Travel Report

RMIT University

Melbourne Australia

Spring 2015

The Great Ocean Road: Twelve Apostles

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1. Preparing for the exchange semester The process of applying for exchange in RMIT University took practically one year. The process started in

January 2014 by applying for exchange studies in our home university. After being nominated for exchange

studies by Aalto School of Business in March 2014, the next step – sending application to RMIT University – had

due date in the end of October 2014. Until then the application process had been very effortless, but obviously

the final steps were more demanding.

The exchange study application of RMIT University requires six documents; certified copy of transcript of

records from the home university, proof of English language proficiency, statement of purpose, photocopy of

passport, one academic reference and completed study plan for exchange studies. All of these documents are

quite easily collectable; however the proof of English language proficiency might be seen as a challenge if the

Finnish High School diploma English grade is below 8. In that case an English language proficiency test – such as

TOEFL or IELTS - is required, and due to the price of the test it is advisable not to underestimate the test, hence

retaking 200 EUR test is expensive. In my case as I had the required High School diploma English grade, I had to

go to my old High School to get English version of the diploma which costed approximately 30 EUR. Moreover,

someone might think that getting academic reference from your professors is difficult, but truth is that the

professors of our university are most likely happy to write reference for you if you have been in their course

and you just ask.

The phase after sending the application to RMIT University was relatively frustrating, as without the Letter of

Offer from RMIT University you cannot perform too much prearrangement for your exchange. In my case the

Letter of Offer was sent as late as in December. What is more, the link to the Offer Acceptance Form provided

in the Letter of Offer was ineffective, and therefore I got from our university’s exchange study coordinator the

last year RMIT nominee’s Offer Acceptance Form. Moreover, for accepting the offer I was obliged to pay AUSD

270 for overseas student health cover (OSHC). After accomplishing the offer acceptance step I received my

electric Certificate of Enrolment (eCOE) – the requirement of student Visa - just before Christmas. In my

perception this was considerably late as I had to pay premium for the flights that could have been bought

months ago if RMIT’s bureaucracy had been more efficient. Return flights to Melbourne from Helsinki cost

depending on the company approximately 1200-1600 EUR, and the Student Visa (subsector 575) costed

approx. 500 AUSD.

RMIT recommends incoming students to arrive Melbourne at latest two or three weeks before the orientation

week in order to find accommodation before the semester begins. This is advisable as it makes it less stressful

to find apartment – hence seeking apartment when the semester has already started might be challenging. The

RMIT city campus where I studied – and where all business classes are held - is located right in the Melbourne

CBD (Central Business District) which is quite expensive area to live in. Another factor that adds challenge is the

fact that most of the landlords require minimum 12 months contract. In my experience some students are very

lucky and find accommodation which is almost charity from the landlord’s side, and some deals are more

expensive. Therefore it is advisable to have enough funds for accommodation. RMIT has its own housing portal

(RMIT Housing) which might be the “smartest” place to look for accommodation, as the open portals such as

Flatmates and Gumtree can be very competitive due to the vast amount of apartment seeking students. In

Australia rents are usually paid weekly and depending on the accommodation type the cost might be 100-400

AUSD per week.

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2. Exchange studies In 2015 the semester 1 started 17th of February with orientation week, which was very brief and light version

compared to what we have in Aalto. First classes

started in the beginning of March, and the mid-

semester break was during Easter along with the

mid-semester deadlines. Last deadlines of the

semester were in the beginning of June and the final

exams were in the middle of June ending in 26th of

June 2015. Because the exam timetables were

published as late as in the end of May, it is advisable

not to book return flights that overlap with the

scheduled exam week – hence you cannot know the

exact exam date. Finally, the grades were published

2 weeks after the ending of exam week in 13th of July

2015.

When considering the course selection, it is

important to remind that RMIT – Royal Melbourne

Institute of Technology – has considerable emphasis

on engineering subjects and that as a consequence

the selection of business related courses is inferior

to Aalto School of Business. In many degrees the

business courses are included in the form of

complementary minor studies and therefore the

selection consists mostly of basic courses that are

very similar to our first year classes. Despite of these

restrains I am content with the courses I selected.

