GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE EXPERIENCE REPORT
Please write this report in English
The student report will be published on the:
 Study Abroad website (under “Experiences” from partner universities)
 TSH study abroad blackboard page
I am fine with my report being published online: YES
ANR: 842811
Name: Astrid Omvlee
E-mail: a.m.omvlee@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester:
Fall 2015
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: La Trobe University Melbourne
Country: Australia
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
For my exchange I went to La Trobe University in Melbourne. The campus of the university is
located in the suburb Bundoora, which is approximatey 50 minutes by bus/tram away from the
city centre. During the week, we didn’t go to the city centre that often, but there are a lot of
nice suburbs around the uni as well. Most of the time in the weekends we enjoyed going to
the city centre and melbourne CBD is a very nice. The atmosphere is great, on every corner
of the street there are great streetmusicians playing which gives a very nice and friendly
feeling. Besides that, there are a lot of nice bars and especially the rooftopbars are very
unique and really nice to go to. In the CBD a lot of activities are going on in weekends, we
went for example to music and food festivals. If you go to Melbourne by night, during the
weekends there are nightbuses and they are also going to La Trobe so that’s a good way to
go home. Besides that, we used the app Uber quite often beause that is also a cheap way to
go home. We always liked to walk around in the CBD and good thing to see around there are
for example federation square, flinders street station, small lanes with a lot of graffiti and we
always enjoyed walking along the Yarra River. Around the suburb Bundoora there was a nice
shopping mall called Northland, which was only 15 minutes by bus. In that mall there also
were a lot of shops, a cinema, and there also was an Aldi and sometimes they had some
Dutch food. In another suburb called Thornburry (20 minutes by tram) there were some very
nice foodtrucks, with good food. Me and my roommates sometimes went there to get some
dinner.
I lived on the campus of La Trobe University and I would definitely recommend to live at
Chisholm College. In total there are three colleges for bachelor students to live in: Menzies,
Glenn and Chisholm. Glenn college has all the food included (I would not recommend that, I
have never eaten there myself but a lot of people were telling that the food was not that good
and you don’t have a lot of choices). Menzies and Chisholm college do not have the food
included and I choose to live in Chisholm because that is a very international college. I think
60% of the 200 students who lived in Chisholm were exchange students and the other ones
were Australian. I liked this mix very much, everyone was openminded to get to know each
other so making friends went quite easily. In our college you live with 12 students who all
have private room and you share a kitchen and two bathrooms. During the semester there
were a couple of activities organized by our college for example a tower parade, a ball and a
summer party. It’s really nice to get the experience of living on a campus.
On the campus (only 1 minute walk from Chisholm College) there was the Eagle Bar and
there were parties every Thursday night. I always enjoyed going there, especially when there
were some themeparties, we’ve had a 70/80/90 party, a Halloween party and a Captain
Morgan Party. On Tuesdays most students are going to ‘Stollies’ (ofically called café Stolberg
but Australians shortern everything), which is a 15 minute ride by tram.
There are a lot of possibilities to play sports at La Trobe. There is a sport centre where you
can fitness and group lessons like yoga, body pump and so on. Besides that, there are a lot
sport clubs that you can join: football, tennis, swimming and everything you can basically
imagine. Of course there is also a surfclub at an Australian university and I decided to join
that club and that was one of the best things I did. We went on a surfweekend with 25 people,
Australians and internationals, and that was one of the best weekends I had so if you like
spors and want to learn how to surf: join the surfclub. Besides the surfweekend, we also had
some nice parties with the surfclub, a cocktail and a Halloween party.
Every Sunday morning from 09.00 – 13.00 there was a market located on one of the parking
spots of La Trobe. The market was a good way to get good and cheaper vegetables and fruit
(way cheaper than the supermarket).
At La Trobe university there are approximalty studying 22.000 students. The university is
divided in five faculties which is the same number as in Tilburg, but the names of the faculties
are different. The five faculties are ‘business, economics and law’, ‘humanities and social
sciences’, ‘health sciences’, ‘education’, and ‘science, technology and engineering’. In Tilburg
my study ‘Human Resource Studies’ is based at the social and behavioral faculty, while at La
Trobe my study was based at the Business faculty. I took three courses at the Business
faculty and one at the humanities and social sciences. You can easily choose courses from
different faculties if you would like to do that.
