Motivation
My motivation for participating in an exchange program came from my desire to travel without pausing my degree and to meet other students from all over the world studying in the same department.
Personal Development
The exchange program allowed me to make strong, lifelong friendships with other students with similar interests and push me out of my comfort zone to meet new people and try new things. It allowed me to travel and see the world and gain experiences from different cultures.
Academic Development
Academically, it was interesting to see such a different learning environment and experience a different way of teaching and participation. The class scheduling was also very different which was difficult to manage as the classes were 4 hours long which is much longer than what I am used to. The exams were also all 4 hours long which is much longer also. I found that many of the assignments were oral presentations and group work so there was much more discussion and peer interaction.
Accommodation
I found my accomodation through a previous UQ student who did exchange and lived there. I stayed in a private student accomodation that was not run by the university, called Basecamp. It has approximately 600 rooms so it had alot of students and was a 10 minute bike ride from the university. I found student accomodation very beneficial as it allows you to make friends. Basecamp had great facilities such as a gym, cinema, games room, music room and volleyball court.