While RMIT is not among the most affordable schools in Melbourne – some degrees cost up to 27 000 AUSD

per year – in my opinion the academic level and workload are not on the level of Aalto School of Business. At

RMIT I studied mainly business management, and because it is not my major in Finland, I do not have any

reference in workload or level. However, if comparing generally studying in Finland and studying in Australia, I

feel that in Australia there is a lot of guidance and university reminds most of the time Finnish High School. This

is understandable as here students start in university and graduate younger than in Finland. In either case the

feeling of being in kindergarten instead of university was sometimes apparent. Moreover, the approach to

academic research was very different to what we have in Aalto; instead of having the research element

included in slides, the lectures at RMIT were quite hollow, sometimes only 30 minutes long and the learning

part was supposed to be covered in the weekly readings consisting of up to 100 pages of academic journal

articles per week. This was one of the key things that annoyed me, since upon my experience almost nobody

was actually reading these research articles. Therefore I think that having meaningful and comprehensive

lectures similar to what we have in Aalto would have helped in many courses to understand the theories.

RMIT University City Campus building 80: School of Business

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Another thing that surprised me was that while all courses included group work assignment(s), the assignments

were done with minimum co-operation almost independently. Almost absolute absence of coordination inside

the group added up with the notion that the local Australian students had very laidback attitude to studies is

prone to lead into situation where it is not meaningful to take the project too seriously. In some classes this

problem is overcome by grading the group members individually. To some extent this issue is result of the fact

that groups are most of the time forced and the people in the group do not know each other. Still, in my

opinion it would be better to just let the persons go who do not have the time and motivation to contribute in

any meaningful way.

Courses that I completed:

BUSM1222 International Business – Undergraduate

Instructor: Nattavud Pimpa

Credits Points: 12 (Equals 7.5 ECTS)

Weekly hours: 3

Management course which focuses in examining how different cultures affect conduct of business. Grading

was based on course exam, essay about one multinational corporation’s internationalization through foreign

direct investment and group presentation about one specific industry in some country as an opportunity of

foreign direct investment. Generally essays were quite strictly graded whereas on the other parts good marks

were easily reached.

SOCU1016 Culture & Business Practice in Asia – Undergraduate

Instructor: Reina Ichii

Credits Points: 12 (Equals 7.5 ECTS)

Weekly hours: 3

Good course for understanding more in depth the cultural diversity encountered in Asia. Lectures were mostly

useless, however depending on the tutorial leader tutorials were good. Cultural analysis and cultural

differences were discussed in-class a lot, and the grading of the course was based on two small essays, exam

and group presentation. In my opinion easy but interesting course that helps to improve understanding of

especially China.

BUSM3125 Strategic Management – Undergraduate

Instructor: Jason Downs

Credits Points: 12 (Equals 7.5 ECTS)

Weekly hours: 3

More demanding, last year course which is also the capstone course of management major. This course

involves a lot of theory reading in the form of academic journals and focuses heavily on a real life case. In

spring 2015 the case company was the Australian subsidiary of multibillion dollar defense giant BAE Systems. In

the first case assignment the company was analyzed emphasizing the appliance of strategy theories and in the

second assignment a new strategy was formed for the company. In my experience the course leaders put

clearly more effort in this course than what is the average at RMIT.

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SOCU2112 Global Political Economy – Undergraduate

Instructor: Eric Porter

Credits Points: 12 (Equals 7.5 ECTS)

Weekly hours: 3

In my perception the best course I had. Political theories and ideologies, linking them to the global political

economy and a lot of classroom debates in tutorials. Grading of the course consists of group presentation and

essay, both concentrating on the differences that neoliberal and social democratic ideologies have in their

political economy principles. Overall good course for understanding how politics affect economy and trade.

To sum up, in my experience the courses were quite easy to pass, however a lot of work was required if all the

readings were read. Moreover, in my opinion one can get more out of the studies if the readings are read since

at least in some courses - in global political economy – the readings were picked wisely and really provided

value as there was no other course material.

3. Free time and other information Living costs in Australia

As stated previously, the living costs in Melbourne are around 100-400 AUSD per week. In Melbourne CBD

distances are short and tram is free, whereas if you get cheaper accommodation outside the city you have to

pay for the public transport which is not the cheapest there is. With student concession card doing 14 trips per

week costs around 30 AUSD. Food is in my experience a bit cheaper than in Finland - especially meat and

chicken - however milk product selection is poor and prices are high. Alcohol prices are mostly on the same

level as in Finland, but drinking in pubs can be very affordable depending on the place. One thing that is clearly

inferior to Finland is the internet connection, as data can be very expensive. Because my accommodation did

not have broadband connection, I used always the data of my phone which costed around 60 AUSD per month.

