AALTO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

TRAVEL REPORT: THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

STUDENT NUMBER: 362243

1. Preparing for the exchange:

Document submitted before the exchange:

Two months before the exchange semester started, the international student

department in Aalto University sent me an email about document needed. First, I

need to fill an application form, submitted my academic transcripts, a proof of

English language proficiency (sine I am studying in English, I had an exemption from

the English test with the requirement of 120 credits completed in English). Second, I

had to choose my courses for the exchange semester. I need to choose at least 4

courses, however at this stage, it was not necessary that the courses stated had to be

included in your official study plan.

After the document being sent to and processed at the host university, I got the

Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) from the incoming exchange coordinator. Also I

need to fill out an acceptance form, and pay OSHC (Overseas Student Health Cover)

insurance for the semester. You can decide your insurance, but I suggest to stick with

the OSHC because it simplifies the process (you fill in the form, pay the fee and you

get your confirmation), and the service provided by OSHC is within easy reach at

UQ. I also received all the instruction needed to apply for the visa to Australia.

Visa:

I have the Vietnamese nationality so the visa application process is different for me. I

need to go to Vietnam to submit the document. The visa which you should apply is

Visa Class 575 Streamlined Visa. It would take approximately 2 weeks. Things you

need are: CoE from the host University, all the official personal identity, translated

and certified education qualification, insurance confirmation, medical examination

result from an official Australian medical central, as well as a statement of purpose

with your plan in Australia. Things you do not need are: a statement of financial

ability, or an English exam such as TOEFL or IELTS.

Travelling:

Although it is recommended that you should not book your flight before getting the

visa, I had to book it way before I even submitted the visa application since the price

of flight was keep increasing. I booked the flight around 700 euro for one way

because I do not know for sure the return date. However, I discovered during my

exchange here that you can book the return flight with Kilroy for a flexible return

date and the price would not be much higher.

Two weeks before my actual arrival date in Brisbane, I needed to book the pick-up

service from UQ. It was free, but you need to book at least 2-7 days before your

arrival. Although I arrived around 1a.m in Brisbane time, and there was a cyclone

striking the city, the driver from the pick-up service was on time, and delivered me to

my exact destination.

2. Exchange studies

Starting and ending dates of the terms

There are two semesters in UQ. The first semester which I was at UQ begins from

the beginning of March to the end of June. The orientation starts one week before the

actual semester starts. The exam periods run for 2 weeks at the end of the semester,

from 12th to 26th of June.

Courses at UQ Were there enough courses offered?

What courses and at what level (e.g. undergraduate/graduate) is it possible to take? In

which program did you study?

There are a great variety of courses to choose from at UQ. You need to choose the

courses suitable to your level of study (which is Undergraduate study). You can

choose around 4-5 courses to include in your study module. You can still drop and

add courses until 10th of March without causing any charge. One other thing to note

down is the courses here accompanied with the tutorial sessions. Tutorials offer more

insights to the course's material, answering your questions, as well as preparing for

exam. Majority of tutorials require mandatory attendance (important to plan it, and

register early beforehand so it can be more convenience for your travel). I chose 4

courses from three main areas (Communication, Art and Marketing), all of the

courses are offered in English.

WRIT1110 CREATIVE WRITING (Undergraduate) 7,5 Credit

This course aims to give: an introduction to the nature and significance of narrative fiction,

an introduction to the skills required in narrative writing,

a critical understanding of the techniques of short fiction, the editorial skills required

to edit your fiction, and the techniques to provide feedback to other writers.

The course will be taught via a 1.5-hour lecture and 1.5 hour tutorial each week. The

lectures will introduce an aspect of narrative practice and theory. Most weeks you'll

be required to read one or more short stories and a supporting critical reading posted

on the Blackboard site. From week two, a weekly tutorial will ask you to examine the

writing techniques in set short stories and to practice various techniques yourself.

Later in the semester you will have to begin to workshop your own short story in

tutorials. You will also have to provide structured feedback on the work of other

students.

Assessment: This course's assessment has a lot of components: Weekly Response to Tutorial Reading

Attendance to Tutorial

3 Short Writing Exercises

Draft and final short story (900words)

Although the course seems to demand a lot of work, it interested me the most and

gave me the fresh new perspective about writing, which I deem necessary to improve

my copy writing skill in Marketing major. The tutor I had for the course was the

definition of creative, and emotional artist. She inspired me to write and express my

true personality.

