Eleny H., Bachelor of Media and Communications
University of Leeds, England (Semester 2, 2017)

Money

I spent around $14,000 on return flights from Brisbane to Leeds, catered university accommodation, bedding and kitchen items, a trip to Paris, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Tenerife and numerous trips throughout England. My biggest expenses were the return tickets from Brisbane to Leeds and the accommodation. If you’re going to go for the full travel experience it’s best to budget around $15,000 which will get you around Europe and the UK as long as you don’t eat out every, single day. The biggest ways to save some money would be by making your own meals and choosing a non-catered accommodation as well as staying within the UK and making sure you book all trips months in advance (even small train trips).

Accommodation

I ended up in Devonshire Hall which I highly recommend. Even though the accommodation was about a 20-25 minute walk from campus, this allowed me to get my daily exercise and get some fresh air. If you really don’t want to walk, there are busses available for 1 pound per trip or bus passes available which are cheaper if you’re using the bus more than once every day. Check out the First Bus website for more information on buses.

I went with the catered option at Devonshire Hall which meant I received breakfast and dinner Monday to Friday with brunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday, all in set time frames. This was incredible because you sit and eat with your friends every morning and night at the same time. This was probably the biggest way for me to avoid loneliness and home-sickness and it gave me a good daily routine. You can just roll out of bed, go to breakfast in your pyjamas and all your friends will be there in the dining hall waiting for you.

Plus, just look at how gorgeous Devonshire is!

There is also a music group, an acapella group and a drama group at Devonshire that perform throughout the year, along with incredibly fun formal dinners where you dress in a Harry Potter-style gown and enjoy a three-course feast.

Even though Dev wasn’t my first choice, I was extremely happy to be amongst the other 600 students that got chosen to reside there.

Extra Little Helpful Tips

• Shops don’t give you plastic bags for free. You pay about 5 pence for a bag which isn’t so expensive, but bringing your own bags is free (there are plenty of tote bags to collect at o-week!)
• Buy your kitchen and bedding essentials at Wilko or Primark, don’t go with the university packs because they are overpriced and quite bad quality. They even host a couple of IKEA trips at the start of the semester if you need to collect some items.
• Join a society! They are the best way to make some friends and to bond with the locals. Some societies you might not know exist are the belly dancing society, baking society and even a coffee society.
• Most importantly, enjoy every moment of exchange because you most likely won’t get an experience like this ever again. Now that I am home, I don’t feel any sadness or regret because I know that I did everything I possibly could do while in Leeds.

So, these are the top things that I have learned while on exchange at Leeds. I hope they give you some insight into what living in Leeds is like. Now it’s time for you to go and explore for yourself.