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STUDY ABROAD If university study in Australia
C A R E E R S
M A G A Z I N E
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
isn’t tickling your fancy then perhaps a semester or two overseas will do the trick. Most of WA’s universities offer cultural exchanges to destinations all over the globe, allowing students to experience another culture while completing their coursework. Even the Australian government is keen to encourage students to study overseas, offering lots of helpful advice at studyoverseas.gov.au. If you’re strapped for cash but still want to experience the world then perhaps there’s a grant or scholarship that can help get you to where you want to go; read on to find out more…
Curtin University
Picture yourself in Paris on a student exchange
Students of Curtin University can study overseas at a variety of partner institutions, including universities in Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden Switzerland, Thailand, the UK and United States. Curtin offers its students a range of grants and scholarships; there’s the Study Overseas Scholarship, Education Abroad Travel Grants, Business School Travel Grants, and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Grants. Students of Commerce, Engineering, or Mass Communication can also choose to study at Curtin’s Sarawak Campus in Malaysia with the Reverse Columbo Exchange Program. This exchange provides return airfares to Sarawak and an accommodation allowance and is offered to two students per semester. To find out more about Cur tin Univeristy ’s exchange program, head to outboundstudy.curtin.edu.au.
Ali Martin
Back in 1999, Perth lass Ali Martin decided to embark on an overseas exchange and she’s never looked back… Where did you choose to go on exchange? Denmark - I stayed just outside of Copenhagen in the towns of Kaastrup, Taarnby and Dragoer. How long was your exchange? One year - I stayed with three different host families. Two of them had teenage kids living at home and the last family’s children had moved out. How did you organise your exchange, was it through your University or an external exchange program? M y e xc h a n g e w a s p a r t o f t h e Rotary Youth Exchange Program directly after I finished year twelve.
Edith Cowan University
ECU encourages its students to broaden their skills, knowledge and cultural awareness by completing part of their studies overseas. There are a number of different programs available for ECU students, including exchanges, internships and short tours. If you like the idea of studying overseas but don’t want to be away for too long then perhaps a Short Program or Study Tour is for you. ECU’s Short Tours allow students to spend a short time overseas while Short Programs enable students to travel and study overseas during ECU’s winter and summer breaks. Perhaps you would like to put what you’ve learnt into practice, which is where an Internship comes in. ECU’s Internship program places students in an employment setting overseas, expanding the student’s employment possibilities. To find out more about ECU’s exchange program, check out ecu.edu.au/ international/study-overseas.
University of Western Astralia
Unlike other universities, UWA allows both undergraduate and postgraduate students to pursue overseas study experiences. Students who are in their second semester of second year are welcome to apply to complete their studies overseas. Th e re a re p l e n t y o f e xc h a n g e opportunities for all courses, including Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Law, Sciences, Engineering, Computing and Mathematics. To help students bear the financial burden of an exchange, the folks at UWA have created the UWA Student Exchange Loan, an interest free loan that doesn’t require re-payments until the student returns from overseas. There’s also the OS-Help Loan, a program that provides financial assistance to eligible Australian government supported students. For more info on UWA’s overseas study opportunities, head to international.uwa. edu.au.
See the sights while studying in Venice
YOUTH EXCHANGE
If you’re not a university student but you still want to travel the globe, there are plenty of youth and high school exchange programs on offer. These exchanges allow young Australians to experience a foreign culture, learn new languages and build international friendships, perfect for those who don’t want to go straight from high school into university study. Rotary has a great exchange program that allows individuals to spend a year abroad in another country, staying with host families. While staying with a host family Rotary exchange students attend school and participate in Rotary and community activities. Rotary exchanges can occur between any two countries in which there are Rotary clubs, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Japan, Thailand, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. For information on Rotary Youth Exchange head to rotarnet.com.au. EF is another company that encourages students to go on exchange, offering high school placements for girls and guys aged 14 to 18. These exchanges can be as short as two to three months or as long as a full academic year. Like Rotary, EF places students with host families, who help the student to fully appreciate the foreign culture. For further information on EF exchanges check out ef-australia.com.au.
Murdoch University
Murdoch University has a fantastic exchange program which encourages students to take the plunge and spend a year studying abroad. Murdoch is incredibly supportive of students who want to study overseas, recognising that exchanges allow undergraduates to build an international network and undertake units not available at Murdoch University. To be eligible for an exchange, students must have completed at least two semesters of study, have a credit average and be a good ambassador for Murdoch. If you fit the bill, find out more at Murdoch.edu.au. 44
Admire the architecture while studying in Prague
What did you study? I was enrolled in gymnasium s c h o o l i n D e n m a r k . A f t e r y e a r n i n e, the students choose whether they will undertake academic, trade or specialist education. The academic students go to gymnasium (in either language or science streams), the trade students go to their trade (for example, an apprenticeship in mechanics) and the specialist students follow their preferred specialist field (eg pre-journalism or design course or TAFE equivalent). Students going into gymnasium also had the opportunity to take a few years of academic classes after year nine (the end of primary school) and before gymnasium. I was enrolled in gymnasium year one, with students my own age, and moved with them after the summer holidays into gymnasium year two. I was enrolled in the language stream and ‘studied’ Danish, Spanish, German, English, maths, science, drama, music and history. What did you get out of your exchange? A sense of who I was and what I wanted to do, a fantastic collection of turn-of-the-millenium French, British and Italian Vogue magazines, a passport full of stamps from all over Europe, a tolerance and tendency (sometimes to the point that it annoys me) to try to understand people and situations that are different to me, and a fabulous appreciation for Dogma films. I made some fantastic friends and my host families were amazing. They went out of their way to show me their cultural hotspots, their favourite parts of their cities and welcome me into their families, friendship groups, lives and homes. I went over there with no expectations of who I needed to be and, conversely, there were no expectations of who I was. All the people welcoming me knew was that my name was Ali and I was from Australia. There were no expectations to fulfill, apart from being polite, grateful and friendly. Wo u l d y o u e n c o u r a g e o t h e r s t o undertake an exchange? Definitely - you’ll never ever again be handed the oppor tunity to live in another country and be encouraged to do and try as many different things, to travel and be welcomed into other people’s lives, homes, families and friendship groups, (all the while being supported by your parents). www.xpressmag.com.au