The semester at La Trobe University was a total of 12 lecture weeks. After 8 weeks we had a
mid-semester break and a lot of international students made a little trip, I went for example
with 4 other girls to Tasmania. After the mid-semester break there are 3 more lecture weeks,
then there is week called SWOT-week withouth any lectures, this week is meant for studying
for the exams. The last three weeks of the semester are for the exams, but if you’re lucky you
have your exams in the beginning of this week and the holiday starts earlier. You have way
more time to study for the exams than you have in Tilburg. The structure of the courses itself
was basically the same as in Tilburg, there is one lecture per week for all the sturdents who
follow that course, and one seminar per week which you follow with approximately 20/25
students. For almost every course you will have an individual and a group assessment, which
is a bit more than I was used to in Tilburg. I thought it was a nice experience to do the group
work with Australian students, so I could see the different ways of working between Dutch and
Australian students. I would recommend to do the group assessment not only with
international students, but with Austrlian students.
So as a conclusion, the structure of the courses are more or less the same as in Tilburg,
during the 12 lecture weeks it is a bit busier with all the assessments, but during the
examination period you’ll have way more time to prepare for the exams and that makes it
easier then in Tilburg.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
After you’ve been accepted by Tilburg to go on exchange to La Trobe, you also have to do an
application for La Trobe University itself. You have to write a motivation letter, send your cv,
and hand in an academic and non-academic recommendation. I asked one my teachers of
Tilburg uni and a friend with whom I had the same student job with to write a recommendation
for me. A couple of weeks later you receive the official acceptment for La Trobe university and
after that you will receive information about housing and so on. Everything is managed very
clear by La Trobe, so it’s not very hard to fix everything. For example, prior to the departure
La Trobe will make a facebook group with all new international students and you can already
see who are also going on exchange and you can ask anything you want.
Visa procedure and arrival
For some contries it is very hard to get a visa for Australia, but luckily for the Netherlands it is
easy. I think I got my visa accepted the same day as I applied for it. I choosed to take the
working holiday visa, because with the student visa you can only stay for 4 months of
studying + 1 month of travelling and I wanted to stay longer than that. With the working
holiday visa you are allowed to stay in Austrlia for 12 months in total, and of course you are
allowed to work if you want so. The visa was around 500 Australian dollas (350 euros).
For the arrival you can apply for a airport-pickup service of La Trobe and that is very good.
You will be dropped af at Chisholm college, so after a 25 hour flight you do not have to think
about how to fix a taxi/bus/train and so on. If you arrive at the uni, they will bring you to the
accomation services and you will get your key for your room and so on.
Orientation/Introduction activities
The weekend prior to the orientation week is called the pre-orientation weekend and this is
organized for exchange students. This trip is a very good way to get to know a lot of
exchange students ans beside, you will go the great ocean road which is one of the most
beautiful things around Melbourne. There is a maximum of 80 exchange students for this trip,
but there are more exchange students than 80 so you have to make sure that you’re on time
to apply for this weekend.
The orientation week itself was not that special, nothing in comparison to the TOP-week in
Tilburg. You will get a lot of information, have to manage your administrative stuff and so on.
You will not get placed in a group of 10 students and go to a lot of parties that week. Luckily,
there are a lot of students at Chisholm college who are organizing parties with each other so
that is a good way to get to know each other. Furthermore, you will have a lot of free time and
we used that to do some sightseeing in the citycentre.
There was not a mentor or buddy for exchange students, but there is a international reception
where you can go for all your questions. And next to that, you have a lot of exchange students
to find everything out with and you can also always ask your Australian roommates.
Housing
As I already explained, I lived in Chisholm college and I would recommend it to everyone. Of
course there is a limited amount of places to live in a college, so you have to manage this
before you go on exchange. Don’t be too late, because it can already be full. You will get
emails of La Trobe about the housing, and then you can apply for the colleges.
Living Costs
To live Australia is very expensive, especially in comparison with Tilburg. To live on campus I
paid 800 AUD a month (560 euros) which included a private room, shared kitchen, shared
bathrooms, cleaning lady every morning during the week, weekly possibility of getting clean
linen sheets, 2 common areas where you can hangout and play for example table soccer,
washing machines and dryers.
