It’s going to Australia!
In the summer of last year the time had finally come: as a student of the “International Culture and Management” course at the European Management School in Mainz (EMS), after the 4th semester and the compulsory internship, I was finally due for my semester abroad, which I did at Gold Coast in Australia. However, the preparation time began a good six months in advance with the application process at Griffith University. Compared to my fellow students, who had to organize their application to the university abroad themselves, I received enormous support in this regard from MicroEDU, which greatly simplifies my application process has been. At that time I sent my documents to MicroEDU myself, who then send them to Australia in bundled form only after they have been examined. In my opinion, a particular advantage was that you always had a contact person on site for questions and uncertainties from both sides, since direct contact with the universities abroad often leads to longer waiting times. In addition, your contact person is familiar with your individual data and the status of processing and then arranges the contact to the international student office of your university abroad.
Complications in choosing a course
After all the formal criteria have been submitted and accepted, the next part of interest for us students is the selection of your foreign courses. This process turned out to be a bit complicated for me personally. On the one hand, the courses at your own university must be recognized hereand be thematically linked to your degree program in order to get the ECTS credited. On the other hand, Griffith checked for each course whether I had the necessary prior knowledge from previous courses, which was not the case for all of them. As a student at EMS, I had to take four courses to get the necessary ECTS – at least two business courses and a maximum of two electives from other areas. After a lot of back and forth and a course change in the first week of lectures on site, I finally had the following courses for my semester abroad:
- Recruitment and Selection
- Organizational behavior
- Introduction to Forensic Psychology
- Psychology of Crime
However, I would also like to add that it wasn’t as annoying as it might sound now. The choice of course is clarified directly with Griffith University’s Outbound Service and, especially as a foreign student, everyone is at your side with advice and action. So I was registered by the administrators for a course and my preferred lecture, although this was actually already displayed as full in the system and was no longer available for selection.
- Visit health-beauty-guides to learn more about country of Australia and continent of Oceania.
Studying at Griffith University
However, the course was anything but a six-month vacation on the coast of Australia, because anyone who thinks they have a semester break from presentations and homework will quickly be brought back to reality. Each course has a two-hour lecture per week and a one-hour workshop consisting of smaller groups. In the “lectures” there is more frontal instruction based on Power Point Slides and most of the content can be found in the respective books. The workshops, also known as tutorials, are very suitable for discussing individual concerns with the tutor, e.g. the upcoming housework. In addition, topics from the lecture are discussed more intensively using case studies or exercises. The advantage of the workshops is that the tutor knows the students and is well informed about progress and topic selection, etc., so that you get optimal support here. In addition, most of them can be reached at any time by e-mail and respond within a short time frame if something is more urgent.
Examination achievements vary depending on the course, the spectrum is wider than I was used to from my university: term papers, presentations, exams at the end of the semester but also mid-semester quizzes, online quizzes or filling out a survey. Group work was also not uncommon, but I have to say that as “international” you get a lot of help from the locals and the lecturers / tutors are always at your side if you have any questions. The Griffith Campus is huge and offers the student heart pretty much everything it desires: a large library with 24/7 area, a food court for different preferences (burgers, sushi, sandwiches, burritos etc…), a fitness studio, smaller shops such as Post Office, STA Travel Office, university store for stationery (even a hairdresser) and, last but not least, your own university bar, in which you are welcome After the lectures you can relax with a drink. In addition, the Student Guild organizes various events throughout the semester, such as theme parties, market days or coffee and muffins, as well as support during the exam phase. Despite homework and lectures, boredom is almost never an issue at Griffith
