Charlotte – University of Liverpool
Semester 1, 2024
Bachelor of Architectural Design
Pre-Exchange
I have been looking forward to participating in an exchange for years so when the time finally came to catch my first connection flights to England, I was beyond excited. As someone who was yet to travel on a long-haul flight overseas and has never been to the other side of the world, I had plenty to be nervous about. From the moment I left, the excitement and pure enjoyment of exchange life never stopped. I was told exchange is the highlight of any university experience; this is so accurate.
However, so much goes into reaching this point. I definitely think the application processes and just the waiting game of not knowing where you are going is by far the hardest part of exchange. But once you make it through the application process and are connected with the University of Liverpool (UoL), their abroad faculty makes the whole process really easy to navigate. Prior to my semester they sent numerous emails with step by step of the processes you needed to follow. If you ever had questions, you could email or call and were quick with their responses.
Accommodation and meeting friends
My first day moving into my on-campus accommodation was the most nerve-racking day as I was really nervous about meeting my roommates and friends. I was nominated to live on campus at student accommodation called Tudor Close which allowed me to be surrounded by other exchange students. This was the best decision as I knew of other students who lived in other accommodations and Tudor Close was the favourite for most people on exchange to be surrounded with other like-minded international students.
Before I left, everyone said their biggest worry was meeting people and making friends, but it ended up being so easy. Even though I had heard this I couldn’t help but be worried, but I can tell you not to worry because everyone I met who was an exchange student was so kind and friendly and ended up in amazing circles of friends. When I first moved in, my roommates were all so kind but were not as open as I was in wanting to get to know each other. However, I met my now close friend later that night as she moved in my accommodation late and to this day we are great friends. On the second day we had a social event for exchange students and by the end of this day I had met a dozen girls that are now many of my close friends and that I spent most of my exchange with.
Balance of travel and study
As an architecture student, I did not know of anyone going on exchange from QUT and most of my University of Liverpool exchange friends studied completely different courses. As a result, most of my classes were British students, which really put me outside my comfort zone as the foreign student in most of their smaller-sized classes where they all knew each other. Within my Bachelor’s degree, I took an international minor and used my electives to study climate science and urban planning. These topics were approached and assessed very differently back in QUT so I couldn’t tell you if the UoL was easier in direct comparison, however, I felt my workload was much lighter. As an architectural student I highly recommend completing your elective classes to add a unique edge to your knowledge that can contribute to your architectural classes when you return.
The study-life balance was so great. By the end of the second week of exchange, we had organized a trip with 18 exchange students to Ireland for the weekend. We had so many opportunities to travel nearby and we went to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, other parts of England and saw the northern lights in Iceland! All on our weekends, how good.
I should mention, the classes in Liverpool were much more lecture based than tutorials. All the lectures and classes in Liverpool marked attendance with codes on their app. However, if you work smart, you can easily maximize your time with weekend travelling and hanging out with friends most nights. The mid-semester break was three weeks, which gives you so much opportunity to travel further around Europe and plan even more trips with your exchange friends!
Societies and social opportunities
The most valuable society we found at UoL was their Global Opportunities society. These guys were so welcoming and combined current incoming international exchange students with students from Liverpool who had completed exchange or were thinking of going on exchange. They organized so many socials at the beginning of semester which is where I met most of my friends who didn’t already live next to me!
They also organized trips, which you can pay and book before you leave Australia. I highly recommend booking these prior to leaving as they sold out quickly and when we were there, and there were so many exchange students asking for spare tickets. These trips were great and they took you to places you can’t access easily via public transport. We did day trips to the Lake District, Snowdonia in Wales and Chester.
Travel and coming home
The other hardest difficult part of exchange was leaving. Most exchange students I met from Australia stayed and backpacked over Summer, including myself. This was great as some of us planned our travels to align and we got to catch up with different people across different countries. However, coming home was hard as we went from living with one another to not knowing when we would see each other next. My friends still stay in contact in our group chat where we all send vlog updates of what we are doing once a week. I really recommend this if you are close with the friends you make as it allows us to stay connected and keeps your exchange experience alive at a distance.
Overall, exchange is a highlight in both my uni experience and my life. I gained so much independence and I feel like I have gained perspective in who I am and who I am becoming. Exchange shows you how much you can achieve in such a short time.
Find out more on how you can apply: Student Exchange
