Pre-Trip Advice:
The University of Adelaide, a name I had often come across in academic research but a name I never dreamt I would get the opportunity to associate myself with. It was no wonder that when I found myself chatting to some international students at the annual international food evening that their mention of the possibility to experience university life abroad sparked my planning and application into life!
The experience of life in Adelaide far outweighs the effort needed in the simple online application procedure via the Stellenbosch International Office. In all honesty, completion of a five minute interview video together with a few papers and decent academic performance opens the door to this world of international study opportunity somewhat unknown to the average Stellies student.
So how does one prepare oneself for heading to Adelaide or even Australia for that matter? The simple answer is you truly cannot because no matter how much planning you do, the city and country will surprise you daily with its uniqueness. No matter how many reviews you read on where to eat or what to see, the best information lies with the man on the street once you get there.
First things first, once accepted into your course at the university, apply for your Aussie visa. Those border patrol programs on the Discovery channel really aren’t a set up! What I advise in terms of visa application is to create your own “immi account” on the Australian Immigration website even before you are formally accepted. For a winter school over there, all you need is a 3 month tourist visa so in the time that you have waiting anxiously for formal acceptance from Adelaide get all your visa documents in order. Trust me there are a lot of these documents that need to be scanned electronically and submitted online. Just get the checklist off the immi website and in the meantime get these documents in a folder on your PC so that once you are accepted it’s just a matter of simply uploading them and paying the visa fee which is in the region of R1500. Furthermore when applying for your visa, ensure that you apply for a multiple entry visa which allows you to nip off to New Zealand or Bali while over in Australia and not have an issue coming back into the country.
In terms of flights I advise that you do not try play travel agent yourself! Travel agents do exist and trust me they exist for a reason. It’s ok to check rough flight itineraries prior to going and seeing a travel agent however working through a travel agent such as Student Flights gives you around a 10-15% discount which on a R15000 airfare is quite a considerable amount of money. The travel agent will then also be there if you have any issues while traveling or if you need to change your flights etc.
Lastly and this advice might seem absurd! If you plan on traveling around Australia I believe no plans are sometimes the best plans! Do not sit here and try and pre book accommodation over there (besides university accommodation) as that then binds you to specific dates. When travelling and meeting people allow yourself the freedom to perhaps stay a little longer in certain places or shorter in other places for that matter.
Feet on the ground. Where to now?
Well firstly I suggest you get those feet to the closest ATM to test that you can withdraw money with your South African Bank card that you would have had to have activated with your bank back home before departure. Thereafter I suggest you get yourself to the nearest metro office to buy yourself a public transport card that will allow you to use Adelaide’s brilliant bus system which can get you anywhere from the hills to the beach and obviously to the university which lies in-between. Alternatively the university do also offer an airport pickup service for international students which collects you and takes you to your accommodation.
Once at your accommodation wherever that may be (I stayed with family) try and meet as many people as possible. I found us South Africans were pretty well liked especially if you spin some stories to the foreigners about your pet lion that is effectively your guard dog but cannot sleep inside because that is where your Cheetah sleeps. Anything along those lines breaks the ice… As I said, I stayed with some family over there but if you aren’t that privileged I would firstly advise against the Torrens Valley accommodation which is one of the options the university offers. That residence is around 40minutes from the varsity and the people I met from there really didn’t have anything good to say about it. One attractive opportunity is to stay with an Australian family (homestay). If you are able to get a family that stays pretty close to the city then I would advise that. In all honesty it’s the same as Stellenbosch, if you come and study in Stellenbosch you ideally want to be living in Stellenbosch and not having to drive in from Somerset West every morning!
I found the academic environment a lot less strict than here which is a bit challenging when you have students constantly walking into and out of your class as well as arriving up to 3 hours late. I was lucky to experience both an undergraduate model as well as a Masters seminar. The undergraduate module was as explained above whereas the seminar was really the complete opposite. In the seminar I rubbed shoulders with some of the best academics in the world in their respective fields and all of them are just as delighted to meet you as you are to meet them. Personally if I went back and obviously if your interests are similar I would definitely advise getting in contact with the International Trade department headed up by David Morfesi.
However the university is so diverse in its offerings for winter school that whatever your interest may be, you would easily be able to find something. One bit of advice I would give is to look at the length of the specific programme you are wanting to do. A lot of the modules are 2 or 3 weeks long and you attend 2 hours of class a day. This can get very dragged out and if you wanting to see things while in Australia, it’s difficult to do so when you have to plan around a 2 hour class slap bang in the middle of your day. If possible I would advise taking the intensive modules which last a week each. These are from 9am to 5pm and sometimes 6pm every day for 5 days. Doing it this way firstly allows you to free up time on either side of your stay in Australia and also gives you more time to fit in other possible modules at the university.
The sunset over Cape Town:
The saying that home will always be home is one you only truly start to understand once you have travelled. Flying back into Cape Town with the sun setting over the ocean was the welcome I received and it just made me appreciate how privileged we as South Africans are to be able to live in a country such as this.
Traveling to Australia and experiencing life over there is an experience I would recommend to anyone be it young or old. As a student I believe the University of Adelaide has tones to offer. Its diversity in terms of students enables one to sit in a very unique learning environment with multiple perspectives on matters from right across the globe.
Adjusting back to life on the Stellenbosch campus takes about a week and then your jetlag has worn off or in my case that is when my first semester submission was due! To compare Stellenbosch with Adelaide is impossible as both institutions are so so unique in their offerings. Having Stellenbosch on our doorstep as South Africans does just make it that much more attractive for us however having seen for myself that Stellenbosch is on par with the big names internationally has made me appreciate what we have here that much more!
To say that my experience in Adelaide has made me want to do something radical such as immigrate is far from the truth. What it’s done for me is ignite a desire to travel more and possibly do a semester exchange abroad. In the end as the sun sets over Stellenbosch, this place will always remain home and no matter how much I travel, coming back and walking up Victoria street just makes me appreciate my home that much more!