My semester abroad in Australia

From the start, I only considered two countries, America and Australia. The decisive factor was the English language and it should be a little further away. In the end I decided to go to Australia.

• Australia is a major country in Oceania continent. For information about Oceania, please visit softwareleverage.

I chose Griffith University because I heard only good things from it and of course the proximity to the beach was also appealing. Since I am studying Management & Economics here in Germany, I mainly took business courses because I can now have these credited here. Finding suitable courses at Griffith University is easy as there is a very large selection and you can also get advice from the university (just write an email and explain what interests you and what you are looking for). I also attended an English course. This was very helpful in preparing for essay and term paper requirements.

With regards to the essays, Griffith University offers great help. It is “English Help”. Here you can go to an English teacher once a week and talk through your work with him. It is only about the linguistic area in order to help the international students to the extent that the grade does not have to be downgraded due to linguistic deficiencies.

I was also very happy with the university. The campus was really nice. I was disappointed, however, that there was no canteen, that is, you really had to bring your own food or buy it at the snack bar, which was really very expensive. I also found the range of sports on offer rather disappointing, especially since everything was very expensive. For example, the soccer club cost $ 100 for a semester. The use of the fitness studio on campus is unfortunately not included in the tuition fees and the studio is very small. You will find other fitness studios in the area that are significantly better in terms of price-performance ratio. But here too there are costs.

I decided to join the kitesurf club and the soccer club. Both were great and the kitesurf club is my insider tip for you. Here, joining costs only 5 euros and you get the beginner lessons for free. So just try it out. If you then decide to continue, it will unfortunately be more expensive, but I think you should just give it a try.

In general, life in Australia is very expensive because the cost of living is very high and you have to cater for yourself.

Back then I wanted to look for an apartment on site and spent the first few days in the hostel. I would never do that again because the first few days were really stressful. I arrived on Sunday and the university started on Monday – looking for an apartment there, the days have always been very exhausting, especially with the jetlag.

Ultimately, I decided to live on campus in the dormitory. It was a bit more expensive than having my own apartment, but I found it great to live with all the other students – there was something going on every day. There was also a pool and basketball court on site. Here you could spend the afternoons and enjoy the good weather. In other experience reports I have often read that there were problems with the deposit. I have to contradict that here. I got the complete set again, the staff was very nice and helpful.

While on the one hand the proximity to the university is great, you have to keep in mind that it is a little further into town (Surfers Paradise) and that there is no bus at night. But you will always find enough people to share the taxi with you, so that is also possible. During the day you can be on the beach within half an hour and that is of course awesome.

One thing I would like to recommend to you guys is a trip to Byron Bay at the beginning of the semester. Also, take your time to travel afterwards, the country is just great, just like the people.

My travel tips to you guys are the Whitsunday Islands, Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island. I would also recommend you: Take a look at the Fiji Islands while you are that close.

I wish you a lot of fun and don’t get discouraged by all the work and what is connected with it. It’s worth it and you will always receive help, both from the MicroEDU and from the university itself.