COMU1999 INTRODUCATION TO VISUAL COMMUNICATION

(Undergraduate) 7,5 Credit

Through the integration of theory and studio teaching, this course will facilitate

development of visual story-telling skills within a context of visual culture and visual

rhetoric. It will emphasize reflective, action research methodologies in 'hands-on'

studio workshops that develop creative, flexible thinking and include both individual

and peer-assisted modes of learning. There will be a focus on the particular

opportunities and challenges that are generated by the production of visual outcomes

in ethical and socially responsible communication practice.

The class sessions in this course will entail a lecture (one hour) and a studio

workshop (two hours) each week. Lectures will cover a wide range of issues relating

to visual literacy, visual research methodologies and the ethical practice of visual

representation. The studio workshops will emphasise 'hands-on' experience in visual

editing skills. They will also provide opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction, as

students present their proposed research projects and 'work-in-progress' to their

'syndicate' groups and to the full workshop cohort.

Assessment: There are three components of the assessment Element in Visual Language Project

Work in Progress Project

Final Project

Definitely recommend this one if you love photo taking and want a better

understanding of photos in journalism.

EVENT2004 EVENT MARKETING (Undergraduate) 7,5 Credit

This course aims to develop students' abilities to appreciate and apply the principles

of events marketing and related management practices to real world cases and

problems.

After successfully completing this course you should be able to: Understand the terminology, definitions and models applied to the study of event

marketing

Identify the landscape in which events exist and operate within the broader

entertainment and tourism contexts.

Demonstrate an ability to analyze event markets, market demand and event

experiences from the visitor/resident perspectives in a documented event marketing

strategy

Conceptualize the planning and development of an event concept and product,

sponsorship, physical setting design and venue(s) selection, and integrated marketing

communication strategies, and design a marketing plan to maximize the return on

objectives of the event

Plan and develop appropriate strategies and tactics for an identified event in a written

marketing plan to achieve the marketing goals of the event organization and/or city or

region represented by the event staging body.

The class sessions in this course will have a lecture (one and a half hour), and a

tutorial (50minute) each week.

Assessment: There are four components of the assessment: In-class Quiz : 25 MCQ (easy)

In-class Quiz 2: 25 MCQ (quite easy)

Final Project to create a marketing plan for your choice of event

Peer assessment form

The course is handful and full of examples from guest lecture. Althoug the lectures

provided by the university teacher were nothing more than the slides. Overall,

satisfactory course to take if you are into Marketing.

AUST2000 INTRODUCTION TO AUSTRALIAN POPULAR CULTURE

(Undergraduate) 7,5 Credit

The course examines the social function of popular culture in Australia with

particular emphasis on the period from the 1960s to the present. It explores how

popular culture is produced and consumed and asks how specific forms (such as

cinema, music, sport and food) contribute to concepts of individual and national

identity. The course does not attempt to define a uniquely Australian form of popular

culture. Rather, we examine the distinctive ways in which cultural activity and

practice, whether originating in Australia or overseas, have been produced and

consumed in Australia.

The class entails an one hour lecture, a tutorial ( one and a half hour) each week.

Assessment: The assessment of the class has 4 components: Tutorial Attendance

Weekly tutorial response

2000 words essay

Final take-home exam

Although the class profile seems to be interesting, the lectures and tutorial are really

boring. Do not expect to find interesting discussion if you are not familiar with

Australian Popular Culture. They expect you to have a decent understanding of

Australian Culture before you take the class, which means that you should be native

or from English speaking culture that can easily catch up with the Australian value

(which they do not mention in the course profile). So if you find yourself bored in

class without knowing what they are talking about, it is not uncommon. A lot of

assignments and essays on topics that you think are outdated. Overall, I would not

recommend to take this class.

3. Free time and other information

School fees:

Except for the insurance fee paid in the beginning, there is no other compulsory fee

required from UQ

Books: There are a lot of courses that required textbooks. You can either buy it new from a

bookstore inside UQ, or secondhand version from the same store or online via some

facebook pages such as: Quest UQ market place, AdsUQ,.. You can also borrow

books from library. For I had no course that requires textbook, so I cannot give any

further advice.

Accommodation:

Finding accommodation in Brisbane is not difficult, however it might be expensive.

Depending on the location, the price might vary deeply. Below I listed some areas

that students normally consider:

St..Lucia (near UQ)

Toowong (near shopping centres)

South Bank (beautiful sceneries, not too far from UQ).

West End are nice places to visit, but living there is not as safe as in the other areas.

