My Exchange at University of Nottingham
As a participant in the 360 International exchange programmes, I had the incredible opportunity to study at the University of Nottingham (UoN). When I entered university, I knew that I wanted to go abroad as part of my degree, and 360 International provided me with that opportunity.
As much as I loved my exchange, it was off to a rocky start. When I enrolled into UoN they manually changed my department, at Auckland I am doing Computer Systems Engineering, this isn’t offered at Nottingham, however, their Electrical and Electronic Engineering is an equivalent, despite pointing this out and stating my intention to take all engineering courses they moved me to the Computer Science department. This then meant I couldn’t enrol into any courses. Despite months of emails and phone calls, this was not fixed when I arrived and until over a week after the semester started. As a result, I also didn’t get placed into any orientations, so I had to figure everything out for myself. Though it was a pain, and entirely unnecessary, this seemed to be an edge case which slipped through the cracks – but it’s worth being aware that something like this may happen.
However, the rest of the university experience was great. The campus was amazing, with a mix of old and new buildings around dedicated campuses. I spent almost all my time in the main campus, which is in a park alongside a large lake, with lots of space to spend time indoors and outdoors. Beyond classes I joined their Formula Student team for the semester as I’m in Auckland’s team. This was great talking to them learning the similarities and differences between our teams. One regret I do have is not joining another, purely social, club as this was closer to a sports team than that, with far less socialising. I would strongly recommend all exchange students find one, especially if there aren’t dedicated exchange groups (Which UoN didn’t have to my knowledge).
I found that Nottingham’s course structure, teaching style, and teaching tools were all intuitive and effective. In fact, I preferred their style to Auckland’s, taking six courses per semester with only two assessments/tests plus an exam. This, paired with only a single 2-hour lecture per week, felt a lot more relaxed, allowing me to better structure my time than Auckland’s manic continuous assessment style. A slight tangent, but I found that accommodation was largely the same as in Auckland, both in costs and quality, though they did incorrectly advertise to me that my hall was catered.
One of the key highlights of my exchange was the opportunity for travel. I made sure to budget for this aspect, along with travelling England I also found time to do a week’s trip to Paris, and a bit over a month going round Europe after exams. These travel experiences were absolute highlights of my exchange and significantly enhanced my overall experience.
Despite the negative start, my exchange was one of the highlights of my time at university, and I would strongly encourage anyone even remotely interested to do their own. And if possible use it as an excuse to do some travelling in a new part of the world.
Q&A
What were some of the highlights of the academic experience at your host university?
The campus was amazing, every morning walking through the park and past the lake to my lectures was an excellent start to the day. Especially having Wollaton Park right behind the campus for longer walks.
Would you recommend any particular activity/activities unique to your host country or university?
At the University of Nottingham, make the most of the campus, it’s almost as f the University of Auckland was inside Auckland domain – especially with Wollaton Park a 5 minute walk away.
What are your top 3 tips for future students attending your host university or going on exchange to your host country?
- Join a social club, it’s a quick and effective way to meet people
- Enjoy your studies, don’t stress over your grades. Although passing is important, getting excellent results is the least important part of your exchange.
- Travel. The highlights of my trip were taking weekends to travel round England, or during longer breaks, going round Europe.
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?
Setting aside the budget for university and accommodation (which are very similar to Auckland) I made sure to budget for travelling. ~$1200 for a week in Paris, and then later ~$5000 to spend 6 weeks going round Europe after my exams. Along with day and weekend trips round England. These were absolutely highlights of the experience and if possible I’d highly recommend budgeting to do additional travelling if possible.
What are your most significant takeaways from your experience abroad?
Make the most of what’s around you. It took me too long to settle in and although I loved the experience I wish i did more to make connections while I was there.