The application to Swinburne University via MicroEDU was very quick and straightforward, just like I was used to from my stay abroad during my bachelor’s degree! The communication went smoothly by email and the contacts from MicroEDU were helpful and quick in their answers as always.
The course selection in advance was very simple. I had to change my selection again and although that option officially no longer existed at that point, MicroEDU and Swinburne were very cooperative and the change was not a problem at all. Even on site, courses can still be changed at the beginning of the semester. Visit educationvv.com to get information about San Jose State University student exchange program.
Furthermore, the visa application was also extremely uncomplicated, everything was done online and within one day I had already received my visa. You can either take a student visa or a working holiday visa, which is a bit cheaper and allows you to stay in Australia for up to a year. However, since you can only apply for this once in a lifetime and I knew that I would not stay in Australia longer than six months, I decided on the normal student visa and saved my working holiday visa. A good decision, as it looks like I’ll be using it for another year in Australia this year or next!
A health insurance, the OSHC (Overseas Student Health Cover), must be completed on the university and, together with the tuition fees paid, but it is advisable to yet another international health insurance to conclude, as the OSHC does not cover everything. Swinburne has its own “Health Center” with doctors, which I actually used once during my stay, and this went completely smoothly via the OSHC (the appointment was also very easy to book online, the waiting time was short and the doctor was great kind!).
I arrived in Melbourne in mid-July and stayed in the hostel (Melbourne Metro YHA) for the first few nights. The hostel is definitely to be recommended, it is very clean and is very central. From there I went looking for an apartment. You have the option of applying in advance for a room in one of the student accommodation on campus, but this is relatively expensive, which is why I decided against it. Instead, I looked for a room in a shared apartment on flatmates. com. au. This requires a little patience and I responded to numerous advertisements and visited around 5-6 apartments / houses, including the accommodation, in my first week that I chose. I spent a total of 5 or 6 nights in the hostel before moving into my new flat share. I lived in Hawthorn, about a 20-minute walk from the university, with an Australian, a French woman, and two border collies. I was very lucky with my roommates and had a great time there. The rent was AU $ 230 a week, which is about AU $ 1,000 a month plus utilities. Melbourne is not cheap! Whether you prefer to live near the campus or in the city center (CBD) is a matter of taste, I personally looked at rooms everywhere and made it dependent on the accommodation. The university and the CBD are only about 10 minutes apart by train (the university has its own stop right on campus). If you want, you can get a monthly ticket for bus & train, if you are a bachelor’s student or through an exchange cooperation at Swinburne, you get this at a discount. Since this was unfortunately not the case for me, a monthly ticket was not worth it for me (about 120 AUD full price, if I remember correctly).
As for the university itself, it can be said that the campus is quite manageable but beautiful, and the buildings are very modern. There are also many places to eat on campus and in the immediate vicinity on Glenferrie Road – there you will find supermarkets, McDonalds & Co. and various restaurants as well as various small shops, pharmacies and a cinema (the Lido Cinema, which you can visit on Tuesdays and watch films on Wednesdays for only 7 AUD (5 €) – a real bargain in Melbourne).
In order to achieve the number of credits required by my home university, I took 4 courses at Master’s level at Swinburne. The courses were all “okay”, the quality of the lectures, to be honest, not the highest and the fun was sometimes taken away by a number of assignments or group work with strenuous group members. Since there are almost no exams in master’s courses at Swinburne, you have a lot to do during the semester, but the lectures end at the end of October and after submitting the last assignments you have free time by mid-November at the latest and thus plenty of time to travel a bit.
Melbourne is a good starting point for excursions and trips and there are many great places to discover in and around Australia. During the spring break in September I decided to explore the north east coast and went on a road trip from Townsville to Byron Bay, which I can only recommend (you absolutely must stop by the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane to finally hold a koala in my arms!). On weekends or on day tours, there is also a lot to discover around Melbourne, such as the Great Ocean Road, Grampians National Park or Phillip Island (a day tour there was organized by the university). After the semester there is plenty of time to travel, in my opinion Tasmania and Sydney are a must(or of course the north east coast, if you haven’t seen it yet). But New Zealand is basically just a stone’s throw away (well, at least when you compare it to the distance between Germany and New Zealand), and I spent 2 weeks there in a campervan on the North Island – definitely recommended!
But there is also a lot to see and discover in Melbourne itself and you will never get bored. The city is super beautiful and is the perfect size for my taste and has many interesting districts. The weather sometimes leaves a lot to be desired (winter can get quite cold and spring can be very wet), but on sunny days the beaches of St. Kilda and Brighton Beach are also not far away. However, if you dream of half a year of summer, sun, sunshine with continuously high temperatures, you should opt for another Australian city (or even for San Diego). But I was very happy with my decision and would definitely recommend Melbourne to everyone!