In the beginning, I stayed in a shared apartment in St.Lucia area. I shared a room with

a PhD Student and paid 120AUD/week not including electricity. One month before

the semester ended, I moved to a friend's place in Dutton Park, near UQ pharmacy

school (from where it takes around 15mins to go to school). The room is

approximately 200AUD/week.

The go-card (equivalent of the travel card in Finland) enables you to travel with fee

deducted depending on the distance. There is concession for student, of which you

need to apply for a Tertiary Transportation Concession Card in the beginning of the

semester. However, do not expect the public transport to be on time and cheap as in

Helsinki. So be considerate for that matter when choosing your accommodation (UQ

campus is not really close to central, so if you live near school, travelling to central

for shopping and activities can cost a great deal).

Getting to know other students and free time

In UQ, getting to know other students was quite easy as there are a large variety of

student clubs and organizations that students can join. I can especially recommend

joining QUEST Society that is an exchange student society, which organizes trips and

other events very frequently. There it is also possible to meet other exchange students

and go to places which are hard to reach without prior connections within Australia.

In addition to these, there exists clubs for almost everything you can imagine, ranging

from volleyball to Pokémon. During most weeks, my goal was to study in the

beginning of the week and spend the weekend somewhere away from Brisbane in

order to see as much Australia as possible.

General information for the local area, weather, cultural differences

Queensland's weather is not very cold, even during the winter. It can get hot and

humid around February and March, and then colder from May to July. My suggestion

is that along with summer clothes, you should bring at least one or two medium

jackets, sweatshirt, and warm shoes if you do not want to buy clothes here and end up

throwing them away because no space in your suitcase).

Traveling in the host country Travel in Brisbane:

South Bank, Fortitude Valley, Mount Cootha, West End Market, Lone Pine Koala

Sanctuary

Mount Kootha: From the lookout point you can see the whole landscape of Brisbane

Travelling in Queensland: Gold Coast, Noosa, North Stradbroke Island, Moreton

Island, Fraser Island

North Stradbroke Island: You can take a train to the ferry station, from there take the

ferry to the island. If you want to blend in with the local, call it Straddie instead of

Stradbroke.

Moreton Island: You can watch the sun set while waiting for the dolphin. They are

approaching the shore around 6p.m everyday waiting to be fed.

Travelling in Australia: Byron Bay, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin, Uluru, Cairns, the

Great Barrier Reef, The Great Ocean Road

Cape Lighthouse Byron Bay: This is the most easterly point of Australian main land.

It is one of a life time event to go watch sun rise here.

Melbourne Brighton Beach: Famous colorful beach house makes it a great place to go

with your friends to take a lot of photo.

The Great Ocean Road - The twelve Apostles: the must-seen place once you have the

chance to visit Melbourne. We hired a car and drove all the way along the Great

Ocean Road, our final stop is the twelve Apostles.

Last but not least, Sydney: The Opera House. Have a picture taken with it to mark

that you are in Australia.

4. Final Comments

My experience in Australia is a combination of fun, dynamic activities, as well as

peaceful time to reflect on myself. Firstly, to talk about the host university, UQ, it is

definitely much bigger than Aalto University. You would see clearly the differences

in the scale of the university, the facilities, the diversities of the students, and

teaching methods. For the first 3 aspects, I would love to recommend UQ to any

Aalto student. However, for the final one, the teaching method of UQ teachers might

not be my cup of tea. Some courses seem to be very interesting in the profile, but the

lectures are simply boring with a lot of theory and slides. The tutorial would not help

you much, and I'd rather spend that time reading the materials on my own. Work load

is heavy with a lot of written assignments. If you are not here for the exchange, and

study for the good grade, you would not be able to have a social life. If there are one

thing to change during my exchange, I would take more time to consider the courses

to study. Once I made the mistake to choose the course I did not like, I had to cope

with the consequence later on, such as doing a lot of assignments on the subjects I am

not interested in, and failed it in the end.

Besides such love-hate feeling toward studying in UQ, I think the exchange definitely

gave me a lot of lessons. I learn that you need to try thing to see if you love it or not,

and sometimes when you are given the power to choose, you might not make as good

decisions as you might think. For example, when I study in Aalto, I often complain

that there are not many freedom in choosing the courses for my major. When I have

the power to choose in UQ, I realized that it was not such a great choice I made. I

studied something different from my major, communication (art oriented), instead of

Marketing (business oriented), and it is not as my expectation. In the end of the day, I

think I learned a lot about what I want to do, and what I am really good at.