and activities) and is a great opportunity to meet other
students and new friends. You will also learn how to surf, visit the Byron Bay Lighthouse and
go out by night. Do not hesitate to book this trip! You will regret it if you don’t go.
Housing
Griffith University offers accommodation on campus. This was one of the reasons why I
wanted to go to the Gold Coast so I did not have to consider my housing. After a while being
in the exchange students Facebook page, the other students recommended not to live on
campus but in Surfer Paradise. Living on campus had the advantage that you leave near the
campus. However, it is pretty expensive and there are a lot of rules. Like you cannot have
sleepovers for longer that three nights. This was a problem for me, while my boyfriend would
visit me for two months. Therefore, I arranged my accommodation before my arrival on
AirBNB. I wanted to stay here till the end of the semester. Unfortunately, I experienced
bedbugs and did not want to stay there. This resulted in problems with the owner. Luckily, the
international office was really willing to help me finding new accommodation and to sort things
out with the owner. They really listened to me and made me feel better. They advised me
where I had to go to and everything was solved in no time.
For future students, I would advise to arrive some earlier and to stay in a hostel or AirBNB
accommodation for a while and to search from here to find accommodation in Surfers
Paradise or Broadbeach. (Surfers Paradise is party city center, Broadbeach more fancy with
nicer restaurants. Both have several tram stops to go to Uni!). There are several websites that
offer housing (gumtree.com.au, flatmates.com.au, realestate.com.au). Or you can just visit
the tall buildings along the boulevard asking for accommodation.
In the end, I was living in a great two bedroom and two bathroom apartment between Surfers
and Broadbeach with a beautiful ocean view. I shared this apartment with my Italian friend.
Beware that housing in Australia is extremely expensive!! You will pay between 150 till 300
dollars a week, depending on your location and house share. Just look on the websites to find
a good accommodation that suits your preferences.
Living Costs
As already mentioned, housing is expensive and Australia is an expensive country regarding
their living costs. Food is a little more expensive compared to the Netherlands when doing
your groceries at Woolworths, but Australia also has an Aldi which is pretty cheap. Alcohol is
also expensive. You will pay for a glass of wine around 9 dollars in a restaurant and around
10 dollars a bottle in the BWS. Beer is also expensive, 7 dollar in a restaurant and 45 dollar
for 24 bottles in the BWS. Food in restaurants varies between 10 and 40 dollars, it just
depends what you order and where you eat. A great place to eat is Longboards, a burger
restaurant next to the Q1 (Burger Thursday offers burgers for only 10 dollar!).
I paid my living cost with savings and student grants. However, the visa also allows you to
work for 20 hours in two weeks. The minimum wages are in Australia around 25 dollar per
hour. There are a lot of jobs in hospitality in case you have a smaller budget.
Academic Calendar
I studied in the Spring semester and arrived the 16th of February. The school started in the
first week of March, and a couple of days before school started we had the introduction trip to
Byron Bay. After five weeks of school, we had a week of (mid-semester break). Most students
use this week to travel. Unfortunately, I have to move my stuff to my new accommodation and
study for my mid-semester exam.
The semester ends by the end of May. Than we had again a week off, which they called study
week. This week is mend to study for the exams, but is also a great travel opportunity. After
study week, there are two weeks of exams. I was lucky that I had all my exams in the first
three days, so I could travel afterwards.
Culture and Language
Australia has a Western culture, so you will not really experience a culture shock. However,
you will meet a lot of students from other countries. I found the cultural awareness workshop
enough to deal with these cultural differences.
Australia is really laid-back and relaxed. You do not see any clocks in public for example. The
‘no worries mate’ mentality is seen everywhere. Furthermore, Australians are super friendly.
When you are sitting in the tram or in college alone, they will probably talk to you (starting with
‘hi, how are you doin?’) and they are really interested! Australia also has a very interesting
Aboriginal culture. You should definitely go to one of the Aboriginal parks to see their dotpaintings and learn more about their way of life.
I did not experience language problems. They even found my English really good, what made
me more confident talking English. However, the Aussies have a really strong accent which is
in the beginning hard to follow. Although, you will get used to it pretty soon!
Still not sure about your English? No worries! Griffith provides several free workshops and
English courses.
Personal Development
This exchange was really good for my personal development. I used to be very stressed in
unknown situations. Now, I have learnt that whatever happens, everything will be alright.
Don’t be scared for change, just do it and talk about your insecurities. Other people deal with
the same problems and may have solutions for you.
I also met a lot of great people who can help me in my future international career. Even
dealing with the bedbugs, what was a real bad experience, made me feel more confident.
Studying in Australia and especially in the Gold Coast, give you a whole new experience like
living at the beach instead of a big city. It also created a lot a travel opportunities. I have
travelled to Cairns, Whitsundays, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and still have not seen
enough! I fell in love with this country and its citizens and will definitely come back.
Academic level at a host university
Studying at Griffith University was pretty similar to studying at Tilburg University. The courses
were offered in English, of course. There were no problems to follow the lectures and the
tutors are approachable for any questions. You can even call them by their first name and
email them anytime. They will answer in 48 hours.
I took in total 30ECTS worth of courses. The courses in Australia are worth more than in the
Netherlands, so I only needed to take four courses.
As already mentioned, I took courses in Human Resources. However, I had to find an
equivalent course for Corporate Social Responsibility, which was pretty hard. In the end I
have followed Government and Business Relations to substitute this course. This course was
also about world politics. I attended the international student tutorial. This course was
surprisingly interesting! To substitute Advies and Interventie, I followed the course Training
and Development. Furthermore, I have followed Applied Human Resource Management and
Change, and Performance Management as my minor. I loved all my courses, but Change
Management the most. This course did not even have an exam.
A big advantage of the courses was, that you can pick the courses you want considering your
own time table. This way, I had only a long day on Monday and a short day on Tuesday and I
was off for the rest of the week! This gave me enough time to work on my assignments, to
travel and to enjoy my exchange.
Furthermore, I would say that the level of the courses is a little bit lower compared to Tilburg.
All courses are build up with (a couple of) assignments and an exam. Because of all the
assignments, the exam does not weight that much. Some assignments are group
assignments, others are individual. Because of the group assignments, you will meet new
people from overseas and also meet real Aussies!
All courses have tutorials and lectures, although the groups are smaller compared to Tilburg.
The exams were mostly open questions, but not really hard ones. There were no questions
that were not covered in the lecture or in the material. I passed all my courses successfully.
Course
1004GIB
Government and
Business Relations
3010EHR
Training and
Developement
Exam
Written
ECTS
7,5
Comments
2 Reading reports +
Individual assignment +
Exam
Individual assignment +
Group assignment + Midsemester exam + Exam
Midsemester
+ written
7,5
3011EHR
Performance
Management
3012EHR
Applied Human
Resource Management
and Change
Written
7,5
Individual assignment +
Group assignment + Exam
None
7,5
2 Individual assignments +
Group assignment + Case
study
After all, I would definitely recommend to go on exchange. I am sure you will have a good
time wherever you will go. However, Griffith University is a great university to study and the
Gold Coast the perfect place to live. Combine studying with a barbecue on the beach, learn
how to surf, and going out in the club of Surfers Paradise. You will find this nowhere else.
I hope I have informed you well about my exchange period. I also wrote a blog on
mariekedeleeuw.reislogger.nl. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!
Griffith University
Celebrating my birthday on my balcony
Cuddling with kangaroos and koalas
Traveling to the Blue Mountains nearby Sydney
Diving in the Great Barrier Reef