University

In general, I can say that the entire semester was worth it and Bond has a lot to offer for its high tuition fees. I was super satisfied with everything. The semester begins with an orientation week and I can only recommend everyone to take part, because you will quickly get to know a lot of people there. Otherwise, the entire range of sports on offer for students is free, i.e. pool, fitness studio, fitness courses and various other sports offers. There is also the so-called Multimedia Learning Center. This is open 24 hours a day for students and offers free access to countless computers and Apple PCs. There are also various screens on the walls, with the possibility of watching DVDs that can be borrowed from the library and playing console games. The library also has a large number of freely accessible computers, and there are group work rooms and individual workstations.

I also found the quality of the lectures to be very good. The professors are always available to answer questions, know the students by name and are always motivated and committed.

However, the examination system is being converted to German: In a course there is usually more than one examination and there are oral grades that also include attendance. Most courses have a mid-semester exam and a final exam plus a project or term paper. However, I found this to be rather positive, as there was no huge learning curve at the end of the semester and the final grade did not only depend on an exam.

Living

Accommodation is available in the “On Campus” dormitory, in the Varsity Shores (500m from the campus) as well as in the Cape and in the Reserve (both directly behind the university). I lived in the Varsity Shores and can only recommend it to everyone compared to the dorm. There you have to buy a meal plan and have no possibility to cook, but the food in the cafeteria is very expensive and not very good. Most exchange students live in the Shores, there are two pools and a BBQ area. The villas are all well decorated and there is everything you could need. However, there are also differences between the villas, so not all have air conditioning (so if you want one, please state one) and there are also a few without a TV (in most of them there was a communal TV). The Shores sell linens and comforters; if you want a real blanket, take the exclusive package, otherwise you will only get a sheet. However, if you arrive in the morning, you can also go to the Robina Town Center after your arrival (15 minutes with the bus that stops in front of the door), there are some shops where you can buy things cheaply and choose them yourself. I also recommend you not to take the room downstairs in the villas. This leads off the garage and most of these rooms have no window to the outside, only into the garage. Once you are there, the room can apparently no longer be changed. So it is better to specify one of the upper rooms as a request, some of them even have their own balcony. Otherwise the Cape and Reserve are even better for living, everything is a bit fancier,

Robina / Gold Coast

The Gold Coast is one of the most beautiful areas in Australia. The beaches are super beautiful: white sand and blue sea and great waves that invite you to swim and surf! The beach section Broadbeach, which is located directly south of Surfers Paradise, is only 15 minutes away by bus and therefore easy to reach. However, if you want to explore further stretches of the beach, a car or a bicycle is recommended, as the buses go there, but take up to an hour.

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

The Robina Town Center, a large shopping center that also has Woolworth and Coles, the two major supermarket chains in Australia, can be reached in 15 minutes by bus. There are also the large amusement parks, the Sea Life and the Wildlife Sanctuary Currumbin, where you can see koalas and pet kangaroos.

When traveling, it is also advisable to consider Gold Coast Airport, where there are often cheap flights to and from Sydney during the day.

Life

Don’t worry, even if you have to take various exams, there is still time to travel during the semester and enjoy life on the Gold Coast with partying, surfing, diving, shopping, hiking and much more.

There is a small travel agency on the university campus. There you can actually book everything for the same price as you can book it on the Internet, but you get good advice and don’t have to deal with the various booking portals.

I highly recommend planning a few weeks to travel after the semester and using your student visa, which is one month longer than the semester. Since many of the exchange students plan this way, there is a good chance that you will still find someone to travel with if you are unsure about traveling alone. But there are also opportunities for this, so you will find group tours for almost every place in Australia, where you have a tour guide and also get to know new people quickly. I can recommend this to everyone, especially for outback tours, as you get so much valuable information about the country and the Aborigines that you cannot read in a travel guide.

I also recommend buying a prepaid card from Optus on site. There you can top up $ 30, $ 40 or $ 50 and receive: free SMS, free use of Facebook, 500MB to 2.5GB data volume and 250 to 450 free minutes, which are also valid for calls to Germany. Since the internet via WiFi was really bad in the Varsity Shores (they offer this via Jimojo, there you pay $ 40 for 100GB data volume, but it hardly works at all: it is very slow, with Skype the connection is constantly interrupted and sometimes it doesn’t work at all) I set up a hotspot on my mobile phone and was able to access the Internet with my laptop without any problems.

Conclusion

I can recommend the semester abroad at Bond University to everyone. I have gained many experiences and had experiences that I will never forget.