Cara Pyper – Education Studies – Level 3
Griffith University, Australia
Pre-departure:
I applied to my study abroad in January 2023 after we had received an email making us aware of this opportunity. I have always loved the thought of going on a study abroad, but never thought it was an option on my course, so I applied immediately. A month later, I found out I was accepted as a nominee to apply to Griffith University on the Gold Coast, which was my top option. On the 1st of May I received the email that I had been accepted and I couldn’t be more excited. Initially, I thought I would be attending in September, but later found out the start date was July. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough time to prepare to move to the opposite side of the world, but knew it would all be worth it.
I worked my way through applying for health insurance and my student visa, which I received the day I jetted off to Australia after taking a month to be accepted.
Accommodation:
I decided to stay on campus as it was a straightforward process and thought this was the best opportunity to meet new people and make friends. Although the student halls wasn’t the nicest place around, and living with quite messy flatmates, I would do it again as living on campus gave me be the best experience I could ask for. Griffith University Student Village had events on every single day of my 4 month stay which made it so easy to make friend and meet up regularly with the people I got to know. It was only a 10 minute walk from the tram station, which made it super easy to get about.
There were a lot of international students on campus from the UK, like me, and because we were all in the same boat with moving country alone, we all bonded, and I made friends for life.
University life:
With the modules I chose, half of the lectures were online and half were in-person. Going to in-person lectures was made so much easier with the beautiful walk in the sunshine and grabbing my usual coffee and hash brown from the on-campus cafe, The Junction. I noticed a major difference in the workload from Queen Margaret University to Griffith University which was a bit hard to manage as I was also trying to make the most of enjoying my social life in Australia. As opposed to the 3 essays per semester at Queen Margaret University, I had a mixture of 9 essays and exams at Griffith University, but I managed to get it all done and do pretty well.
What I did in my spare time:
Griffith University Student Village is very social, so make sure to charge your social battery before you go! Every Tuesday the campus provided a free meal for students which was very helpful as it saved us money and time. It also attracted a lot of people so it was a great way to meet new people, or chill with the friends we had made. Although I went in winter, the Gold Coast is hot all year so I tried to spend every single day outside to soak up the sun. Thankfully, we had a pool on campus, so I spent a lot of days sunbathing. Going to the pool was one of my favourite ways to socialise as all of my friends would regularly be there.
Griffith University campus also provided free buses to the clubs every Thursday, so we would take advantage of this most Thursdays. As we had met so many friends the first week, we would regularly have flat party to celebrate birthdays, or the end of exams. On a more wholesome level, my friends and I loved going to the beach, going for coffee or going out for dinner. One day we also rented a car and drove to Springbrook National Park to see the waterfalls, where we had a picnic and chilled in nature.
Overall / advice for anyone thinking on going on a study abroad:
My study abroad will forever go down as the best experience of my life. Not many people can say they have travelled across the world to go to university, but I’m glad I am one of those people who can. Going on a study abroad has taught me so much about myself, how well I can cope with pushing myself out of my comfort zone, how I deal with completely new and foreign experiences and how important it is to prioritise myself. From this experience, I am more confident than I’ve ever been before, I’m proud of myself for navigating living in a new country all alone and it has changed my outlook on life moving forward.
As I documented my experience on TikTok, I have had a lot of messages from people all over the world asking for advice on whether they should do it too and my one advice is to just go for it. Your future you will thank you for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone when you’re in that new country, surrounded by all of your new friends and experiencing things you would’ve never experienced in your lifetime had you not just gone for it!
Finances:
Due to my study abroad being quite last minute, I was unable to save money by working before I went and I knew I wouldn’t work whilst I was in Australia, therefore, I was quite worried about my finances. Luckily, I was able to apply to the Santander scholarship and thankfully was eligible to receive funding. This meant I got a lot of help purchasing my flights and it helped with health insurance and visa fees. Without the Santander funding, I would’ve definitely struggled financially my study abroad period and would have possibly missed out on this amazing experience.
