Student Report
Name of the University: La Trobe University
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
I started the process after I got the email in mid-March from La Trobe. Then I signed
all the forms they needed and scanned them. I sent those documents by email. I didn’t
encounter any difficulties, but it was a long process and I remember it was a bit more
difficult compared with how we do it in Norway. I had contact with a student advisor
in Australia, and she helped me out a lot. I also used the exchange advisor in Oslo if I
needed help.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
Applying for Visa is not difficult. I remember I tried to do it in April-May. But then it
didn’t work because I had to wait for a confirmation from La Trobe; this confirmation
was a document showing that I was going to study there. When I got this document
from the university it was very simple. I applied online at http://www.immi.gov.au/.
The visa cost me around 3000 NOK.
Travel
I booked my flight through http://www.momondo.no/ to see if they had some good
deals. I travelled with Thai Airways the whole way, from Gardemoen to Bangkok and
from Bangkok to Melbourne. It took about 21 hours getting there. I arrived Melbourne
the 10 of July. The accommodation service from La Trobe picked me up at the airport,
this was something I booked before leaving Norway and I did it on the ISIS page.
Housing
The university provides housing. I could choose between three different campuses, but
when I applied for this, they recommended me to choose Chisholm College since I
was an international student. I just simply applied for this at La Trobe’s Internet page
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/accommodation. It was pretty simple applying for this, but
I recommend you to do it early. I applied for the housing in the end of April. I loved
living on campus, simply because of all the people I got to know and that they had a
lot of social events over the semester. You will meet people from all over the world.
When I got to school it took me about 5-10 minutes.
La Trobe offers a free bus (The Glider) that takes you around campus. The bus could
take you to the tram station (15 minutes walk from the campus), other
accommodations around campus and up to a place called Polaris. Polaris has a big
grocery store and you also find the liquor store here.
Costs
- Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food,
transportation, and other personal expenses?
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
NOK 5000
NOK 2500 (In the beginning if the semester)
NOK 2500
NOK 50-100 (Public transport)
NOK 1000-2000 (In the beginning of the semester I used a bit more)
Australia is pretty similar to Norway when it comes to prices. Fish, fresh meat and
fresh fruit are more expensive, but the alcohol is cheaper. The public transport offers
you a card called Myki-card, which you top up with money. Since I was an exchange
student I got a confession card, which offers you half price every time you travel. You
can use this card on the bus, trains and trams. I didn’t use the Myki card everyday
because I lived so close to the school. So I used it more in the weekends and when I
had the day off.
Culture and language
I didn’t have any problems communicating with the other students. I got some really
good friends from France and the Netherlands and we were all in the same position in
the start of the semester. I also got some good friends from The US, Australia and
England, and they helped me a lot through the semester if I couldn’t say a specific
word etc.
We had one week in the semester off, which I used on traveling. I went to Gold Coast
with some friends and we went on a road trip to see Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise,
Brisbane and Noosa. I found my plane tickets online and if you go with either Tiger
Air or Jetstar, you can get a really good price. And to rent a car is very easy as well
and it wasn’t that expensive either. When I was done with my exams (the 5th of
November) I went to Sydney, Cairns and Airlie Beach. From Melbourne to Sydney I
travelled with Jetstar, and from Sydney to Cairns I travelled with Tiger. The plane is
not the best quality, but it is worth it because of the price. And when you travel with
domestic flights in Australia you have no liquid limits, which gives you the
opportunity to take the luggage with you and not pay for it.
When I travelled from Cairns to Airlie Beach, I didn’t find any plane tickets. So I took
a bus from Cairns to Airlie Beach, I ordered the bus through
http://www.greyhound.com.au/no/?gclid=CPb31OmMqcoCFSENcwodje8HlA. In
Airlie Beach I went on a two days boat trip around the Whitehaven beach. (If you
don’t know what that is, google it!) I really recommend doing some traveling when
you first are in Australia.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
La Trobe is approximately 30-40 minutes away from Melbourne City, located in a
suburb called Bundoora. It was very easy to take the bus, train or tram to the city. I
used the bus a lot because it took you straight to the city. The campus is huge and I
remember the first couple of days I felt lost everywhere I went. But I got a map over
the campus, which helped me a lot, and they also have an app that you can download.
In the centre of the campus they have something called agora. Agora is a place with a
lot of different restaurants, cafes, shops and the library is also located here. Between
classes and tutorials we often went here to take a coffee or just chill on the grass.
You don’t need to go to the city if you want to do some shopping. They have some big
shopping malls not far from the campus as well. The one I went to a lot is called
Northland, and this was a big mall with a lot of shops and you can also go here if you
want to go to the cinema.
