Emily – Bath Spa University, England
Semester 2 2019
Bachelor of Creative Industries/ Bachelor of Business
Before I left, people would ask me “are you excited?” and as much as I had planned and saved to go on exchange, I was quite anxious about getting to Bath. Would my room be nice? How many roommates would I have? Would I like my roommates? Would I like my units?
The moment I arrived at my accommodation, the exchange became the adventure it was meant to be.
Living
I went on exchange to Bath Spa University in Bath, England. The student accommodation I stayed at was chosen by the University as international students were allocated together and I was at Green Park House. You could not have asked for a better location; it was right in the middle of Bath city and was a 5-minute walk to the main street and shops. There were a few small clubs in the city all within walking distance. There was a grocery store just across the road and the bus stop to the Newton Park Campus around the corner.
The room was nice with an interestingly bright green feature wall. It had decent storage and bathroom. I had never experienced living in student accommodation before so moving in with eleven other strangers was new. We all got along well together and I formed a smaller group of friends within the flat who made my exchange 100 times easier, funnier, and just better in every way.
Studying
Studying at Bath Spa was quite different to QUT. For starters, Bath Spa has around 6,000 students (QUT has over 50,000) so classroom sizes were a lot smaller. They also call tutorials, seminars and tutorials are one-on-one sessions with your teacher.
I enjoyed all of my units at Bath Spa, particularly as it has some modules that QUT does not offer currently. I studied a Festivals and Events Management unit which was my favourite class on my exchange. Each unit only has 2 assessable items with England having its own grading system (1st, 2:1, 2:2, and 3rd), which was a bit confusing at first but was something I got used to.
I was also invited to an event at the Roman Baths where I met other international students from all the tertiary institutions in Bath and met the Bath Mayor.
Travel
Bristol Airport is the closest airport to Bath and can take you all over Europe and the UK.
I was lucky enough to visit Paris, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam during Spa Week. This is a week break during the semester during which you can choose to do special classes at the Uni or go travelling overseas (an easy choice to make in my opinion). I did travel to more places during my exchange, including Prague and Budapest.
I would also recommend using trains to travel through England. Bristol city is fifteen minutes away or you can easily get to London in a couple hours.
Overall, I can definitely say an international exchange was 100% worth the process, waiting, and worries.
Whether at Bath Spa or anywhere else in the world, you will have a great time, meet heaps of new people and get to spend 6 months or more living overseas!
