The organization of my stay abroad went smoothly thanks to MicroEDU. It is clearly specified which documents are required and you will be supervised by a MicroEDU employee during the entire application process. You can also contact the supervisor at any time if you have any questions and you will receive an answer the next day at the latest.
After I was accepted at the university, the question of accommodation arose for me. As far as I know, there are 3 options: the Uni Village, the option of living with an Australian family and searching locally. I have decided to look for accommodation on site first. I can recommend this at any time. Most international students are looking for accommodation at the beginning of the semester. A cheap option is therefore to get together and rent an apartment in one of the numerous holiday homes. That’s why I lived with two Swedes and a German. The rent was A $ 150 for a shared room. Very expensive compared to Germany, but cheap by Australian standards.
The university has a nice big campus.The buildings are clearly numbered and easy to find. If you still get lost, you can use the Uni App with Campus Navigation. Everything you need is on the site and beyond. There are several food stalls (burger, Asian, snack bar, café) so you don’t have to go hungry. Unfortunately the prices are a bit high. For example, a small coffee costs around $ 4. But you can also bring your own food and heat it up in the provided microwaves. There is also the university bar, where you can hang out between lectures. (Beer pitcher from 10 AUD). In addition to the cafes and food stands, there is also a hairdresser, a travel agency and a store for writing and learning materials on campus. The university is also very easy to reach by tram. There is a train every 8 minutes and thanks to the concession card that you get as a student, it’s not that expensive. (1.50-2 AUD from Surfers Paradise to University.)
Course content
This is where I was most surprised. The workload is significantly higher compared to my German university. I attended 3 courses (Branding, Strategic Marketing, Contemporary Sport and Event Management), in which I had to hand in 3 written assignments with 2,500 words each. At the end there was a final exam, which was easier and took significantly less time to study than in Germany. My lecturers were all very good and easy-going. Much emphasis was placed on interaction. Since the university is very international, students from many different countries take part in the courses. As a result, practical experiences and the different approaches in the various countries were often discussed. This made the lectures very interesting.
Study conditions
The Griffith University is very well equipped. It has very modern buildings and everything looks very well organized. There is, for example, the Student Center, which helps you with all organizational questions. There is also a doctor there who can be consulted in case of problems. I was particularly impressed by the new business building and the library. All of my lectures took place in the new business building. The lecture halls are equipped with the latest technology, you can sit on comfortable office chairs and take the elevator to the lecture hall. The library is also very large and modern. There are many places to study undisturbed, but also large group workplaces. There are also many computers and printers that you can use. The only point of criticism was the small number of textbooks.
Leisure
The university offers many recreational opportunities. At the beginning of the semester there is a “Sign In Day”, during which all student clubs introduce themselves. I myself was only on Sign In Day for the sports clubs. There is a wide range of sports on offer, such as basketball, soccer, cheerleading and chess. I chose the volleyball club and the life saving club. The volleyball training took place once a week and was a lot of fun. If you are good enough, you can also take part in the university games, which was a lot of fun. The Life Saving Club has offered fitness courses such as swimming training or jogging on the beach.
There are also many recreational opportunities in Gold Coast outside of university. Gold Coast is actually known as a vacation region. That is why, in addition to the huge beach, there are also amusement parks such as Dreamworld, Movieworld and Sea World as well as the Wet n Wild water park. I’ve also been to two games for the Gold Coast Titans, the local rugby team.
Costs
In general, Australia is a very expensive country compared to Germany. But you can find out pretty quickly where there are cheap offers. On Sundays and Mondays, for example, there are inexpensive steaks in Waxy’s (2 AUD per steak + 2 more AUD for chips / salad). Domino’s also offers inexpensive value pizza for 5 AUD. The best places to shop are Coles or Woolworth. Both supermarket chains have inexpensive own brands that do not burden the wallet too much and the products are actually quite ok. By far the cheapest is Aldi. Unfortunately, it is a bit out of the way and is therefore difficult to reach by train.
