My Exchange at The University of Nottingham
My name is Logan Bow and I completed a semester exchange in architecture in the first semester of 2024 in Nottingham, United Kingdom. I have known about the 360 international exchanges since my first year through advertising in the architecture faculty building. It wasn’t until I was in my third year that I decided to go to the UK for the first time and explore the opportunities over there. I considered many countries, but having never been to Europe before, I felt more comfortable going to an English speaking country.
My first impression of the UK in January was that it was very cold, but eventually through the semester it warmed to spring and then to summer. Something that stood out to me, particularly in Nottingham, was the amount of participation in university sport societies, and the amount of people in the United Kingdom. Having come from post-covid Auckland, the United Kingdom and surrounding European countries showed me impressive infrastructure through public transport, urban planning, sport facilities, outstanding architectural design and blooming businesses within market squares. It was a relief that Nottingham insures catered accommodation on campus. This meant that I could focus on sport and academia rather than cooking, cleaning and shopping for groceries, which usually take quite a lot of time out of the day.
I was fortunate enough to be in a hall across the road from one of the United Kingdom’s biggest sport centres, David Ross Sports Centre, which allowed me to easily become a part of their community. It was quite impressive how they have very high performing sport teams and occasionally hosted English Nationals and world cup events for many other sports. The quality of the accommodation itself was bearable, I had a north-east facing window so not much natural sunlight was entering my room, but other than that, the room was spacious and I had a bathroom to share with one other person who was very clean. The halls food was edible, people their complained about it, but I did not mind as I have an appetite for anything. I had the opportunity to join societies so as a gymnast, I naturally joined the gymnastics society where I formed most of my greatest friendships while abroad.
Nottingham has a wild night life and I had not had so much fun ever as going out with my gymnastics society, it was a real blast and some of the moments I would never forget. The courses taught at Nottingham were very well structured and doable, I enjoyed studying my papers and got on really well with the lecturers/tutors. The UK offers a good train system which can take you to many places to visit such as London, Oxford, Cambridge and Bath. The mid-semester break in Nottingham was surprisingly a month long so I took the advantage to travel to Denmark, Germany and Austria to see friends I had not seen in 6 years which was thoroughly enjoyable. During my exchange, I also travelled to see people in Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and many more places. After my exchange, I travelled with my family to Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and finally Singapore.
One of the biggest challenges on my exchange was one week where I was very sick and it was cold and I needed to go to the pharmacy to get medicine, but other than that, the rest of my exchange was very awesome, and eye opening to the opportunities found overseas. I would recommend all students to do an exchange as it will force you to grow and develop in ways that you’d never find in New Zealand.
Q&A
What were some of the highlights of the academic experience at your host university?
The lecturers and staff were very kind and engaging to motivated and productive students. I took some design risks that I had not done in New Zealand before that were celebrated by my tutors and students in the UK.
Would you recommend any particular activity/activities unique to your host country or university?
Joining a society and experiencing the nightlife that Nottingham has to offer.
What are your top 3 tips for future students attending your host university or going on exchange to your host country?
1) Join a society
2) Go out to town with a group of people you feel comfortable and enjoy being with
3) Travel to surrounding countries or cities during weekends and holidays.
How much did you budget for your exchange? Was this enough? Were there any lessons learned that would help future students budget for their own exchange?
I budgeted quite well, however there were a few instances where I lost lots of money as I did not think about using trains in Europe. I was used to flying between countries as we commonly do in and out of New Zealand to realise that there are hundreds of train services from country to country in Europe. On top of that, it was hard to know how public transport is used from country to country. It can be unclear; sometimes I accidentally paid for two tickets instead of one.
What are your most significant takeaways from your experience abroad?
You learn so much more about yourself and the world around you. It is an un-regrettable experience that all students should take advantage of.
Do you want to share anything about travels you did outside your host city/country?
As I study architecture, it was great to see many buildings physically that I had studied in theory.
Final Comments
It’s a great opportunity to temporarily live life away from the responsibilities and strings that attach you to New Zealand.
