STUDENT REPORT
Name of the University:
Exchange semester:
Program at BI:
The University of Newcastle, Australia
Fall 2012
Bachelor in Market Communication
Bachelor in Economic and Administration
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The campus where BI students attend is called Callaghan Campus and in situated in a suburb
outside Newcastle, called Warabrook. The bus takes approximately 30 minutes and the train
10 from Newcastle. It’s now 35 000 students at the University of Newcastle, which includes
7800 international students from more than 80 different countries.
Newcastle is located on the east coast of Australia, 2, 5 hours north of Sydney with train. The
population is around 400 000, but very spread out in a big area. This gives you a small-town
feeling. And it’s not really a centre where you can find everything, its different places. But
Newcastle has several beautiful beaches and is a really good place for surfing.
Study structure
During the semester it’s some assignments in each course which will be a part of your final
grade. But this makes the exam period less stressful. The lectures are usually two hours long
with one tutorial each week. The semester is over 13 weeks followed by an exam period of
three weeks. During the semester it’s a semester break for two weeks.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
We received information from the university in may/june, and the information was good and
it was easy to send emails and we got good answers.
Visa Procedure and travel experiences
We got the final confirmation of approval to the University a bit late (mid June) and didn’t
apply for visa until this. The visa application is done online and a student visa costs
approximately 3000 NOK. One of us had some more problems with the visa because of living
in both Egypt and Cyprus before. So be aware that if you have lived in certain places of the
world for more than 3 months during the last five you have to undergo complete medical
assessment and chest-xray in order to get the visa application approved. And it is only two
doctors in the whole Norway that is approved to do this check, one in Oslo and one in
Bergen. Both to get an appointment for this test and get the results can take a while, so be
sure to apply for the visa well ahead before you leave.
Note that even if it may be stated in your letter of offer from the University, Norwegian
students need NOT pay the AUD 185 for overseas health cover as this is partly paid by the
Norwegian Government. We recommend getting a travel and/or student insurance for the
totality of the stay overseas. ANSA and Gouda have good offers.
Academic Calendar
The semester started the 23rd of July. The week before is called “O-week” and have a lot of
activities for the new students to get in touch with other students and to provide
information about the facilities on campus. We recommend arriving in Newcastle at least
one week before O-week to settle down. Otherwise, it may be difficult to find a good
accommodation. The last lectures end roughly around the beginning of November. The
examination period is the three first weeks November.
Reception
The first we did when arriving Newcastle was to visit the international office at Callaghan
Campus. They help you with almost everything regarding course enrollments and getting
started. They are prepared for your arrival and they provide you with maps and information
for whatever you need support for. Some school students are participating in the reception
for the exchange students.
Housing
It is possible to live on campus if you wish, but you have to apply for this early. We found
accommodation our self in the city and recommend you to do the same. The Callaghan
Campus is located in the middle of nowhere and it’s not much to do there. The university
has an internet page where you can look up different options (similar to Finn.no) so it was
easy to find a place. We just lived two days in a hostel when we arrived. The suburbs The
Hill, Bar Beach and the Hill is good places to stay if you want to stay close to the beaches and
nightlife.
Costs
Rent varies on the location and standard, but is usually 140–200 dollar a week (!). Academic
books cost about the same as in Norway. Other expenses as food, drinks and necessities are
a little bit cheaper than comparable products and services in Norway. Transport is cheap,
and exchange students get a concession card. The greatest costs we had were definitely
related to travelling around Australia.
Exchange promotion
We did not take part in any part of promoting exchange students to Norway because we did
not receive any information regarding this.
Social Activities
The week before the university begins they arrange an orientation week. It is similar to BI’s
“fadderuke”, but a bit more serious with orientation and information. Also it’s a lot of
happenings at Bar on The Hill which is located at campus. We strongly recommend you to
attend this week because you meet a lot of new people and everyone is in the same
situation and it is very easy to make friends.
It is a lot of international students in Newcastle, and we were mostly hanging out with them.
Everyone was really nice and you meet people you know everywhere. Also there were a lot
of parties together.
At the campus it’s also a lot of clubs you can join for activities and so on. Also there was a
representative from ANSA in Newcastle who arranged a dinner so we got to meet other
Norwegians. It is not very many Scandinavian people there, but heaps of Germans.
There are a lot of exchange students in Newcastle. The vast majority is German students but
you will meet students from all over the world as well. We did not experience any language
problems with the faculty or the other students as they all speak English.
The culture in Australia is a little bit different compared to Norway. Expect locals to talk with
you anywhere in any situations. They are very friendly, helpful and open. They greet you
often with “hi, how are you?” everywhere and it´s normal to greet back with “good, how are
you?” It seems like the Norwegian culture is more rigid time than in Australia, especially in
Newcastle. The culture is very laid back. The public transport is roughly on time and teachers
could be a couple of minutes late.
