Rebecca's Exchange to Nottingham Trent University | England
My name is Rebecca and I studied abroad at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. At Murdoch University I am studying a Bachelor of Arts – Psychology.
The key factors for myself choosing to study at Nottingham Trent University were:
I am a British citizen so was interested only in doing exchange in England, and my GPA was good enough to get me into this University, once I started applying I found out that this university was in a student town and I was glad I applied here as it would be more of a fun experience this way.
A little about the Nottingham Trent University, classes, the teaching system and contact hours...
I studied Person Perception, Educational Psychology and Cognition Psychology. The perception class was interesting as I did an assignment on female breasts and why people find certain sizes attractive, this was a really interesting, different style of assignment. In Educational Psychology I wrote about autism in children and in Cognition Psychology I just wrote about the brain. The classes are different there as you don’t get to pick your own timetable they hand you one which for me was 4 days a week all starting at 9am and finishing at 11am, I didn’t particularly enjoy this set up, i'd much rather focus my University classes into one day and then can spend my other days focusing at home on working on assignments. I found that being up so early made me tired and want to nap after 11am when I got home. The contact hours were about the same for NTU but they were just spread out.
A little about the city I lived in, Nottingham...
The locals were amazing, I moved into a student house where there was a group of friends that I slotted into nicely, I met some life long best friends and also found someone I started dating, I've been back in Australia 3 months now and we are still together, I have plans to move back there sometime this year to be with him back in England.
I had always wanted to trial out the idea of living in England and the exchange let me do that with a plan set up of what I would be doing and where I could live. I also loved meeting the people that I did and the fact I met my now partner. Exchange also gave me 3 months off over Australian winter, which allowed me to go and do a Europe summer holiday first, I back packed around Europe for 2 months on my own before finally settling in England at the start of September. This wouldn’t of been possible with Murdoch’s semester start dates.
Some challenges I faced and how I dealt with them...
I struggled a bit with the cold but eventually I went and bought thought thicker socks and a coat and it became easier after that.
I struggled a bit with the organization of the actual exchange program, I was messed around a lot with units I was eligible to study, I picked units and then about a week before I started classes I was told I needed to pick new ones units. I also miss-understood the end term dates and so ended up being in England a month and a half longer then I needed to be. Also now that I’m back I’m struggling with organizing my units going forward, going on exchange used all my semester 1 units up in one hit (in a semester 2 slot). So to finish my final year at Murdoch I would need to study Sem 2 2019 and then give Sem 1 2020 a miss as there are no units I can study, and then finish my final semester in Sem 2 2020. I think if I had had some more guidance on this that would have been helpful, maybe I would of gone on exchange in a different semester if I had known this. Because of this I am currently looking at transferring universities so that I don’t have a 6-month gap in between.
I’ve also struggled with coming home, a lot of my friends moved on a little with their lives, so I expected to come home and be able to pick up where I left off and it was almost like a lot of them were mad at me for leaving and were not so welcoming when I came back because of a grudge they were holding. When they found out I was intending to go back to England this year they were not impressed I was leaving again and have put up some walls – this might be an indication that I need some better, more supportive friends though.
A little about my student accommodation...
I went onto facebook and searched ‘student accommodation Nottingham Trent’ and found a few pages that I requested to join. Through this I found someone who needed to break their lease as they were not going to uni anymore. This girl and her friends had all signed up for a house property together so they were a group of friends that I would be joining. I couldn’t recommend this technique enough! I was hoping to find accommodation through this way originaly and Im so glad I did, I thought if I went with housing I would drop myself into a group of friends and I 100% did and made friends for life and had such a great time. Also the house I was in was awesome and came fully furnished!
A little about how I funded my Exchange experience...
I had been saving for a while (because I had to holiday to fund as well) so I had about $8,000 through my own savings and $6600 through the OS help (100% recommend getting this) and then my parents also lent me about $4000 which i'm currently paying off. This amount of money allowed me not to have to work the entire time I was in England and made it possible for me to still have a social life. I also was still receiving student allowance from centrelink which was about $450 a fortnight so that was also really helpful. The cost of living was a lot less in England, so $450 went a lot further than it would of in Australia.
Some places I visited included...
I backpacked through Europe and did a little America as well, I also took a trip to London and to Ireland.
I went Amsterdam -> Croatia -> Rome -> Amsterdam -> Brussels -> Berlin -> Prague -> Budapest -> Santorini (Greece) -> Ios (Greece) -> Naples -> Amalfi Coast -> Florence -> Pisa -> Interlaken (Switzerland) -> Paris -> Las Vegas -> Los Angeles -> New York
And then finally over to England, I lasted about 2 weeks in Nottingham before I took a bus ride down to London for a few days as I was getting itchy feet.
I also went to Belfast over Christmas to see some family.
I backpacked through Europe and did a little America as well, I also took a trip to London and to Ireland.
I went Amsterdam -> Croatia -> Rome -> Amsterdam -> Brussels -> Berlin -> Prague -> Budapest -> Santorini (Greece) -> Ios (Greece) -> Naples -> Amalfi Coast -> Florence -> Pisa -> Interlaken (Switzerland) -> Paris -> Las Vegas -> Los Angeles -> New York
And then finally over to England, I lasted about 2 weeks in Nottingham before I took a bus ride down to London for a few days as I was getting itchy feet.
I also went to Belfast over Christmas to see some family.
My advice to you would be...
Just do it, if you’re already considering it then you clearly want to. It was the best thing I have ever done, I discovered things about myself, about my old friends, about new friends and what they mean to me. I appreciated things more. It was the most amazing experience – definitely do it !
- Rebecca studied abroad at Nottingham Trent University in the UK
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