Ilena (Sem 2, 2023)

My Exchange at King’s College London

I found out about the 360 International exchange programme through talking to other students who had been on exchange. In high school, I studied the International Baccalaureate because I originally wanted to do my entire degree overseas– but while researching, I realised that UoA offered year long exchanges, and that I could potentially do it in two different places. With how expensive an international degree is, and considering that I could still get NZ fees and StudyLink while doing an exchange, it seemed like a no-brainer to do that– get the best of both worlds, overseas and the comforts and advantages of studying primarily in my home country.

I felt very comfortable in London when I first got there– I’m from just outside of London originally, so I’m somewhat familiar with it. The culture and vibe is pretty similar to Auckland. I was gobsmacked with how expensive everything was, simply from a coffee to the rent prices…like…I thought Auckland had a cost of living crisis, but I clearly knew nothing yet!

Anyways, I felt comfortable in London because I also know a lot of people here. It’s a nice step to take after Auckland, because a lot of Kiwis move here. The visa agreements with the UK mean it’s easy to move over (personally, I have a British passport, which makes it so easy). It was super easy to slip into friend circles and start going to gigs, gallery openings, events, etc. It was also very easy for me to work full-time over summer in London, as I applied for a national insurance number while still in France doing my other exchange, and started applying for jobs when I was still there too, so I hit the ground running with full time work at a café within two weeks of arriving in London.

Like Paris, housing is a huge difficulty in London. You’ll be paying $350–$400NZD a week for an incredibly mediocre place with random people. You really need to save up so much, even if you have StudyLink. You can’t get the exchange scholarship for London, so that also makes it a bit harder. There will be so many people going for one room, so be prepared to be disappointed a lot. So much of it is just luck. I know a lot of Kiwis who have moved over here thinking it’ll be easy but finding it really difficult, without having appropriate fall-back and support systems, or savings. So be careful!

Overall I really enjoyed King’s. The Strand campus is by far the best, and was amazing– the Maughan library is beautiful. It’s smack bang central. The courses were so interesting and the students all very engaged. The lecturers were very passionate and my third year arts classes were very small. London in summer was beautiful, and the winter wasn’t so bad. They have a great, cheap exercise programme at the university. There are heaps of film festivals and cultural events in London. You can’t get bored.

Q&A

What were some of the highlights of the academic experience at your host university?

I did a queer literature paper which was amazing. Great students and teacher. It was really interesting to formally learn about queer history and gender studies topics which I hadn’t learned about before in an academic context. I saved up my electives and my general papers throughout my degree specifically for my exchange, so that I could take a broad range of papers and also make it easier to credit back to my degree while on exchange. This and a Quebec studies paper were two cool papers that I took as part of these easy to exchange general papers that I had left.

Would you recommend any particular activity/activities unique to your host country or university?

King’s has a lot of great clubs! Poetry club, DJ club, cycling club, etc., get involved!

What are your top 3 tips for future students attending your host university or going on exchange to your host country?

Save more money than you think you need and stop converting to NZD. It invariably makes you feel bad.

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?

Not enough… but working in the UK being made easy with my UK passport helped. Don’t rely on just StudyLink living costs– they’re adjusted for NZ prices, and London is way more expensive.

What are your most significant takeaways from your experience abroad?

There are a lot of people out there with degrees and good grades. You need to network and differentiate yourself by being hungry and sociable. It’s really hard to find a good arts job anywhere, let alone London, when hundreds are applying to the same lowest rung gallery jobs as you are.

Do you want to share anything about travels you did outside your host city/country?

Portugal was beautiful! Take advantage of the proximity/cheapness of Europe. A good way to break up the long bleak winter is to travel to somewhere close-ish like Morocco.

Final Comments

We love to hate London but we also hate to love it! It is a great city, honestly. It’s just difficult.