How are the possibilities to experience the country and the culture?
It is cheap to travel around Australia with flights. It is an airport right outside of Newcastle
city that has domestic flights if you want to experience different cities in Australia. The most
common thing to do is to hire a campervan and drive along the coast to experience the
different small towns, beaches and national parks. Australia is a big country and hiring a
campervan is probably the best way to experience the country. Otherwise, you could go
with busses that travel along the coast as well.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The Teaching situation
All courses are in English and this was not a problem. After being there for a while and
speaking English all the time we started to think in English. During the semester each course
has several assignments which will give you marks and count on your final grade. It’s less
work than at BI and you get to do a lot of the assignments during the tutorials. In some
courses attendance also count on your grade. The lectures are theoretical and similar to the
ones at BI, but the assignments and exams are more practical. Every course has different
types of assignments, cases, in-class tests, group work and individual work is used. Each
course has one lecture where everyone taking the course attends and more tutorials which
are smaller groups (10-30 people) and here is where they in some courses expect
participation.
Required Literature
All literature is in English, and the level of literature varies for each course, but is similar to
BI. The lectures give you a good overview of the literature and the exams are based on both.
Exams
The exams where written closed-book exams. They were all short (2-3 hours) which was a
bit stressful. Since it was several assignments during the semester, the final exam was just
30-50% of our final grade. And to pass the course you need 50%.
Other
University of Newcastle has three libraries. You will find two on Callaghan Campus (where
we had all our courses), and one in the city center. You will have to log in with a username
and a password outside of school but you will have free access to the library resources on
campus.
There are numerous computers all over the campus for us to use. There are not only PC’s in
the computer labs, but there are also MAC computers as well. Although there are all of
these computers, it often takes a little bit of looking to find an open one as during the day
there are a lot of people in all of the labs and sometimes you have to go to another building
to find one.
The professors use PowerPoint when they give their lectures, just like we do in BI. All of the
lecture materials are put on Blackboard where we can go and download them. Blackboard is
the Australian version of atbi.
Description of Courses
You can add and drop courses three weeks into the semester, so if there’s a course you’re
unsure of, you can attend a couple of lectures before you decide. Once you’ve added your
courses, you should log onto your University account and register on the most convenient
tutorials. The most popular days and times of day are quickly taken, and you don’t want to
end up with a tutorial on Friday 8pm.
OPSM 3000 Managing Logistics Operations in Supply Chains (10 units = 7,5 points)
This course is approved as a Strategy course because of the strategic thinking the course
provides. I took this course instead of Business Strategy, but it is also supposed to substitute
for the logistics course at BI. The class is small and half of the students were international
students. The course is relatively easy to pass but it requires some work. The course is set
with one quiz (15 marks), ten tutorial summaries (20 marks), one essay (30 marks) and an
exam (35 marks).
MKTG 3000 – Strategic Marketing Management (10 units = 7,5 points)
This course is approved as strategy at BI. It’s a third year course and assumes you have the
basic knowledge, which you will have if you are studying marketing or market
communication at BI. During the course you have to do four case studies in the tutorials
which give you 5 marks each. It’s also a group work worth 30 marks and a final written exam
worth 50 marks.
IRHR 2270 Introduction to HRM (10 units = 7,5 points)
The course develops a critical understanding of the role and functions of the various human
resource activities in an organization, providing students with a comprehensive review of
key HRM concepts, techniques and issues. Topics include job analysis and design,
recruitment and selection, evaluation, performance management, occupational health and
safety, and the strategic contribution of HRM to organizational performance and evaluating
HRM effectiveness. During the semester you are supposed to do an online simulation with a
group where you have to run a hotel (35 marks). In addition, you have to hand in two
individual assignments (25 marks in total) and take one final written exam (40 marks).
ESLA 1901 – Academic Language Skills for International Students (10 units = 7,5 points)
This course is approved as an elective at BI. It was a very easy course and makes you more
secure and comfortable speaking English in class. The course doesn’t have any literature, just
lecture notes. It was two individual essays (20 marks each), one individual presentation (15
marks) and one group presentation (5 marks) and you got marks for attending tutorials and
lectures (5 in each). In the end we had a written exam (30 marks).
DESN 1300 – Visual Communication Technology (10 units = 7,5 points)
This course is approved as a course in the market communication degree at BI. It is a design
course where Adobe Illustrator is a big part. We didn’t have any experience with this before
so it was a small challenge sometimes, but in the tutorials they basically show you how to do
everything so you will manage. It is just time consuming sometimes. This course doesn’t
have any literature except from the lecture notes. It was 3 assignments where we had to
design a band logo (25 marks), a CD cover (30 marks) and code a homepage (30 marks). In
the end, before the exam period, it was also an online quiz (15 marks).
We strongly recommend going on exchange, it was amazing!
If you have any questions or we can help with something, don’t hesitate to get in touch.