Griffith University Gold Coast and Courses:
First of all, I would definitely recommend you to take the orientation trip to Byron Bay. Here you get to know a lot of other exchange students and have the opportunity to take part in many activities such as surfing and kayaking with dolphins. In general, it can also be said that the tuition fees are very high compared to German conditions, but the university also does a lot for the students. Various events are regularly organized by the university, such as free movie nights and food markets, where you can get cheap, delicious food. The university is also very experienced with foreign students. The staff of the International Office are super helpful and you get answers to your questions very quickly. Foreign students are also provided with help in the form of English courses or personal support when preparing their assignments.
In general, I found the content of my chosen courses to be simpler in terms of content than the courses I took at my home university, although some of them were in terms of scope more expensive. This was because a course consisted of several exams that were spread over the semester. So you were constantly busy writing a term paper or preparing for an exam. The distance between students and lecturers is much smaller in Australia than in Germany. The courses are much smaller and the instructors encourage you to ask questions so that you can respond to them individually. In general, I always had the feeling that I could go to the professors directly with any uncertainty about the content or the assignments and I always got direct help.
- Visit ezinesports to learn more about country of Australia and continent of Oceania.
When choosing a course, I was doing my master’s degree and specializing in accounting and taxes. Griffith University also offers a lot of courses in this area, but these take place almost exclusively on the Nathan Campus. Because of this, I was a bit limited in my choice of courses. I chose the following 3 courses:
Corporate communication
The course took place once a week in the form of a lecture. The size of the course was relatively small, around 10 people, and the lessons were very interactive. The lecturer tried to bring many real examples during the lecture, which made the course interesting. Two term papers were submitted as an examination, one about the reputation of a selected company and one about the communication strategy. The first housework was group work and the second was individual work. Although my group and I got out of this course with good grades, the average grade of the course was rather poor, which was initially not expected.
International and Comparative Human Resource Management and Employment Relations
This course also took place once a week in a larger group of around 30 people. The examinations here were 1 term paper, 1 group presentation and 1 final exam. During group work, the groups were thrown together, which sometimes led to difficulties in later communication and the results of the final exam were worse than expected.
Advanced Quantitative Methods and Econometrics
This course also took place in a very small group of 8 people, most of which consisted of PhD students. Accordingly, the course content was sometimes very abstract, so that one often felt lost. However, the lecturer offered his support on every question and wanted to make sure that everyone understood the content. In this course, “small” assignments were given every week, which, however, took up a lot of time.
Travel
Australia is beautiful and huge and you will certainly not only study, but also spend some of your time traveling. The Gold Coast itself has a lot to offer and as mentioned, many sections such as Coolangatta, Miami, Burleigh Head and Currumbin are accessible by public transportation. Be sure to visit a food market that takes place every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evening in Miami. However, a car must be rented for the hinterland of the Gold Coast with its many national parks and the Sunshine Coast. We have had very good experiences with Network Car Rentals. If you have rented a car there often, there were also discounts here. In general, apex car rental is also recommended, although this is only available on the Gold Coast in Coolangatta, but in many other large cities in Australia. Here the prices are comparatively cheap and we never had problems with a rental. We have always booked flights within Australia with Jetstar. It was cheap and there were never any delays. In general, you should make sure that flights and cars are booked out quickly during vacation periods or on long weekends, so inform yourself in good time.
Highly recommended and also absolute highlights of my semester abroad are the Great Ocean Road (if you travel here in winter, remember to pack warm things), the east coast tour over Fraser Island and the Whitsunday Islands and Darwin. If you’re in Darwin, be sure to take a tour of the Adelaide River and visit Litchfield National Park. We did the east coast tour with a campervan. I would not recommend Appollo hippie campers here as the vehicles were very old and worn.
I hope I was able to give you a few tips with my experience report that might help you prepare for your semester abroad and I wish you a wonderful time Down Under. I hope you will gain a lot of great experiences and have a few wonderful months that you will think back to your whole life.
