STUDY ABROAD / INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE : Australia, Brisbane

Charlène Daubenfeld, a graduate management student from Grenoble EM, talks about her experiences at Queensland University of Technology.

Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia, and the capital of Queensland. There is a very active cultural life in Brisbane, with a lot of festivals, museums and exhibitions, concerts, and a lot of possibilities to go out with friends. You can also enjoy the artificial beach in the city center along the Brisbane River, where you can have a swim or do a barbecue, after you went in the famous shopping mall in Queen Street.

  

Photos and text by Charlène Daubenfeld

QUT is a very welcoming university for the exchange students

QUT is a very welcoming university for the exchange students – many activities are organized during the Orientation Week at the campus where you can meet other students, find a place to stay, find answers to all your questions and enjoy cheap meals and activities with friends.

The university has an Anglo-Saxon system, which means few hours of class but a lot of personal work and readings. The atmosphere in lectures is relaxed and the lecturers are there to help you to understand your assignments and the way the university is working.

You can meet lizards at the University Campus

QUT has a big and pleasant campus, with several new buildings and a nice park to relax between the classes and where you can meet some of the Australian lizards or ibis going around! Students usually live in ‘Queenslanders”, typical big houses from Queensland, with several floors and rooms, and sometimes a pool! Brisbane has also several public transport means: you can use buses that go all around the city (but that are not really on time…) or the City Cats on the river.

Australian nature is Amazing!

Australia is an amazing country that is really worth exploring for at least a few weeks, before or after your semester. There are a lot of great places to go to, nice beaches to go surfing, natural parks for a walk, the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel, and very diverse landscapes and wildlife. You will meet for sure some nice kangaroos and kookaburras (a kingfisher bird, one of the national symbols of Australia). Brisbane is ideally located on the East Coast, where the most beautiful beaches of the country are. You can easily get a flight or rent a van to travel in the North of Queensland, and also to the South of the country and visit Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, drive the Great Ocean Road… The distances are huge across the country, so be prepared to drive a lot! It is an amazing experience though.

Queensland has more than 300 days of sunshine per year

The Australian culture is relaxed, people are very friendly and open minded. The weather is also awesome, the temperature is around 15°/20°C in winter in Brisbane (which is supposed to be cold) and in summer you can reach more than 40°C… Queensland is known as the “Sunshine State”, with more than 300 days of sunshine per year.

I really enjoyed my stay at QUT and my travels across Australia and New-Zealand, and I hope a lot of students will have the chance to experience it as well!

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See also:

Top 10 Things To Do In Brisbane

Roo Around the World: “Wander around the Botanic Gardens (there’s also supposed to be free wifi but we couldn’t find it). Visit Streets Beach on the Southbank (as you can probably tell, I really quite liked the Southbank!)…there’s a man-made beach and a lagoon to swim in…and lifeguards too!”

Studying in Australia

Textbooks and Passports: “We spoke to Charlotte Bond, an 18-year-old student from Bristol who is considering studying “down under”.

Great Barrier Reef Weekend

The Bostonah Down Undah: “After frying in the Cairns sun, we decided to rent a pontoon for the afternoon (I’m a poet and didn’t even know it). However, a very scary looking dark sky cut our boat ride reeeally short. The sky opened up and we were on the ocean during a torrential rain storm.”

Forever (part) Aussie

IU Study Abroad Blog: “The next part of my trip has me traveling alone and we’ve all been keeping in contact. We agree that traveling on our own is liberating and something everyone should do at least once, however, there is that sense a piece of the puzzle is missing.”

Sweet As

IU Study Abroad Blog: “Aussies are always asking, “What’s the biggest difference between here and America?”  There are a lot to pick from so I usually just reply, “You drive on the opposite side of the road.”  In reality, there are greater differences; some I didn’t expect.”

Study Abroad Advice from Down Under

Honors and Undergraduate Research: “Junior mathematics major and University Scholar Kat Turner is enjoying a year-long study abroad at the University of Adelaide. Kat has been blogging about her experience and in her most recent post shared some reflective advice from her experience.”

Interview with Nicole Vérat-Pant: How studying abroad helps your career prospects and personal development

Textbooks and Passports: “Nicole knows many former students who studied abroad and have gone on to have successful careers in business and education, and thinks their experience of living in a different culture and learning a new language helped them secure the top jobs.”

The Top 10 Study Abroad Programs

Abroad101: “China is fast becoming a hotspot for study abroad, and IES Beijing is the highest ranked program in Asia, coming in at #3. Whether focusing on contemporary Chinese issues or intensive Mandarin, IES places students in the heart of Beijing in a challenging program.”

  

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