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UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

EXCHANGE REPORT: FALL 2017

VICKIE LEUNG [ ACCOUNTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS ]

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Table of Contents

Monthly Activity Log .......................................................................................................................................... 3

July .................................................................................................................................................................. 3

August ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

September ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

October ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

November ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

General Exchange Information .......................................................................................................................... 5

Visa Procedures .............................................................................................................................................. 5

International Services and Activities .............................................................................................................. 5

Accommodation ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Orientation Activities...................................................................................................................................... 6

Courses and Registration ................................................................................................................................ 6

Teaching and Assessment Methods ............................................................................................................... 6

Sports and Recreation Facilities ..................................................................................................................... 6

Social Clubs and Networking Opportunities .................................................................................................. 6

Finance and Banking ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Health and Safety ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Food ................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Transportation ................................................................................................................................................ 7

Climate ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

Communication .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Cautionary Measures ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Items to Bring ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

Useful Links and Contacts .................................................................................................................................. 8

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Monthly Activity Log

July I arrived in Sydney 2 weeks before I was able to move into my accommodation, so I stayed at my relative’s

place and got accustomed to the Land Down Under. I moved into Fig Tree Hall 2 days before orientation

began. Orientation included 3 days’ worth of ice breaking activities, a scavenger hunt around the city and a

campus tour.

There were many complications with my enrolment into UNSW, due to some emails not being received, so

the first week was a complete train wreck. My timetable was not exactly ideal, with classes 5 days a week,

3 days having only 1 lecture in the middle of the afternoon. However, in the first week there were no

tutorials, so I had a few days off, where I spent my time travelling around the CBD. After the rocky start,

once everything got sorted out, the semester ran quite smoothly!

August August was slightly uneventful because I went out quite often in July, I had quite a lot of work to catch up

on. I booked a trip to the Featherdale Wildlife Park and Blue Mountains through the tour agent Colourful

Trips which gives discounted prices for university students. However, looking back, it would’ve been

cheaper to just have went with friends on a Sunday, where travel fees are capped at $2.60AUD. While I

saw some incredible views at the famous Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk, I also managed to shatter my

phone, so I would recommend investing in a phone strap and to bring a spare phone!

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September This month began with presentations, followed by midterms, research paper and project deadlines and

ended with the long-awaited midterm break. While some of my friends travelled to the outback, to

Queensland and to Adelaide, I spent my time with my relatives, going out for good food and coming back

to UNSW after gaining a few pounds. There was also the Festival of the Winds – Australia’s largest kite

flying festival held at Bondi Beach. On the same day was the Marriage Equality Rally held at the town hall

which 30,000 people joined to support. There has been much talk about supporting marriage equality at

Fig Tree Hall and petition signings around the campus. After I left, same-sex marriage became legal, so I

came to Australia at an incredibly special time.

October Right after coming back from the break, Figsassins, Fig Tree Hall’s assassination game started. We spent

the week incredibly paranoid, suspicious of everyone around you. The Night Noodle Market were held at

Hyde Park, where we stuffed ourselves with Asian street food. The last midterms and presentations took

place and the month ended with the weeklong ‘stuvac’ (study vacation). We dressed up for Halloween and

also went to the Royal National Park, where you could see some of the most incredible views! Despite

leaving UNSW before 7am, we only managed to go through half of the trail, visiting the Wedding Cake

Rock and Marley Beach but unfortunately missing out on the Figure Eight Pools and Wattamolla Falls.

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November I started and ended my finals earlier than most of my friends. After my first exam, I visited the Sculpture by

the Sea, an annual art exhibition displaying sculptures along the Bondi coastal walk. I spent my last week in

Sydney travelling with friends. I toured one last time around the UNSW campus, watched my friend win

$60 at The Star casino, walked across the Harbour Bridge, did some last-minute souvenir shopping at

Paddy’s Market and visited the most gorgeous, enchanted garden at The Grounds of Alexandria.

General Exchange Information

Visa Procedures I hold a New Zealand passport so fortunately I didn’t have to apply for a visa. Based on what I’ve read on

other people’s exchange reports, you can apply online.

International Services and Activities As mentioned previously, I did not know that my course enrolment emails were not received, and I had to

hastily enrol into courses a day before they started. Although the process was anxiety-inducing, the

exchange staff were incredibly helpful, kind and patient and helped me through the process in person.

Accommodation Living at Fig Tree Hall was definitely the highlight of my exchange, where I met the most incredible people

and friends who became family in merely 4 months! Although more than 10x as expensive as the HKUST

halls, Fig Tree Hall is also 10x nicer, with a private room and a luxurious private bathroom! The sense of

community and celebrating achievements there is strong. Everyone living there is incredibly warm,

welcoming and helpful and the students there organize many fun activities! I think it is also one of the

accommodations that host the most international students, so you could meet people from all around the

world and learn about their cultures.

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3 semi-buffet style meals are included in the accommodation fees, where you eat at the dining hall with 3

other colleges. Although the food isn’t amazing, it’s quite convenient and eating together is a great way of

meeting and bonding with hall mates! Did I also mention that there are often free snacks, a pool, table

tennis, foosball and mah-jong table (where the Hong Kongers thrive in), a Wii and a PS4 at the main

common room?

However, living at Fig is expensive. Barker Apartments are quite cheap and is quite nice too. You could also

find cheap shared off-campus apartments postings on the exchange Facebook group.

