I just had my first week of classes at University of Queensland! In January when everyone else went back to school and began the stress and work of a new semester I was taking it easy at home feeling sorry for them, but now its my turn... Australian schools begin their first semester of classes in the end of February because that’s technically towards the end of their summer. I am taking 4 classes here (that’s the average course load, you have to get special permission to take more or less classes in a semester). I got lucky and was able to schedule my classes for only 3 days a week- Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I set up my schedule this way so that I would be able to get some longer distance traveling in on my 4-day weekends (we are traveling to Melbourne next Thursday after class and returning home Monday night!) Many of the study abroad students were able to set their schedule up the same way as well so we will get some good weekend travel in.
These are the classes I am taking:
1. Australia’s Marine Environment, which includes a 3-day field trip to Moreton Bay and also a 4-day field trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef during Mid-Semester Break.
2. Australia’s Terrestrial Environment, which includes field trips to Brisbane Forest Park, Lamington National Park, Australia Zoo, and a 4-day trip to Fraser Island during the other half of Mid-Semester Break.
There are many study abroad students (including the majority of my roommates) in these 2 classes. I am very excited about these classes because not only do I get to see some great parts of Australia, but I get to learn about them and the prices are a lot better than if I were to plan a trip on my own. Also, these classes go along great with my Environmental Science major, so I will actually be gaining valuable knowledge that I can use in the future!
3. Contemporary Australia is going to be a bit more work than the first two classes, but I think it will be very interesting. This course is “an introduction to key issues and debates concerning Australia as a nation, a culture, and a society” (yes, that’s straight from the syllabus). There are a lot of assignments and also a large research paper, which will be a lot of work but I figure that I should do some actual learning about this country that I’m living in.
4. Introduction to Environmental Management will also be a larger amount of work, but I will be learning things that will be very helpful to me in the future. This course focuses how we approach the environment and deal with the environmental problems. I have taken many environmental classes but have never taken one specifically focused on management so it should be helpful and interesting.
After a week of classes, I am pleased and excited with my schedule and also am very impressed by this university. I sort of blindly chose University of Queensland when deciding on which school in Australia to apply to. My study abroad office did not give us great information on the differences between the many schools we could chose from so I felt pretty lost a rushed when it came to make a decision. My friend Becca who had also planned on studying in Australia this semester (but had a change of plans) did a little more research than I did and decided UQ might be a good choice because of a few small factors that I don’t even remember now. I was annoyed with the study abroad office and wanted to get my application started (and I also trust Becca J) so I chose UQ too. My point is, a quick and mostly blind decision turned out GREAT (thanks Becca!)
University of Queensland (“UQ”) is the oldest university in Queensland and the 5th oldest in all of Australia (founded 100 years ago!) It is a very large school, with over 44,000 students across the three campuses. The campus I am on (St. Lucia) is very big, with beautiful sandstone buildings surrounding The Great Court, which is a large grassy area similar to (but bigger and much more attractive than) The Quad at University of Illinois. This makes for an amazing atmosphere to go to class and get homework done, but also just hang around and relax. I am also very impressed by the teaching style and course structure here. I am not sure if it is all of Australia or just UQ, but it seems as though they have figured out the right way to teach. Most of all they are very ahead on their technology- almost all lectures are recorded and accessible online after the class period. Also, the teachers’ notes/powerpoints are always posted online days or weeks before that class period. At home there are many teachers who don’t post their notes before class or don’t post them at all. It takes more than just listening in class for me to understand or remember things so it is very helpful for me to have notes and recordings of lectures. As you would imagine, this causes most people not to attend lectures, but that leaves it up to the student to make that decision based on their own learning style or the grade they want in that class (I don’t really understand this completely yet, but from what I have gathered most Australian students only need to pass their classes, the letter grade doesn’t matter as much). The teachers are all also very friendly and helpful and make me feel like they want to help me learn. This is all very refreshing and exciting to me, because while I am obviously excited to travel and spend some time at the pubs, I am also very passionate about my major so I’m excited to learn about the environment in these classes.
It was definitely a great first week of classes! It was weird being on a new campus and feeling like a freshman again with my campus map out and arriving late to lectures, but I enjoyed every second of it. I just penciled in my big assignments and tests into my calendar so I am a bit nervous about the amount of work combined with all of my traveling, but I know it will be worth it and I will make it work. Everyday I feel lucky to be on such a beautiful campus at such an amazing school, and I am very excited for the next 4 months.
As I said before, I am traveling to Melbourne this weekend with my roommate and a few other girls so I'm anxiously looking forward to that!
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