Besides the housing, the basic stuff in Australia like groceries are also a bit more expensive
then in the Netherlands. A good way to get cheaper food is going to the weekly Sunday
market on the university. Furthermore I would recommend to cook by yourself and not to take
to much take-away food on the campus. For example for a sandwich for lunch you’ll pay
around 7 dollar (5 euros), and you don’t really have cheap options as the mensa in Tilburg.
Drinks at the bars in Melbourne are too expensive (between 9-12 dollar (6 – 8 euro) for a
beer) which is insane. The drinks at the Eagle bar at the university are a bit cheaper, around
3,50 per beer. A lot of people are getting goon (cheap wine) from the supermarkets and drink
that first before they’re going to a bar.
It is possible to get a job (if you have the working holiday visa) to finance the exchange
period. There were some exchange students who for example had a job at a coffee or juice
shop at the campus.
Books for studying are very expensive as well, but at the end of the semester you can sell
them and you will get 40% of the price back.
Transport is not very expensive, you can get a myki card (like an ov-chip card) with a discount
of 50% for students. You can use this card for everything: bus, tram, train. If you reach the
maximum of 3,40 AUD you can still travel, but no money will get off your card.
Academic Calendar
You have to be aware of the fact that the academic calendar in Australia is a bit different than
in the Netherlands because of the opposite summer and winter. I flew to Australia the 13 of
july, arrived at the 15th and the pre-orientation weekend started at the 17th. The orientation
week started the 20th and the lectures started the 27th.
My last lecture week was from the 19th till the 23th of October, and examination period ended
at the 19th of November.
The last Thursday, the 19th of November, there was a big last Xparty at the Eagle bar. This
party looked like a festival, with three DJ’s, they made stage outside and it was very very
busy. That party is a good way to end a great time studying at La Trobe.
The International Office
There is an international office which will send you all the emails prior to the departure, and of
course you can always go there with your questions. It differs a bit per year who is
responsible for the incoming exchange students, but they will make it clear by the emails they
will send. It is all very clear what they expect you to do, the international office is managed
very well.
Social Activities
In the beginning of the semester there were some activities organized for exchange students.
For example the pre-orientation weekend which was a big activity, but there were also small
activities like a bar-hop, going to a Australian football match (very different from American
football, nice experience!).
I met a lot of Australian students because of living at Chisholm college, joining the surfclub,
and my courses where I did the groupwork together with Australian students. Besides that,
my best friends at La Trobe were other exchange students because everyone is experiencing
the same thing and wants to see as and do as much as possible in one semester.
During my semester I went to Tasmania in the mid-semester week, we did some nice
weekend-trips for example to Philip Island. After the semester I travelled along the East Coast
together with another Dutch girl who I met on exchange.
Culture and Language
The Netherlands and Australia are both Western countries and therefore, I didn’t experience a
culture shock during my exchange. Of course there are some small differences between the
Netherlands and Australia but not very shocking.
When I graduated from high school, I didn’t pass my English course so I was not good at it at
all. During my time at Tilburg University I followed ‘English for the Future’ to become better in
academic English. During my studies in Tilburg I had to do a lot in English so I improved my
writing, listening and reading skills a lot in comparision to my high school time. Nevertheless, I
didn’t speek English a lot during this time, so it was a challenge for me to go on exchange.
Getting used to talk English the whole day went quite well. You meet a lot of different
nationalities and everyone wants to learn English. I improved my English a lot during my
exchange, so that is already a big reason why I would recommend to go on exchange
anyway. The Australian accent is sometimes a bit difficult to understand though. I for example
had one roommate and I couldn’t undertand her all the time, but you get used to it pretty fast.
I really liked the fact that you don’t only get to know the Australian culture, but you get to know
a lot of different cultures because you meet so many nationalities. It is very nice to talk about
the different cultures and to realize that some things are very Dutch even if you don’t realize it
back home at all. If we were in the city centre during the weekend and we were looking for
some lunch, me and another Dutch girl were always looking for a sandwich or something like
that, while others where more looking for a lunch like pizza, pasta or noodles. These
differences will not create a huge shock, but it is funny to realize it during your study abroad.
