After attending the FHDW’s information event on studying abroad, I decided to spend my 3rd semester of theory in Australia and first discussed everything with my partner company. After receiving confirmation from them, I responded to the International Office’s call for applications and applied for a PROMOS scholarship for a semester abroad at Southern Cross University (SCU) in Australia.

After being accepted by the FHDW, my application was forwarded to SCU by the International Office and GOstralia. So apart from filling out a few documents, I had very little work to do with the application to the Australian university, as Ms. Johle from the International Office and Svea from GOstralia gave me excellent support. Once I had been accepted by SCU, I was able to select courses. Unfortunately, this proved to be more difficult in my case, as SCU did not want to admit me for one module. The International Office also supported me in this and contacted SCU again directly, but without success. In the end, I took a module that will be credited to me in the 4th semester.

I applied for the visa about six weeks before my departure, as only then was everything in the bag regarding my choice of course. GOstralia provides some very good tips on how to apply for a student visa on the homepage of the Australian Department of Home Affairs. My visa was approved after just two days.

As I already have travel cancellation insurance and international travel insurance through my Mastercard, I only had to take out state health insurance in Australia. This is done automatically when you enrol at the university.

Even though it is usually recommended not to book accommodation without visiting it in person, I booked my room from Germany about three weeks in advance. I was extremely lucky with the accommodation and was very happy. Nevertheless, you should be careful when booking accommodation in advance. Many of my fellow students had problems with the landlord or had to change accommodation during their stay. I stayed in a house in Tweed Heads, which was about 3.5 km from the university.

I found the accommodation via SCU’s Unistays website. The location was in a quiet residential area, right next to a canal. In addition to my landlady, three other students lived with me in this house. Our landlady provided us with breakfast and there was a cleaner. We were provided with bicycles to get to university. This was very helpful as there was no direct bus service to the university. Tweed Heads is in the state of New South Wales, the university is in Queensland. That’s why the time was a bit confusing. New South Wales sets the clock one hour forward in summer time, so there was always an hour’s difference between my home and the university during my stay.

I personally found this very practical because I had very favorable rebooking options for the return flight with STA Travel and I received very quick responses throughout my trip. I flew from Frankfurt via Abu Dhabi to Brisbane. Since my landlady wasn’t there to pick me up the night I arrived, I booked an airport shuttle with ConXion to take me from the airport directly to my front door for about 70 dollars. I booked the shuttle service the day before I left.

At SCU, I took the modules Statistical Analysis, Accounting and Finance for Business and Managing Organizations. In each unit, I had a weekly online lecture for 90 minutes and a two-hour tutorial on campus. You can therefore organize your time very flexibly, but this also requires a lot of self-discipline. The workload should not be underestimated, as several exams have to be taken during the semester. In my units, the exam at the end of the semester only counted for 40 to 50% of the overall grade.

SCU’s Gold Coast campus is very clearly laid out and consists of three buildings. It has a very modern and cozy library, a gym, a cafeteria and several kitchens and refrigerators. The campus is only five minutes from the beach and there are plenty of bus stops nearby. If you want to use public transportation in Queensland regularly, you should buy a Go Card. You load credit onto these and scan them when you get on and off the bus. If you live in Queensland, you can register on the website of Translink, the public transport provider, and indicate that you are a student. Then you can travel at a very low fare.

Because so many lectures are online, you don’t meet as many people at the university. Session 3 is also only a “mid-term” and the university is generally very empty at this time, which is why many sports courses are not offered or only a few events take place. I therefore recommend that you make the most of what is on offer.

From the first week, for example, weekend excursions were offered for international students to places in the surrounding area. For example, these went to Springbrook National Park, Mount Tamborine, Stradbroke Island or Australia Zoo. You should register early as the tours are organized in small groups and get booked up quickly.

The cost of living is generally a bit more expensive than in Germany, but it depends on where you go shopping. For example, Woolworth’s is more expensive than Coles or Aldi. My personal favorite was Aldi, when I did my weekly shopping there I paid around €30 to €40. That was roughly comparable to German prices. Fruit and vegetables were sometimes cheaper at individual vegetable stalls in malls than in the stores, but that also depended on the day and often varied.

I didn’t open a bank account as I was able to withdraw money free of charge with my Mastercard Gold. You can generally pay by card everywhere, but there are often fees for credit card payments.

I can only recommend taking part in as many activities as possible, especially to get to know other students. For example, I spent a weekend at a surf camp in Byron Bay, which was organized by the university. There we went stand-up paddling, diving, kayaking and surfing. In addition, a five-week surf course was offered directly in Coolangatta at a very good price-performance ratio, which I can only recommend. The university also offered beach volleyball and tennis, but there should be more university sports on offer in sessions 1 and 2.

I can also recommend exploring the area as soon as university allows. The Gold Coast is not only beautiful with its many beaches, there are also beautiful national parks with waterfalls and rock pools. For example, we had three weeks off over Christmas and New Year. I used this time exclusively for traveling.

Useful internet addresses are definitely Unistays for finding accommodation. The Translink website and especially the Translink app are very helpful when using public transportation. If you decide to travel, I can recommend the Wikicamps app. It is free for Android for one month and you can search for campsites or sanitary facilities nearby or in destinations. As there were unfortunately also many and large bushfires during my stay, I can recommend the Fires Near Me app, which shows all the fires in the area with their safety risk.