Orientation Activities The orientation at Fig was Harry Potter themed this semester and the first day started off with ice-breaking

activities and a campus tour, with either a bar crawl around the city or a movie and Pancakes on the Rock

at night. The mandatory UNSW orientation was held on the second morning (with performances by the

indigenous people and a brief lecture on OZ slang), followed by a scavenger hunt around the city to

familiarise ourselves. The third day started off with a bang, with some games in the afternoon.

Courses and Registration You enrol into courses online through a platform called Endeavour. Add / drop period only lasted a week.

UNSW HKUST Equivalent

ACCT2542: Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis ACCT3010 ACCT3853: Management Accounting 2 ACCT3210 INFS2607: Networking and Infrastructure ISOM3180 PHYS1211: Energy and Environmental Physics PHYS1003

(I wouldn’t recommend taking PHYS1211 – it wasn’t difficult, but it really wasn’t great)

Teaching and Assessment Methods I personally felt that some of the lectures were less interactive compared to UST (especially ACCT2542)

because the classes are so big. One really great thing about UNSW is that most of the lectures are

recorded, so you can look back on what you’ve missed while you were daydreaming in class. Rather than

being assessed based on a bell curve, UNSW adopts an absolute grading (with >50% giving you a pass

and >85% giving you a High Distinction) which I believe makes education much less competitive,

classmates become much more willing to help each other, and your final mark becoming much less of a

mystery. There’s also a much higher emphasis on the final exams, usually weighing more than 55%, with

midterms weighing less than 20% and presentations or papers weighing 10%.

Sports and Recreation Facilities The sports director always encourages people to join the inter-college sports competitions every week, but

I didn’t do sports so I don’t have much insights to add. The college membership gym fee is $260AUD.

Social Clubs and Networking Opportunities The student union here is called Arc and it has so many clubs for you to join, from a knitting society to and

Pokémon society! Due to complications in the beginning of the semester, I missed my opportunity to join

some clubs. I sent a request to the Hong Kong Student Association, but I didn’t get a reply. Arc hosts many

parties in each semester, and living in halls give you a small discount in tickets.

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Finance and Banking Everything in Australia is super pricey compared to Hong Kong! I had relatives in Sydney to treat me out to

travelling and nice dinners, so I would have spent a few more thousand HKD if I was completely

independent.

Category AUD HKD (x6)

Textbooks 80 480 Food 220 1,320 Leisure 240 1,440 Necessities 220 1,320 Transportation – Bus & Ferry 230 1,380 Accommodation (Fig Tree Hall) + Catering 10,180 61,080 Plane Tickets 1,570 9,423

Total $12,740 $76,443

There is a Commonwealth bank and ATMs within the campus, so I would recommend setting your account

there instead of ANZ. They also have an app which is super useful!

Health and Safety You must purchase the Overseas Student Health Care (OSHC) during your application to the university.

However, I didn’t do anything too adventurous, so luckily I didn’t end up using it. Cars gives way to

pedestrians which is convenient, however, the cars can still turn from the corner when the green light is

still flashing, which scared me many times.

Food The restaurants and cafes here are super nice and makes great backdrops for photos! There are many

restaurants in Randwick and Anzac Parade nearby and within the campus. Meals are often priced from

$13AUD to $30AUD. You can have food delivered with UberEats or Deliveroo.

Transportation You would usually take buses to travel around Sydney, with many bus stops stationed around the campus.

The fares are very expensive compared to Hong Kong though, each single trip costing you from $2 – 4AUD.

You would need to purchase an Opal card (a travel-only Octopus card). On Sundays, Opal fees are capped

at $2.6AUD, so use that opportunity to travel further!

Climate July was the coldest month, averaging around 15 degrees. It became much warmer starting from October,

averaging 20 degrees, with some days reaching 30 so you can start hitting the nearby beaches! Either bring

summer and winter clothes, or spend some days shopping buying your summer clothes there! (Although

clothes there are not cheap)

Communication I bought a Telstra SIM card, paying $30AUD a month for 1.5GBs of data during the day and 1.5GB for the

night. I don’t think this is the best deal, so maybe you should look at the Vodaphone data plans!

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Cautionary Measures Sydney is a pretty safe place and people would sometimes actively help you around places if you look

confused. But still, don’t travel alone at night, especially girls!

Items to Bring

▪ Cash (AUD) ▪ Summer clothes ▪ Mobile phone ▪ Passport ▪ Winter clothes ▪ Spare mobile phone? ▪ COE ▪ Swimsuit ▪ External charger ▪ HKID Card ▪ Stationery (it’s expensive

over there!) ▪ Laptop

▪ HKUST ID Card ▪ Hand cream (it’s super dry in winter!)

▪ Business suit for presentation

▪ Adapter (2-3) ▪ Skin care ▪ Formal dress (we had 3 formal dinners at Fig!)

▪ USB ▪ Lip balm ▪ Medicine

Things at the Coles / Woolworths supermarkets and Target / K-Mart stores are pretty cheap so you don’t

need to buy too much. There’s also Daiso, Muji and Miniso stores around, but they are slightly more

expensive.

Useful Links and Contacts

Check if you have a UNSW approved calculator for exams:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/exam-approved-calculators-and-computers

On-campus accommodation comparisons:

http://www.accommodation.unsw.edu.au/compare

Video introducing the accommodations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt_rQ0vz5EI

Course catalogue:

https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/degrees-courses/undergraduate

Exchange officers’ email:

intex@unsw.edu.au

Useful apps:

Uni-Verse: Official UNSW app

Lost Campus: UNSW map

Opal Travel: Public transportation planner & top up card

CommBank: Commonwealth Bank app