I really liked the Australian culture in general, the people are very relaxed an friendly and if
you have any questions everyone is willing to help you. I experienced this when I was living in
Melbourne, but also when I was travelling along the East Coast.
Personal development
I learned a lot during my exchange period about a lot of different subjects. I learned for
example a lot about the Dutch and Australian culture, but also about other nationalities.
Because I met so many different people during my exchange period and during travelling, it
made me very open-minded to other people. I was already very interested in other cultures,
but now even more.
After the semester I travelled for 1.5 month and I did 1 month together with a friend I met in
Melbourne, the other 2 weeks I travelled alone. Before I went on exchange I was not really a
person who would like to be alone, but now I am very happy that I travelled alone for a short
time. It made me more open-minded, because you have to make friends during that period.
Making friends with other backpackers is very easy, because everyone is very open-minded
and wants to make friends.
Of course I also had some bad days during my six months abroad, but I think that is quite
normal. I had a few days that I felt a bit homesick, but you can talk about that very good with
your friends on exchange because everyone will understand you. I had such a great period
studing at La Trobe, living in Chisholm college and travelling around the East Coast that I
cannot choose one specific best thing. But one of the best parts in general is making so many
new friends from all over the world, and it is very nice to experience that you can become
really good friends in kind of a short period. You share a lot with each other, and everyone is
doing the same thing so you will understand each other very good. It was an awesome time
abroad for me!
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
Of course, the courses at La Trobe Univerity are given in Engish. Because my study in Tilburg
is already for 70% in English, it was not a big challenge because I was already used to that.
It is good to realize that it is possible to follow courses from different faculties at La Trobe. If
you want to follow two courses at the Business faculty and two courses at Humanities, that is
all possible and good to combine. The academic level is pretty similar to the level in Tilburg,
maybe a little bit less hard then in Tilburg (my marks were a bit above my own average). The
teaching style is pretty similar as well, since you also have lectures and seminars. I had to
make some individual assessments and groups assessments for my courses. I really enjoyed
the group assessments, because that when you get to know the Australian students better
and get used to their way of working. The relationship between teachers and students is
maybe a little bit closer then in Tilburg. For example in the first lecture we had to introduce
ourselves, while we were in a room with 150 students. You also sometimes have to discuss
some topics with group of for example 10 people during the lectures, and then one of the
group has to come in front of the class to present the solution/thoughts. That is a different
kind of giving lectures than we are used to in Tilburg, but it was not at every course I had at
La Trobe. In general, I was very happy that I studies at La Trobe, I really enjoyed the way of
teaching.
Exams
I took four courses at La Trobe and I had three writing exams. For the other course I had to
hand in assessments during the whole semester and I didn’t had a final exam.
Other
When I was making my assessments or studying for the exams I always went to the library.
Thtere are not as many computers as in Tilburg, but there are a lot of places to sit with your
laptop. Also in a lot of other buildings are places available to study with your own laptop.
Description of Courses
Please list all courses you have taken at a partner university in the form below:
 Course title and code
 Course level (BA/MA)
 Prerequisites, if any
 Form of exam
 ECTS credits you have obtained in total:
 Comments: Relevance, Difficult/easy, Practical/theoretical, Enrolment problems
Course Name
Organisational
change and
development
International
Human Resource
management
Remuneration and
performance
management
Career
management and
contemporary
workplace issues
Prerequisites
none
Exam
Written
Course level
BA
ECTS
7.5
none
Written
BA
7.5
none
Written
BA
7.5
Very interesting
None
No exam (only
assessments)
BA
7.5
Easy
30 in total
Comments
Difficult but very
interesting
Contact details:
Can the International Relations Office share your e-mail address with prospective exchange
students, so that other students could contact you for more information? YES
A picture is worth a thousand words
MELBOURNE:
CAMPUS LIFE / CHISHOLM COLLEGE:
MID SEMESTER BREAK: ROADTRIP TASMANIA
TRIPS DURING THE SEMESTER (PHILIP ISLAND, GRAMPHIANS)
TRAVEL ALONG THE EAST COAST