In Australia unlimited data is non-existent in mobile plans, so having accommodation which has free internet

can be seen as an asset if you want to keep in contact with people back home with Skype for example.

Meeting other students

First of all, the orientation at RMIT is very short – only two days – and participating is recommended hence this

is probably the best opportunity to get to know the other exchange students. Also the trips organized by RMIT

Link are very good value for money and good places to meet people. I participated for example in RMIT Links

surfing trip, Grampians valley tour and circus trapeze class which were all totally amazing experiences. RMIT

Link has also the Great Ocean Road tour which is totally must if you have not yet visited the sight. Naturally the

best place to meet people depends on your interests/hobbies and personality. RMIT has many different

student clubs such as the RMIT Surf Club that is good place to hang around if you like surfing. I used to train at

the RMIT city campus gym which was not only great gym with affordable price, but also good place to get

friends. At RMIT there are a lot of internationals and different people, so probably the best way of finding some

awesome people is just to go out and do what you really like.

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Travelling in Australia and Oceania

In Australia travelling is a must, because the country is really diverse and seeing Melbourne is just the

beginning. Since most of the Australians have their vacations during local summer months, travelling outside

the season is considerably cheaper. Depending on preferences many people do longer backpacker journeys

and sleep in hostels, whereas I preferred having hotel and doing only week long trips. Flying inside Australia is

very affordable and you can find return flight to Sydney from Melbourne as low as with 50 AUSD. In contrast I

paid 450 AUSD for Auckland return tickets, which demonstrates the vast difference between domestic and

international flight prices. Outside the season standard four star hotels were around 120-130 AUSD per night if

the deal is good, which was the preferred choice over hostels when travelling as a couple. If considering

whether to go to New Zealand, in my experience local summer is the preferred season because in autumn bad

weather might be considerable risk.

Melbourne and Victoria

As a city Melbourne is very cultural and diverse which makes it very inspiring place to live in. In the main street

– Swanston Street – there can be several dozen amazing street musicians and artists if the weather is good,

especially during summer months. On the other hand, in winter when weather can be bad most of the artists

disappear for obvious reasons. The amount of street musicians and artists along with the architectural diversity

– skyscraper skyline consisting of tile, glass, concrete as well as wood - is really unique and for example

Auckland and Sydney are very different. In Melbourne also the balance between big city skyscrapers and

amazing parks is extraordinary. When living in Lonsdale Street I could walk 5 min and find myself in Treasury

Gardens or Carlton Gardens

which are very beautiful

places right in the CBD. It is

said that Melbournians are

park people, and it is true –

during lunch hour bankers

and business people can be

seen to go to have lunch in

these gardens. In my

perception Melbourne feels

like a human-size city where

one can be amazed when

someone tells that there

happens to live more than 4

million people.

When you go to Melbourne,

you notice that locals are

always speaking about the

weather of Melbourne, four

seasons in one day. I

View from Treasury Gardens that concludes the typical Melbournian architecture contrast

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personally did not see that, probably because in Finland we are used to changing –bad - weather. However,

upon my experience the winter of Melbourne is quite similar to what we have in Finland in May. In Melbourne

there might rain more but temperature is usually around 10 to 15 degrees. In summer Melbourne can also be

surprisingly cold, only 15 degrees, but normally the temperature is closer to 30 degrees. Therefore it is highly

advisable to pack also some warm clothes, because apartments are not heated there as properly as in Finland.

At least I did not find it comfortable that the temperature of an apartment without central heating can be

considerably below 20 degrees if the weather is cold.

In Victoria region the must see sight is the Great Ocean Road. What is more, the road is full of surprisingly

empty paradise beaches most of which are good for surfing. Some exchange students go even so far that they

buy cheap car and drive every week-end to Torquay which is a surfing town approximately 2 hours away from

Melbourne. There it is important to notice that if surfing is your desire, for example Queensland - Gold Coast -

is better choice because there surfing season is around the year and beaches are very close.

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4. Final Comments To sum up, I think that Melbourne is very good choice for exchange studies, because the city has good vibe and

the weather is most of the time almost optimal. While RMIT might not be the best university in the world, I

think that is still very good for cultural learning – which I think is the main idea of exchange studies along with

the language skills. If choosing by weather then there is better choices in Australia, but overall Melbourne feel

surprisingly home like and small, despite of the fact that there live more than 4 million people. Language skills,

moving abroad experience and especially learning about different cultures through international friends are

really assets that help you to have wider understanding about the world we are living in.

City view from the tallest building in Melbourne - Eureka Tower