Course registration
I registered for courses when I got the acceptance from La Trobe. I just went on their
online page and searched for courses that were similar to the courses at home. I wrote
down 8 different subjects, which I sent to BI for approval. They approved all my
subjects so the next step was to send this to La Trobe. They accepted 6 out of 8
courses. When I enrolled my subjects in Australia I selected 4 of them. This is
something you do the first week before schools starts, and they will provide you with
the information you need when you get there.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
10 July 2015
27 July 2015
22 October 2015
26 October- 5 November (But I was finished early, the period was
until 19 of November)
Mid-semester break 25 September – 4 October
Arrival
The first week the school had something called Introduction week. This was an
opportunity for us new students to get to know the school better and the opportunities
we had around the campus. You could attend to different classes about Australia,
library courses and you also got an introduction to the gym. The school has a lot to
offer if you want to join any organisation. I didn’t do that because I was just there for
a semester, but I had some friends join the football team.
If you wanted to party at night you had to do some research by yourself, but all of the
social happenings was posted on Facebook. La Trobe have a lot of different groups
online that you can join. So the first day I joined a bar crawl in the city, this was
something I saw on one of the Facebook groups. The rest of the week we had some
parties at the campus, but this was just arranged by us that lived there.
-
Groups I joined on Facebook:
LTEC 2015 Spring semester
La Trobe University
La Trobe University Study Abroad and Exchange Program
And since I lived on campus: Chisholm Community 2015
The International Office
The International Office is very helpful if you need some help about anything. I just
used them before I arrived Australia, but they have a location on campus that you can
visit as well. I was never in contact with them when I was there but if you need it you
can just visit their office.
Promoting BI and Norway
I was not involved in any activities to promote BI or Norway, other than through
informal conversations with other students/friends.
Social activities
In my experience native and exchange students was very friendly and nice to talk to. I
got to know people from all over the world, but mostly people from The US,
Australians and Europeans. La Trobe had a lot of different organisations that we
students could join. In the introduction week they had stands in the Agora to show the
students what you can sign up for. I didn’t sign up for anything because I was just
there for a semester, but some of my friends did it and they where exchange students
as well. So you have the opportunity if you want to join a organisation or sport group.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style was quite similar to BI. The only thing that was different was the
language, of course. I was disappointed in two of my teachers, but the rest was quite
good and understating of internationals. I experienced that it was a bit more work to
do than BI, because we had to work on our subjects from day 1. We had tutorials,
which was a smaller group of students were the teacher asked us questions about the
homework. Before the mid-term break we had exam in two of my courses, and some
essays that had to be delivered in. The exam period was not the same as home,
because you had worked with the subjects the whole semester, so it was less stressful.
Course materials
Most of the teachers used PowerPoint presentations. We had textbooks in each
subjects, but I only bought two textbooks, the other two I find online. This was to save
some money. I didn’t have any articles.
Exams
It was a good mix of both lectures and course materials. One of my subjects, we didn’t
have any exam because we handed in 7 essays through the semester. In the other three
subjects we had exams. One of them counted 40% of my grade, the other counted 50%
of my grade and the last one counted 60% of my grade. The final grade was based on
my results from:
o Final exam (Written in 3 of them, just assignments in 1 subject)
o
o
o
o
o
o
Mid-term exam
In-class quizzes throughout semester
Small assignments and/or papers
Group work
Class attendance
Class participation/debates
Library and technology
Students have easy access to the library. The library is very big and it is over 3 floors.
You can either work with a group or by yourself. The 3rd floor is a quite zone and the
1 first and 2 floor is for group work. All levels provide computers, printers,
photocopiers and scanners for students to use accessed through your student card.
Description of courses
Course code & name
MGT3SMG –
Strategic Management
FIN3CSF – Case
studies in Finance
ECO3ITRInternational Trade
FIN3CFICorporate Finance
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
None
Bachelor
2 hours written
exam
None
Bachelor
2 hours
Bachelor
3
Comments
Just assignments through the
semester
Basic finance
Strategic Management:
This subject was similar to the Strategy subject offered by BI. I liked this subject a lot.
Through the semester I handed in one individual assignment and one group assignment. At
the end of the semester we had an exam that counted 40% of the grade.
Case studies in Finance:
This is the subject I hated the most through the semester. It was just assignment to deliver, but
the teacher was not that good with giving feedback and comments on what we did wrong.
The assignment was an analysis of a case that we had to read through, and it was only 1000
words in each assignment.
International Trade
This was my favourite subject through the semester. I had a really good teacher and he was
very understanding of international students. The subject was kind of the same as
Mikroøkonomi. We had two quizzes through the semester (20% each), and with a final exam
in the end that counted 50%. They also counted if you were attending the tutorials, and this
was 10% of the grade.
Corporate Finance
This was a very hard subject for me. At home my favourite subject is finance, so I thought
this would be a good subject for me. It was interesting, but the teacher was not motivated and
really bad teaching, so I had to learn the whole subject by my own. We had tutorials in this
subject as well, and the attendance counted 5%. Through the semester we had three
assignments were they counted the two best of them, this was 5% as well. The mid-term exam
counted 20% and the last exam counted 60%.
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
I am so thankful that I got to experience Australia when I was studying. I had the best time
here. The city is the most beautiful city I’ve been to in my life. The people living in Australia
are so nice to you as well. I didn’t get homesick once; I think that is because of all the great
people I met on the trip and how welcomed I felt when I was living there. I recommend you to
go on exchange and choose La Trobe. You will not regret it at all!